Sugar-Free Citrus Marmalade Recipe

Who doesn’t love a delicious, tangy spread to jazz up crackers and bread? Originally posted on Levana Cooks, this Sugar-Free Orange Marmalade Recipe is sure to hit your sweet tooth, sans sugar. When aiming to maintain our health, it is important to limit, and at times avoid, the use of sugar in our foods, drinks, and snacks. Processed sugars are unnatural, and are lacking in the nutritional value department, and may even cause unwanted weight gain and health problems down the road. On the other hand, natural sugar called fructose that can be found in fruits, and in our case, oranges, prove to be the healthier (and sweeter) option.

Exercise caution when using sugar in your recipes- can you use a substitution, or (gasp), leave it out completely? Add in Vanilla Bean Levana Nourishments packets for extra flavor, nutrition, and protein. Read on to learn how to whip up this sugar-free citrus marmalade. You get bonus points if you fool your family and friends into thinking there is added sugar!

-Talya Hyman

Sugar-free citrus marmalade was a very big project for me.

I wanted to reconcile at all costs my love for all things jam and preserves with my very moderate sugar consumption. While I find it very hard to swear off all sugar (life without an occasional cookie or ice cream scoop would not be worth living!), I like to use my modest sugar allowance as judiciously as I possibly can. I thought, if I could pull off a great Sugar-free jam of some sort, I could go back to slathering it on whole grain toast, with a layer of peanut butter, and call it lunch: one of my favorite treats. Just like in my young care-free lean years when diet was a dirty word!
So I tinkered until I dropped.

Sugar-free citrus marmalade was not an instant success.

In fact it drove me a little nuts. I hated to drab and lackluster color I kept getting, even though the flavor was terrific. It was missing the pristine sheen of sugar-based preserves, and frankly it was too uninviting. If Mind Over Matter didn’t work for me, the artisan, how on earth would it work for anyone? We all know our eyes eat first, and my eyes were not having any of it, thank you very much!

What do I mean by Sugar-Free Marmalade?

I resolutely distance myself from the Splenda crowd, sorry. So no, not going there. Rather, I experimented with natural sweeteners that had a much more respectable pedigree: Xylitol, Erythritol and Pure Stevia (no carrier). In fact I love this trio so much I always make a big batch so I always have it on hand. I find that when the three of them are combined, I get no objectionable taste whatsoever, and I use it even in hot chocolate and muffins.

How did I improve on the color of sugar-free marmalade?

This is where I have to thank my Social Media Fans: Suggestions abounded: The ones I kept came from two valuable places: My talented friend and soul sister Sarah Rivka Zulauf,  and a relative and dear friend of mine. The first suggested dried safflower . It looks like a poor man’s saffron, but is used for its deep color and its medicinal calming qualities, and is very inexpensive. The second is, crushed high potency Vitamin C. Both do a great job of retaining a deep color. I decided, since they are both very cheap, I will combine them. So: Dear Rivkah and Leah, thank you, I have reached the Holy Grail! Talk about what you can give for a Healthy Mishloach Manot! 

I have a whole chapter on all-fruit jams in my book, The Whole Foods Kosher Kitchen.  But I wanted to streamline the recipe further, and I am mighty pleased with my results.

The choice of a pot is important:

It must be stainless steel, and your mixture must be as shallow as possible. This means choose a pot with a broad bottom.

I used sunflower lecithin for added suspension:

Natural, very inexpensive and very efficient.

OK. Watch out for berry jam and apricot jam next.

Now that I got the hang of it, the rest is easy!

I am using about 2/3 oranges and 1/3 lemons, but you can use all oranges.