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Thursday, October 11, 2012

Canning Oranges in Cointreau


I needed AN orange for a recipe I was making, but when I was at the grocery store, I just couldn't see paying a dollar for ONE orange when I could get a whole bag of them for $5! So I bought the bag of oranges and used one in my recipe... I had like 13 left! What to do?

I dug through my recipes and found a yummy sounding recipe... Oranges in Cointreau... Why not?

Here's what I did...

First, I made a spice bag (using a coffee filter, you can also use the traditional cheesecloth) with...

10 whole cloves
5 cinnamon sticks, broken in half

I tied the spices up in my coffee filter using a twist tie.

In my large stainless steel saucepan, I combined...

3-1/2 cups sugar
2/3 cup water



Then I dropped in my spice bag...


 ... and brought this mixture to a boil over medium high heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar. I reduced the heat and boiled the mixture gently for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, then removed and discarded the spice bag.

Meanwhile I trimmed, sliced, and seeded 9 navel oranges (about 1/8 inch slices) then I cut the slices in half (because these were pretty big oranges).



I added the oranges to the sugar/water mixture, along with



3/4 cup Cointreau (if you can't find Cointreau, Triple Sec, Grand Marnier, or other orange liqueur may be used)



1/2 cup dry white wine (I used Chardonnay)



 Over medium-low heat, I brought the mixture slowly back to a boil, occasionally stirring gently so as not to damage the orange slices. Once it came to a boil, I removed the pot from the heat.



 Using a slotted spoon, I carefully packed the hot orange slices loosely in layers, in my hot, sterilized pint jars (you could also use half pint jars) to within a generous half inch of the top of the jar.



 I then ladled hot syrup (from the orange mixture in the saucepan) into the jar to cover the orange slices, leaving a half inch headspace. I removed any air bubbles, wiped the jar rims with a damp cloth, and tightened my lids on to fingertip tightness.

I processed the jars in a boiling water bath, ensuring they were completely covered with water. I brought the water to a boil and processed the jars for 15 minutes.

After processing, I removed the jars from the canner using my jar lifter and set them on a folded dish towel on the counter to cool and to listen for the PING of each successfully sealed jar.

This delicious fruity concoction is wonderful spooned over ice cream or pound cake, or the orange slices can be used as an edible garnish and the leftover juice used to sweeten beverages... and let me tell you, the syrup is SO SO yummy... I had a little left over and just canned one jar of juice alone!


This recipe makes about eight 8-ounce jars. (I had a few extra oranges and canned in pints, so ended up with six pints plus one pint of just syrup)

For a printable copy of this recipe, click here.

19 comments:

  1. Now what will you do with this yummy mixture?

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    1. Put it on ice cream, pound cake... maybe pancakes... garnish cold drinks, cakes, pies, it would be great and pretty as a topping on cheesecake, use the liquid to sweeten and add flavor to tea or lemonade... or maybe I'll just grab a spoon and dig in, then turn up the jar and drink the juice, LOL! It's THAT good! ~~Granny

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  2. That sounds delish! I never tried canning anything with alcohol in it - and this may be a silly question, but...does the alcohol burn off? Or are these slightly tipsy oranges?

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    Replies
    1. Some of the alcohol burns off... but they're just a tad tipsy ;)... not much, but they sure are flavorful! ~~Granny

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  3. Dana - great question but i am guessing its tipsy.. usually in other dishes things cook longer for the alcohol to burn off.. thats just a guess on my part tho.. this does indeed sound DELISH!!!

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  4. This sounds yummers :o) BUT....I'm not a fan of the rind/pith part(ie: not crazy about marmalade). I like the zest finer if I use it in recipes. Could I zest the oranges then peel them and then put the peels in some cheese cloth to get all the essence out by adding them into the juice/pot while cooking, and put the just the segments in the jars with the juice and process them?? Thanks so much for any feedback :o)

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  5. Yum...These sound completely delightful! I'll have to try them one of these days..

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  6. OMG, this sounds so so delicious, cannot wait to make this...after my move in the next few weeks. May have to dole out some to my new neighbors. I think it will be a great way to make new friends. Thanks granny!

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  7. This turned out great, but I'd go with 1/4 inch slices. I did 1/8" and they fell apart while cooking. Still delicious, but thicker slices may work better.

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  8. I made this today - 3 oranges, 4 half pints of delicious, yummy orange slices. I licked the spoon. I candied the ends of the oranges. Thanks for a great recipe!

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  9. Sounds wonderful. I do candied citrus peels so this goes right along with that.

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  10. Do you have to use the spices, or can you do it with just the oranges, sugar, water, and liqueur?

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    Replies
    1. Sure, you can leave out the spices. ~~Granny

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  11. Cooking a litle? Cooking?
    Rihtaš mal? Rihtaš?

    ReplyDelete
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    ReplyDelete
  13. Granny, I have loved several of your recipes, but I'm having a bear of a time with this one. First of all, my sugar - which was very fresh Dominos - and water never formed a syrup. The sugar never dissolved in the only 2/3 cup water listed. Instead, after about 10 minutes, it was forming larger crystals and lumps - if I had been trying to make rock candy, it would have been great! so, thinking this was a syrup, I added more room temp water to it - and it seized up, lumping even worse. The spice bag was completely crystalized and twice it's original size. I finally added the wine and liquor and even more water - which was a good thing, because at that point I had less than 3 cups of liquid, which would never have been enough to can these oranges and wasn't enough to cover the oranges enough to bring them to a boil! I finally got the majority of it into a thin syrup after adding the oranges and still more water. Hope it's sweet enough because there's a lot of sugar caked onto the spice bag. I am using mandarins, as that was what was on sale this week. Wanted to give these as presents. Oh boy it smells good, but with some sugar crystals still present, am wondering if the jars will crystalize up on me. Is the recipe correct, only 2/3 cup of water?

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  14. OK well, I take that last part back. There was just shy of a pint of liquid leftover, just like you, Granny. The aroma is so divine, you betcha I also canned it! My "oops-es" ended up with a total of 8 - 8oz. jars (or 4 pints) and 1 pint jar of product, with 1 pint of liquid. So using more than twice the water, I pretty much ended up with similar amounts, and I suspect mine is not as "candied" as yours was. My mandarins fell apart pretty much at 1/8" cutting. Should have done 1/4" or so. There was probably about 1/2 cup of sugar lost to the "candied" spice bag, judging from the amount left on the bag and the saucer I put it on after removing it. I am going to try this again, because this just smells like a winter spiced drink about to happen, kind of like a mulled wine orange.

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