Marmalade Time (Passes a Saturday)

It seems to have come round very quickly, but the Seville Oranges are in the shops again.
So I brought 9lb, no messing around, and I will do a load for work, and enough for us as well.
I should make around 30 lb of marmalade from them, I have 10kg of sugar and all the other bits I need.  I have 24 new 12oz jars for the guys at work, the rest is all mine !!!!

Also, as I'm tied to the kitchen, I will make bread, maybe some overnight white or soft rolls.

My cooking day comes between two visits to Totnes, Friday market and Sunday Good Food. We also found time to repair to the Sea Trout at Staverton on Friday for a Groupon inspired Steak lunch. The steak was excellent, and we managed to leave room for Sticky Toffee Pudding as well. And we dodged the showers!

So back to Saturday Morning, I split the Oranges into three, as 3lb of fruit with it's associated water and sugar is about as much as I can get in my big saucepan.

Bread wise, I had decided to make a Wholemeal loaf and some foccacia, a bit boring I guess but easy to fit in with everything else.

Not content with merely doing two things at once, as I had some sourdough left over I decided to make croutons, as a possible product for sale. I usually flavour them with Balsamic, and tend to overcook them a bit, so I will have to experiment. But that's the best thing about a day in the kitchen. I might even try some crispbreads.

So I started at 7, (the neighbours must love me!) and by 8 I had two doughs proving and the first lot of marmalade on the boil. And the first coffee of the day was going down well.

Then everything happens at once, the bread was ready to go in the oven and the marmalade was ready to boil with the sugar in.

Hope I've got enough?

After a frantic 20 minutes or so, this was the result,



Foccacia with Sundried Tomato and burnt edge.



Batch One

The first batch is mine, so I can check my method before doing the sale version.

Now on with the croutons. A mist of Olive Oil and Balsamic and into the oven.

15 minutes later,

and the Wholemeal loaf was done,

Meanwhile the second lot of Marmalalde was boiling and the jars were sterilised, Crispbread time.

Basically its just a yeast free dough, rolled out thin and cut with a pizza wheel.

20 minutes per side at 170 degrees.

 

Then stored to see how long they stay crisp.

Meanwhile the second batch of Marmalade is ready to bottle,

I think you've got the idea by now, I'm off to finish up the last batch and have a well deserved sit down.