Organic Mandarin Jam with Rapadura

I like making jam. But I have never been all that good at sticking to a recipe.  None of this 1kg of sugar for every kilo of fruit business for me.  Personally I find it makes the jam WAY to sweet.  I like to be able to actually taste the fruit as well. More often than not I end up with a runny jam which has never bothered me at all.  No complaints from any of my friends yet either.  Maybe they are just being polite.

Not that long ago someone made reference to Mandarin Jam and my ears pricked up.  I hadn't even heard of it, let alone tasted.  The thought of it has been playing on my mind for a while.  Also tickling these thoughts is the memory of me deciding that the next jam I make I'll try using rapadura sugar rather than refined sugar (click here for a nutritional comparison). 

Hmmm... do I risk trying two new things together?  Of course I do.  So I consult my google recipe book, peruse a few recipes and take the bits that I like the sound of from each one.  I can't find too many references to people having used rapadura for jam making and those that I did find weren't all that in favour of it.  However, once my mind is made up... well... I just like to see for myself.  Here's how it went....

I grabbed what I thought was about a kilo of mandarins from the local organic co-op, not a bad guess as  I ended up with 1.2kg

I zested 4 of the mandarins and 2 lemons.  I then peeled and chopped the mandarins around their middle and discarded the seeds.  I put the zest, chopped mandarin and juice of the lemons into a bowl and blitzed with a stick blender. I put this all in a pan on the stove to boil.

Meanwhile I had 600g of rapadura warming in the oven.  It's a jam making tip I've heard of before.  I can't remember exactly why... something to do with it helps the jam set better.  Anyhow, if anything, I thought I'd try it for luck.

Once the fruit mix had started to boil I added the sugar and brought it up to boil again.  I then reduced it to simmer for about an hour.

Once it started catching on the pan a bit I tested it for setting point and it seemed pretty good.  

Here it is!  My first attempt at Mandarin Jam AND using rapapdura.  Wow - the rapadura sure darkens it. Taste wise it is very like a marmalade.  I think I would put a little less zest in next time.  I don't think that the flavour of rapadura itself affected the jam much as I put such a low ration in. Despite this it set well as there is a good pectin content in citrus.  

I am looking forward to trying more jams with rapadura.  I think colour wise it will work great with berries.