In English-speaking countries, dessert made using only citrus fruits is considered a classic marmalade. The fashion for goodies came from the UK. In France, marmalade is considered quince jam.
Its historical homeland is the countries of the Middle East and Eastern Mediterranean. Europeans “made friends” with dessert during the Crusades. Inhabitants of Asia Minor boiled fruits or their juice until they were completely thickened in order to preserve a rich harvest longer. In the Russian Empire, a treat was called a “fruit jelly”.
What you need to know about the main ingredient
For the preparation of delicacies, apples of sour varieties are more suitable, including Antonovka. It is in them that pectin is a large quantity - a natural gelling substance that provides good solidification and elastic structure. If there are no such fruits, then mealy summer varieties, overripe and stale fruits are suitable. But in this case, they need sourness. To apple puree add viburnum, black or red currants, chokeberry. The more sweets in the fruit, the less sugar you need to use.
The basis of marmalade is fruit puree. For its preparation, apples are processed in two main ways.
- On the stove. Fruits are cut into slices. They can not be peeled and peeled. Boil in a saucepan with a little water until soft. Unpeeled fruits are ground through a sieve to make mashed potatoes without skins and seeds, lumps. Peeled can immediately be thrown into a blender and grind.
- In the oven. Apples are baked whole on a baking sheet covered with parchment until cooked. Then they are cleaned of the peel, core. The pulp is ground in a blender or grinded through a sieve.
Apple marmalade at home: a taste of childhood
If there is no certainty that the dessert will harden, you can use gelling components. For artificial thickening, agar agar, pectin, gelatin are suitable. You should pay attention to this category of ingredients especially when sweet varieties of apples are taken for marmalade. They have significantly less natural pectin than in acidic fruits.
Classical
Features. To make the treat useful, including for diabetics, we modify the recipe a bit. You can make marmalade from apples without sugar, but with the addition of fructose. The quantity of the product is calculated taking into account personal taste preferences. A less nutritious and more fragrant dessert is obtained with honey. It needs as much as sugar.
Ingredients:
- 1 kg of apples;
- 500-600 g of sugar.
Cooking
- We cut off the “caps” from the fruits and carefully remove the core. Cover them with “hats” and place on a baking sheet.So that they do not burn during the baking process, cover the sheet with parchment or grease with a small amount of refined, odorless oil.
- Bake fruit for 40-60 minutes at a temperature of 150 ° C. Cooking time depends on the variety of fruits. Apples should be soft but not burnt.
- Grind the fruits through a sieve or colander, interrupt with a blender. The mixture should not be lumps, peels.
- Mix the mashed potatoes with sugar. Cook until fully thickened, stirring often, 60-90 minutes.
- We arrange hot marmalade in sterile jars. We close with plastic covers, cool.
- We send for the winter to a dry, cool place where direct sunlight does not fall.
With quince and plum
Features. It will refresh the taste of the dessert and give it a spicy note a small amount of lemon or orange peel, mint. Ingredients are added to mashed potatoes before cooking.
Ingredients:
- 500 g of apples;
- 500 g quince;
- 500 g of plums;
- 1.2 l of water;
- 1.5 kg of sugar.
Cooking
- We clean the fruit from the core, peel. Cut into slices. First we put apples in the pan, then plums, the quince last. Sprinkle each layer with half of all sugar. Fill the pieces with water.
- Cook over low heat until all the fruits are soft.
- Pass the pulp through a sieve, getting rid of lumps.
- Mix mashed potatoes with sugar and boil until thickened.
- Put parchment paper on a flat dish or baking sheet. Pour a thin layer (5 mm) of mashed potatoes. Well aligned.
- After solidification, cut into slices and serve.
With pumpkin, gooseberries and black currants
Features. A simple recipe for marmalade from apples will delight you with an unusual taste. In it you can use any varieties of the main fruit, including "flyers". The right proportion of acidity provides currants and gooseberries.
Ingredients:
- 500 g of apples;
- 500 g gooseberries;
- 500 g of black currant;
- 500 g pumpkin;
- 1 kg of sugar;
- 1 liter of water.
Cooking
- Peel the pumpkin and apples. Cut into slices. Cook separately until softened. In order not to burn pieces, add a little water.
- Gooseberries and currants are well ground with sugar.
- Grind pumpkin and apples in a blender to a puree consistency. We add a mixture of berries and sugar to it. Mix well.
- We put on the fire and cook until completely thickened.
- We lay out on sterile jars, cork with plastic lids. We put in the cold.
- You can pour the mixture in a thin layer (5 mm) on a baking sheet with parchment paper and wait until it thickens.
With nuts
Features. A couple of pieces of goodies with a bite of tea will not affect the figure. You can make apple marmalade with a more refined aftertaste and aroma if you use fried nuts in its preparation. Preliminarily, the kernels are fried in a dry frying pan on all sides for several minutes.
Ingredients:
- 1 kg of apples;
- 250 g of sugar;
- 30 g of orange peel;
- 25 g of walnuts.
Cooking
- On a baking sheet covered with parchment, bake whole apples.
- We clean from the core and skin. From the pulp we make mashed potatoes in a blender. Mix with sugar and cook until thickened.
- Grind the zest and nuts in a blender. Throw to the fruit mixture for three to five minutes until ready.
- Pour mashed potatoes with a thin layer on parchment. We wait until it dries. Sent on a baking sheet in the oven for 10-15 minutes to dry.
- Separate from paper. We can cut into slices.
From cake
Features. A good option, which allows you to use raw materials that remain after making juices. Even from such "waste", a treat is no less tasty than classic marmalade.
Ingredients:
- 600 g of apple cake;
- 400 g of sugar.
Cooking
- Wipe the cake through a sieve, removing the seeds.
- Mix the mashed potatoes with sugar, cook until thickened for 40-60 minutes.
- Pour onto a baking sheet covered with parchment. Level the layer well.
- We dry in the open air for two to three days. At night we clean the room.
From juice
Features. Unlike other recipes, apple juice is not used here, but juice. Gelatin acts as a thickener. A less high-calorie option is obtained if agar-agar is added to dessert instead. The gelling properties of this product are even better.
Ingredients:
- 1 liter of apple juice;
- 100 g of gelatin;
- 100 g of sugar.
Cooking
- Pour gelatin 150-200 ml of warm juice. Leave to swell.
- We dilute sugar in the remaining liquid. We put on fire and stir until all the crystals dissolve. After boiling, cook for about five minutes.
- Remove the syrup from the heat and pour the gelatin in small portions. Stir well so that no lumps appear. If they do exist, we additionally filter through a sieve.
- Pour the hot mixture into molds or on a baking sheet. Leave to dry.
In a slow cooker
Features. If you want more spices, then you can pay attention to anise seeds, clove umbrellas. For the number of main components they need a pair of pieces. Marmalade of apples in a slow cooker will delight not only with excellent taste, but also with a luxurious aroma.
Ingredients:
- 1.5 kg of apples;
- 200 g of sugar;
- 5 g of cinnamon or vanillin.
Cooking
- Peeled fruits and peels are cut into small cubes. We fall asleep in the cooking bowl.
- We turn on the “Baking” mode and cook the fruits for an hour.
- Grind slices in a blender.
- Mix mashed potatoes with sugar, cinnamon or vanilla. We start all the same mode and cook for 40 minutes, periodically stir the mashed potatoes to evenly stomp.
- Pour the mixture onto a baking sheet with a thin layer (1.5 cm). We are waiting for it to freeze.
The recipe for apple marmalade is selected, the dessert is cooked, but there is a lot of it and you can’t eat it at one time. In this case, the question arises of proper storage. Plastic bags, tin boxes - containers that are not recommended for use. In them, the treat will not last long. Parchment paper is suitable for wrapping whole sheets of dessert in it. It will also be well stored in sterile glass jars under a nylon cover. Coldness, dampness and a high level of humidity are things that marmalade does not “make friends with”.