Tangerine Vanilla Bean Marmalade with Triple Sec

Rejoice, people! It is Ojai Pixie Tangerine season! What are Ojai Pixie Tangerines, you might ask? Only the sweetest, juiciest tangerines on the planet and, best of all, they're seedless making them an excellent choice when making this delicious marmalade.

Making marmalade is not difficult, but it is a two-day process. On Day One you will juice, wedge, and slice the fruit, leaving it to soak overnight. On Day Two you do the cooking. I find that stretching things out makes the process seem far less labor intensive.

I came up with this recipe while nibbling a tangerine and marveling at its sweet flavor and heady aroma. It seemed to me that it would make an excellent marmalade, and I was right. It is fresh, clean, fragrant, and addicting. Make sure you have lots of biscuits on hand!

Tangerine Vanilla Bean Marmalade

with Triple Sec

2 pounds Melissa's Ojai Pixie tangerines
1 Meyer lemon

1 cup juice from tangerines and lemon
3-2/3 cups water
1/3 cup Triple Sec (or any orange liqueur)
1-1/2 vanilla beans
3 1/2 cups sugar

It is very important to scrub the flesh of your fruit before beginning. Ideally organic fruit is the best.

After scrubbing and drying, quarter the tangerines and lemon. Cut off the stem ends and discard. Squeeze the juice from the tangerines and lemon into a glass measuring cup (This will keep your cutting area from becoming a soppy mess, and will give you the delicious juice to use in the marmalade. I got exactly one cup of juice from my tangerines.*) and then slice them into 1/4" lengths. I sliced crosswise giving me shorter lengths, but you can really do as you please.

Place citrus slices into a large bowl and cover with juice, water and Triple Sec. Cover bowl with plastic wrap; let stand at room temperature 1 day.

Transfer fruit mixture to heavy large pot. Split vanilla beans and scrape the seeds into the mixture. Cut the whole vanilla bean into three lengths, and the half vanilla bean into two lengths, and add to the pot.  (Each of these vanilla bean sections will later be added to the individual jars of marmalade.)

Bring mixture to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat and simmer until rind is very tender and fruit begins to fall from rind, stirring occasionally, about 1 hour 15 minutes.

Remove from heat and add sugar, stirring until it dissolves completely. Return mixture to a low, but constant boil, and boil gently until mixture reaches 218º-220ºF, stirring occasionally, about 1 hour 20 minutes.

Divide vanilla beans and boiling hot marmalade among five 1-cup jars. Cover tightly and process for 15 minutes, or refrigerate for up to 3 months.

*If you get less than 1 cup of juice from squeezing, supplement with water to make a full cup of liquid. Conversely, if you get more juice, then cut back on the water. Essentially, you want 5 cups of liquid that includes the juice, the water, and the Triple Sec.

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Tangerine Sugar

 Up until now, I never gave tangerines much thought. My memory of them stretches way back to my days in grade school where I would, occasionally, find one packed in my lunch bag. I remember them being easy to peel, but rather dry and stringy.  The strings would entwine themselves around my pudgy little fingers making this my least favorite of all the fruits. More often than not, after a few segments were consumed, the remainder went into the trash. 

Oh, Ojai Pixie Tangerines, where have you been all my life?!  I am a slave to these spherical wonders. They are easy-to-peel, with no annoying pith (take note, grade schoolers!), and so shockingly sweet that you won't believe this luscious treat is good for you. This is what I imagine tangerines in the Garden of Eden must have tasted like. Well, I confess, I am in love with them.  

So when I saw this blog post on the Melissa's Produce website, I just knew that I had to give the citrus sugar a try, using the tangerines. It. Is. Heaven!  First of all, the aroma is indescribable. Sometimes I take the lid off of the container and just take a whiff. Clearly there is something to the connection between aromas and emotion because I find myself feeling rather blissful after only one whiff. 

Use it to sweeten tea (and do float some slices of tangerine in your tea pitcher, or glass, and you will feel transported to a tropical paradise where the sand is warm and white, and tangerines can be plucked, at will from the trees overhead).  

For breakfast, set the cinnamon sugar aside and sprinkle this on buttered toast in the morning; it is sunshine on a plate. Use it to top biscuits, scones, or perhaps sprinkle some of top of sugar cookies. Go bold! (And go get some.  NOW!)

Tangerine Sugar

2 tablespoons zest from Ojai Pixie Tangerines (about 3)

1 cup granulated sugar

In a small bowl, mix ingredients together thoroughly until well blended.  Store in an air tight container.

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Tangerine Pie

It's Ojai Pixie Tangerine season, and a welcome one it is. Sinking my teeth into sweet, juicy, delicious tangerines has been one of my great pleasures during this rather bleak and frigid month. For a moment, I had a taste of summer. Find them, buy them, and enjoy what surely must be the most delicious piece of citrus fruit available.  I juiced a few of them, and it was heavenly; the fragrance permeated the room and was intoxicating.

So much can be done with citrus, both sweet and savory, but I wanted to try something different and made a pie. Move over, key lime! Wow, was this good. If you are a fan of dreamcicles (and really, is anyone not a fan of them?), then you will love this version in pie form.

The tangerines are so sweet that I cut the juice with that of Meyer lemons to keep it from being cloying. Perfect! I didn't have enough egg whites for a meringue (Okay, I dropped them, if you must know, and some slid down the heating vent. I'll say no more.), so I whipped cream with a little powdered sugar and piped it all over the top, but you can certainly top it with meringue if that is your preference.

Tangerine Pie

For crust:

1 cup graham cracker crumbs

¼ cup ginger snap crumbs

5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

2 tablespoons granulated sugar

For filling:

1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk

4 large egg yolks

½ cup Ojai Pixie Tangerine juice

2 tablespoons Meyer Lemon juice

For topping:

¾ cup heavy cream

¼ cup confectioners’ sugar

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Stir together the graham cracker and ginger snap crumbs.  Add sugar, stir to mix.  With a fork mix in the melted butter and keep mixing until it is well incorporated.  Press mixture into the bottom and up the sides of a 9” glass pie pan.  Bake the crust in the middle of the oven for 12 minutes.  Remove and set aside to cool while you prepare the filling.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the condensed milk and egg yolks until thoroughly combined.  Add juices and whisk again until combined.  Pour the filling into the prepared crust and bake in the middle of the oven for 15 minutes.  Remove pie from oven and allow to cool, at room temperature, for an hour.  Cover pie and chill in the refrigerator for 8 hours or overnight.

Before serving beat heavy cream until soft peaks form.  Add sugar and continue beating until stiff peaks form.  Pipe cream on top of pie to cover, or simply cover the pie with the cream in any way that you see fit.  Garnish with slices of tangerine.

Pie will keep in the refrigerator, loosely covered, for 3 days.  It also freezes beautifully.

Disclosure: Melissa's Produce kindly supplied the tangerines, but the recipe is my own.

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