Pink Grapefruit Marmalade - recipe

I really do love the taste and flavours of homemade jams/preserves/pickles/marmalade's, I'm one of those people where, if see a village hall sale and if there's home made jam in there I have to buy it, on some occasions I have bought the whole batch (no kidding I really have!). I have thought about joining the WI just because of my preserve addiction/habit (as I'm convinced all WI members are closet jam/preserve making fiends). Sorry WI, I do know there is much more to it than just that!

In the autumn, I don't know why but it seems like the right time of year to lay down stores for the winter ahead and that's when I like to make jars of preserves. Think I'm a secret food hoarder, mind you its not a secret to some!

Well its not really autumn yet, though its felt like it in recent days here in the north west, but I bought some gorgeous plump pink grapefruits from my local market at the weekend and rather than eat them all for breakfast I decided to make some marmalade with some of them.

I've been making this marmalade recipe for years and years, why? Because its so easy to make and I do like easy...and it tastes so nice and because its home made (and I love home made as much as I love easy) you can play with the recipe a bit...add grated fresh or stem ginger...add a teaspoon of whisky to the jar before you add the finished marmalade...put some edible glitter in if you like, add whatever extra kick or extra loveliness you fancy. Make it chunky, make it fine...make it your way.

This year I'm trying to improve my Seville orange marmalade, so much so that I want to enter the national marmalade awards with it if I can get it up to standard; you can follow my exploits here.
Its a fairly old Nigella (Lawson) recipe from her Domestic Goddess book and its made with pink grapefruits and preserving sugar and lemons and that's it.

Not much skill required really...and no fancy equipment (like thermometers!).
Ingredients: 
2 pink grapefruit, weighing approximately 500g
1.5kg preserving sugar (bought from most supermarkets)
Juice of 2 lemons
(you will need 4–5 8-ounce jars)
Method:
1. Place a saucer or a small plate in your freezer, this will be needed to test the setting point of the marmalade later on.
2. Put the pink grapefruit into a large saucepan, fill with enough water so that they float freely, bring to the boil and simmer gently for about 2 hours, by which time the grapefruit should be very soft. You might need to turn the grapefruit if they are very big.

Add more hot water from a kettle if the liquid’s boiling away, and whatever happens don't let it boil dry!
While the grapefruit is cooking sterilise your empty jars by putting clean washed jars into a sink or bowl and pour freshly boiled water from a kettle over the jars to cover them.

Remove them (carefully! a wooden spoon helps) and put them on a baking tray and pop in the oven at 160 degrees for about 10 minutes. Turn off the oven and leave your jars there to keep warm.
3. After the 2 hour simmer remove the fruit to a board or a plate (a plate keeps all the juice in one place). Halve the grapefruit and pick out any pips (include the smaller ones if you can, and discard all these). Slice the cooked grapefruit thinly, (leave it thicker if you like your marmalade chunky) and then chop it, using the whole fruit and skin and pith. (if you have a food processor you can use the pulse setting a few times to chop the fruit if you like?).

4. Put the chopped grapefruit back into the saucepan, and add the preserving sugar and lemon juice. It looks like tinned sliced peaches as you can see.

Let the sugar dissolve over a gentle heat and then bring to the boil until setting point is reached, this will take at least 15 minutes.

After boiling for 15 minutes or so, test for setting point. The easy way to do this is to take the saucer or plate from the freezer. Place a teaspoon of the mixture on the plate, and leave for a minute. If the surface of the mixture creases when you push it with your finger, the marmalade is ready. You can tell when the marmalade is getting ready to set because the colour changes.

If it does not wrinkle when pushed boil some more, remember to put your saucer or plate back in the freezer until you test again.

5. When the marmalade is at setting point, ladle into prepared jars and close the lids.

Take care at this stage as any hot preserve will burn or scald.

If your messy like me give your jars a good wipe with a clean cloth. Don't forget to label with the date.

Enjoy on hot buttered toast and with a cuppa on a lie-in weekend (in bed with Saturday kitchen on TV) x.

This is my contribution to the current CONSERVES theme for breakfast club hosted by Sonia at Dinner Recipes At Sonia's Kitchen on this occasion.

You can find out more about Breakfast Club themes by clicking this logo.