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Blood Orange Freezer Jam

I love it when Central Market does their Citrus Fest. In the middle of winter, when fruit is its most blah, they pull out all the stops. Two of my favorite citrus fruits are Myer lemons and blood oranges, and Jake brought home both. I’m not a fan of marmalade — too much bitterness from the pith — but I found a couple of recipes for blood orange jam and played around with them to come up with his. There’s still a little bitterness, even after peeling the oranges, but not TOO much.

4 lb. blood oranges, peeled and roughly chopped (remove any seeds)
1 c. granulated sugar
juice of 1 lemon
1 vanilla beans
1 Tbsp. vanilla

Place the orange pieces into a blender, and puree. Transfer the mixture into a large pot, add the sugar and lemon juice. Scrape the seeds from the vanilla pod and add them to the mixture. Add the pod and the vanilla extract.

Bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce the heat to medium. Simmer, stirring frequently, until the mixture reaches a soft ball stage (around 40 minutes). Remove the vanilla pod. Transfer the mixture to a wide-mouth mason jar.