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Clementine Citrus Syrup Recipe
November 29, 2005 | by Heidi | Filed under
I've been playing around making fruit syrups lately. To make a fruit syrup you need to be long on patience and have copious amounts of juice on hand. The general idea is this - put your juice in a big pot and simmer it down for a couple of hours, you end up with big, thick, sweet, concentrated magic that you can use for all sorts of things.
On Saturday, Kathy Olsen of Olsen Organic Farm sent me home with an overflowing bag of perfect clementines. When I brought the bag to my nose the sweet, citrus scent was so strong it took me a second to catch my breath - these clementines stole my breath in the same way a strong chili pepper might. I've never had this happen with citrus before.
We proceeded to eat a few of the juicy, delicious clementines and then I started to think about what I wanted to do with the rest of them. I surveyed the refrigerator and pantry and realized I had a jug of orange juice leftover from when I made this Black Bean Chowder (scroll) the other night. So, I figured I would juice the clementines, round out the pot with the orange juice, and make myself a nice clementine citrus syrup.
Things to do with the syrup:
- Stir some into melted butter and spread on fresh crepes or pancakes.
- Use a touch to infuse a mug of hot chocolate
- Swirl it into your morning yogurt over granola.
- Warm it up and drizzle over a creamy ice cream - like you would caramel.
- Stir a bit into your cornbread batter.
Clementine Citrus Syrup
Let me start this recipe off by saying that citrus from different growers or at different points in the season can be sweeter or less sweet depending on all the different variables. I like my citrus syrup on the tart side of sweet, so I don't add much in the way of additional sweeteners to this recipe - just a touch of honey. It is hard to tell how much honey you should add at the start of a recipe like this, so start with 1/3 of a cup and then taste again after the honey has warmed and mixed with the citrus juices in the pot. If you feel like you might want it a bit sweeter add more honey a bit at a time. I throw the vanilla bean in with the citrus because I love the combination of flavors, and I feel like the vanilla takes a bit of the edge off the citrus. Also, I would have used a higher ratio of clementine juice if I had more onhand.
1 1/2 cups freshly squeezed clementine juice (juice of about 10 clementines)
6 1/2 cups 100% orange juice
1 /3 cup honey
a 2-inch segment of vanilla bean
In a big, thick-bottomed pot over medium heat bring both juices, the honey, and vanilla to a healthy simmer. From here on it is just a matter of monitoring the heat and stirring every so often - you want to make sure the juice at the bottom of your pan isn't scorching. Cook the liquid down, down, down. The juices will take about an hour and forty-five minutes to get nice, thick and caramel-like - maybe more or less depending on the pot and power of your stovetop. Towards the end, as the juices really start to thicken up you are going to want to stir more often and reduce the heat a bit. Keep in mind that the syrup will thicken up a bit as it cools. Remove the pot from heat and allow to cool. Transfer the syrup to a jar - it should keep well in the refrigerator for a couple weeks.
Make about 1 1/2 cups of syrup.
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Your Comments
Gini said:Just when I was wondering what to do with my crate of clementines.
Clementines are great! I make similar syrups with the organic freshly squeezed stuff from whole foods. I know not getting it straight from the farm looses the luster....what can you do?..but it still takes great.
On another note, you should try making the syrup without the honey, OJ or vanilla and just add a few Tablespoons of sugar (if needed depending on the sweetness of the clementines).
The syrup would will have a more lusterous shine, brighter color and taste a lot more like clementines, then just sweetened citrus 'caramel looking' syrup.
This way is a lot quickier too, because you aren't making 'caramel' syrup per say - you are just reducing it - using the natural sugars.
Then you can use the syrup for sweet and savory applications (like with a beet salad or foie gras!).
I like this recipe -and your blog- very much, so thank you!
YUM. That's all I can say.
well....what an ingenious idea, Heidi. I don't have a crate of clementines, but I might just have to buy some now. This is going in my weekly round-up, that's for sure.
Brava, my dear.
Whata great idea! I have some key limes almost forgotten in my fridge. I haven't had a chance to do anything with them. Now I know what I will do. My favorite posts on this site are the recipes about making an ingredient that has many applications. Thanks!
Thanks for this. I adore clementines. I would love to pair this with a really rich vanilla souffle. Hmmmmm... Maybe I will soon. Cheers!
I really hope that you candied all those rinds too!!
making a reduction of citrus juice is also a fantastic way to make citrus buttercream or ice cream--- other wise the raw juice can "break" a mixture.
But I would have to agree-- it's better to add any sweetener when the syrup is where you want it, viscosity-wise, otherwise it's difficult to know what your ACTUAL flavour is.
S + S,
I'll load up on another batch of clementines this weekend and go for the post-sweetening and pure route. All clementines. Totally makes sense. -h
Thank you for the wonderful idea Heidi! I have lots of citrus available from our trees and would love to try this. The oranges are already very sweet so am thinking I might try it without the honey. What do you think of doing this with red grapefruit or pink lemons or regular yellow lemons?
This looks great but I have to say if I had a crate of Clems (wait, I do!) I would be eating them, not reducing them. Couldn't you achieve something similar with less tasty oranges by adding a little sugar or something? We go through a crate every two weeks minimum around here.
ha3rvey said:Would I be crazy to try this with some really nice grapefruit? My wife just bought a case from a fundraiser at a local school, and at the rate I'm eating them, it'll be Christmas before I'm done with them. :)
You know, I haven't tried grapefruits yet - you guys will have to report back and let me know how it goes. Maybe start with a 1/2 batch to test it out...
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