Sweet and Sassy Red Onion Marmalade

This marmalade is what you'd call a quick marmalade, but I call it Sweet and Sassy Red Onion Marmalade.
Sure, it's quick. Better than that is how versatile it is. But, best of all is just how good it tastes. The first time I opened a jar I came awfully close to eating the entire thing by myself. It's just amazing how wonderfully all the flavors play together in this delicious spread.
I've used it as a salad dressing, thinning it down some with apple cider vinegar and a little olive oil. I've used it on burgers and sammis. And, as an appetizer with goat cheese or cream cheese, it just can't be beat. Of course, one of my most indulgent ways of enjoying it is smeared on fresh out of the oven bread with goat cheese.


Yields roughly 6 half pint jars

Ingredients
2 cups thinly sliced halved red onion
2/3 cup dried cranberries
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
2 tsp grated orange zest
3 cups unsweetened apple juice
1 package of regular powdered fruit pectin
4 cups granulated sugar

Prep work for this marmalade would be made easy peas-ey work if you've got a mandoline slicer hanging out in your kitchen. I don't. Just me and the trusty Wusthof. Hubby was a chef and kitchen manager for nearly 15 years and insists that I must take a safety course from him before I can bring a mandoline slicer home to live with us. Yeah. I'm that accident prone.

Slice your onion in half, and thinly slice the onion after you've readied your canner, jars, lids, and all equipment that is to be used once your ready to fill jars.

Using a large skillet saute the onions, dried cranberries, apple cider vinegar, and brown sugar over medium heat. Cook down about 10 minutes.
* You may want to dice your cranberries before adding to the skillet. I like the way my jars look with the whole dried cranberries. Totally up to you.
Once the onions have cooked down, add the orange zest and apple juice. Dissolve the pectin, constantly stirring over high heat. You will want to bring this to a boil and continue stirring frequently. Measure your sugar into a large container. Once mixture is at a boil, add sugar all at once.
Stirring constantly, bring mixture back to a rolling, hard boil for one minute.
Skim off any foam and remove from heat.

Fill jars to 1/4 inch headspace. Using a chopstick or handy, dandy tool from Ball, remove air bubbles, adjusting headspace if needed. Wipe rims with a moist paper towel. Place lid and band on. Tighten band, and then tighten a scosh more.
Process in a boiling water bath for 15 minutes for half pints. Remove canner lid and wait an additional 5 minutes before removing jars to their cooling spot.
All that's left to do now is clean up. Now, where is my kitchen fairy?

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