Ali's Christmas Marmalade

The beautiful color of this marmalade would make great holiday gifts! The cranberries and cloves make a more traditional orange marmalade very Christmas-y, and using clementines and blood oranges gives great color and flavor contrasts.

Ingredients

4 blood oranges
8-10 clementines
3 Meyer lemons
1/2-3/4 cup cranberries
1 teaspoon fresh ground cloves
2 cups orange juice
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups water
7 1/2 cups sugar
1 package regular (not reduced sugar) pectin

It takes a few hours from start to finish, this recipe yielded 11 8 ounce (1/2 pint) jars. If you don't have a canner, I suggest you cut the recipe down to make a small batch and refrigerate it- should last a few weeks.

Tip: I like my marmalade traditional- with a little kick from the rind, but I don't care for very bitter marmalades. Some recipes call for the peel of all the fruit you use in this jelly- my recommendation is to peel fine strips from the blood oranges and only 2 of the lemons. Grate the peels from the clementines. The crucial thing is to not get any of the white pith under the colored peel- that will make the end result more bitter.

Steps

1. Wash the fruit and peel and grate the amount of citrus rind you feel comfortable with based on your taste preferences. Finely chop the peel and set aside.2. Completely peel the fruit, removing as much of the white fibrous pith as possible and discard. Both the Meyer lemons and the blood oranges have very thick peels.
3. Cut the citrus in half and remove the fiber and seeds. Get as much of the white off as possible.
4. Section the fruit, continuing to remove any pith and seeds. Chop, saving the juices. With the Meyer lemons, pull the bright yellow from the thicker section casings.5. Chop the citrus sections into small pieces, continuing to pull out any pith and seeds. There should be about 4 1/2-5 cups of chopped fruit. Put in a large bowl.6. Add the cranberries to the bowl.
7. Place the chopped citrus peel, the 2 cups of orange juice and the 1/4 teaspoon of baking powder in a large stock pot. Bring the mixture to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer for 20 minutes.
8. While the peel is simmering, mix the pectin with 1/2 cup of sugar and add to the citrus/cranberry mix- stir to combine. Add the teaspoon of ground cloves.
9. After the 20 minutes of simmering the peel in orange juice, add the chopped fruit and 2 cups of water to the stock pot- bring back to a simmer, cover and simmer for 10-15 minutes.10. Add the remaining 6 1/2 cups of sugar to the pot and stir.
11. Bring the mixture to a rolling boil- let boil for 1-2 minutes while stirring occasionally. Reduce heat.
12. Ladle the all but 1/2 cup of the hot mixture into a food processor (sections at a time) and use the chop setting to break up the larger food and cranberries. You still want this to have a marmalade texture so be careful not to overdo it. Pour the chopped mixture back into the pot with the 1/2 cup of unhoped marmalade. Heat to a boil.
13. Ladle the marmalade into canning jars and can according to your preferred method.
14. Let the jars stand for 12-24 hours, check for proper seal. If it sealed, it should last 12 months, store in a cool, dark place. The marmalade may take several days to set after canning- one suggestion is to wait 1-2 weeks before opening the can. Once opened, keep in the fridge.