Marmalade with agar at home

Being a vegetarian in the modern world is not easy. Baking, biscuits and other sweet pastries are cooked on eggs. And even marmalade with marshmallows is made on edible gelatin.

But these yellow granules are nothing more than a decoction of animal bones. But if your moral principles do not allow you to use regular marmalade, you can find its analogue with agar-agar.

This substance is of plant origin. Compared to animal gelatin, agar agar clearly wins because it is very beneficial for the body.

The substance is imported into Russia from Asian countries. Therefore, sweets from it are quite expensive. And not everywhere you can buy them.

In this article we will tell you how to cook marmalade with agar agar at home. Using our recipes, you can indulge yourself with sweets consisting solely of products of plant origin.

What is agar-agar and its benefits

The word itself is of Filipino origin. It translates as "jelly." But to produce agar-agar on an industrial scale for the first time began in Japan in the 17th century.

This substance is obtained from some types of brown and red algae, which in a warm environment turn water into jelly. Desserts are prepared from this dense mass in Japan and used to thicken sauces and soups.

In fact, these algae can be found not only in the Pacific Ocean, but also in the Black and even White Seas. But only the savvy of the Japanese helped to get the most out of the nasty-looking gelatinous porridge.

Agar agar has a lot of pectin. This allows products from it to solidify even at room temperature (unlike those made on gelatin). Marmalade on agar holds its shape perfectly, and there is no need to sprinkle it with sugar.

In addition to pectin, vegetable jelly contains many vitamins and nutrients. Agar agar dishes help the intestines work. An extract from algae is absolutely hypoallergenic.

The harm of sweets on agar-agar can come only from sugar, artificial colors and additives. People with diabetes should use a safe sweetener. And those who follow the figure will be pleasantly surprised to learn that the calorie content of the dessert is only 35 units (provided that sugar replaces stevia).

General rules for the production of marmalade with agar-agar at home

In Europe, a thickener appeared in the 19th century, where Dutch merchants brought it from Japan and Southeast Asia. But since algae, from which agar-agar is extracted, cannot be found in the Mediterranean, Northern and Baltic seas, the substance is still exported from the East.

In Russia, agar agar comes in the form of a packaged powder. It comes in two varieties: first and highest. In the latter, the color ranges from white to cream or beige.

The first grade of agar agar has a hue from yellow to orange. For a quality dessert, it is better to use a thickener of the highest quality.

Giving flavor to marmalade on agar is entirely up to your preference. It mixes well with any juice, even powder. But the use of dessert in this case will be small.

It is better to take fresh or smoothie for the production of marmalade. Liquid jam is good too. It is not necessary to put finished products in the cold. They freeze well at a temperature of + 25 degrees.

If marmalade is too sour, do not despair. Agar agar dissolves perfectly when heated, and then solidifies again. So you can melt failed products, add sugar (honey, syrup, stevia) and form jelly sweets again.

Homemade marmalade with agar agar: recipe with juice

What does it take to make this extremely healthy sweet? Minimum Products:

• 400 milliliters of natural juice, such as cherry,
• teaspoon agar agar
• 100 grams of sugar

For a pleasant smell, you can also use vanilla, grated orange or lemon zest, essences.

1. Pour a quarter cup (50 ml) of the total amount of juice.
2. Dissolve agar-agar powder in it. Set aside for a quarter of an hour.
3. The rest of the juice is mixed with sugar and set on fire.
4. When the liquid boils, pour the diluted agar-agar. At this stage, you can add food flavorings.
5. We make the fire minimal and cook the mixture for no more than two minutes, preventing it from boiling with constant stirring.
6. Remove from the stove, let stand for 5 minutes.

Actually homemade marmalade with agar-agar can be done in two ways. First: wait until the mass turns into jelly, then cut it with iron molds. The second way is that we pour the mass into silicone molds while still hot.

Fresh Berry Marmalade Recipe on Agar Agar

To create jelly sweets, you can use not only juice, but also fruit or berry puree. Consider this with the example of strawberry marmalade from agar-agar. The recipe suggests taking 700 grams of fresh berries. But before that we need to soak for half an hour 20 g of agar-agar in a glass of boiled water and cooled to room temperature.

1. We sort out the strawberries, wash and puree with a blender.
2. Pour dissolved agar-agar. We put the mixture on fire.
3. Pour sugar or another sweetener to taste.
4. Cook on a minimum flame for about two minutes after boiling.
5. Set aside for 5 minutes.
6. Pour into silicone molds. Or we leave it to solidify, and cut the jelly into sweets.
   

Jam marmalade

The process of making dessert is not much different from previous recipes. Homemade marmalade with agar-agar can be made from any jam, most importantly, it must be diluted with boiled water.

It should be remembered that the thickener “takes away” the sweetness from the base product, so sugar is needed in any case. For acidification, you can add a little lemon juice, and for flavoring - grated zest. Marmalade from jam turns out to be not quite transparent, in consistency it is more similar to Turkish delight.

1. Agar agar is soluble in water. Set aside for a quarter of an hour.
2. Jam bred with water, set to boil.
3. Pour the dissolved thickener, sweeten to an overly sugary taste.
4. Add flavorings.
5. After two to five minutes of boiling, turn off the heat. Allow the mass to cool slightly and pour into molds.

Frozen Berry Marmalade

In the production of this sweetness, it is important to guess with the amount of sugar. Some juices or fruits are quite acidic. In these types of sweets you need to spare no sugar. Consider how to make redcurrant marmalade with agar-agar, given that the berries were previously frozen.

1. Two and a half teaspoons of vegetable thickener pour 70 milliliters of orange juice.
2. Sprinkle the frozen berry (450-500 grams) with boiling water, put in a saucepan or a deep iron bowl and pour 250 g of sugar.
3. When the red currant starts the juice, set on fire. Let’s boil over.
4. We mashed the mass with a blender.
5. We measure out 400 milliliters. Add orange juice with agar agar.
6. We put it on the fire again. We cook as coffee is brewed - not letting it boil and stirring all the time. If the bubbles begin to appear too violently, we raise the saucepan, reducing the temperature.
   

Second option

If the house does not have a blender, currant marmalade with agar agar can be prepared differently. Defrost berries, as in the previous recipe, sprinkle with sugar.

1. When the currant leaves the juice, grind it through a sieve.
2. Cake can be used for baking or other dishes. Juice (it will turn out about 250 ml) we dilute with water (150 ml).
3. Put the saucepan on the fire. When the liquid boils, add agar-agar diluted in juice.
4. Cook over very low heat for about five minutes, stirring continuously. We do not let it boil violently, since then agar-agar will lose its gelling properties.
5. We cool and give the marmalade shape.
6. If the currant is very acidic, you can roll candy in icing sugar.
7. In the case when berry jelly is intended for accompaniment to cheeses and liver pate (French classics) or pork, this does not need to be done.

Apple marmalade

Is it possible to make dessert from solid fruits? Of course, if you conduct preliminary manipulations with them.

1. Remove the peel from apples, cut into halves, take out fruit boxes.
2. We put the fruits on a baking sheet, add a little water.
3. Sprinkle with sugar mixed with cinnamon. Let it soften.
4. We turn apples into mashed potatoes with a blender or a pusher for potatoes.
5. Further all - as in the previous recipes. But it is important to know that apples alone do not give a rich color or taste. You need to add a little juice - best of all pomegranate, orange or grape. Agar agar is soluble in it.
6. Dilute the puree with a small amount of water.
7. Put on the fire, add more sugar and cinnamon.
8. Set the taste of lemon zest. Pour juice with a thickener. Cook the apple marmalade on agar for about 5 minutes.
   

Design Ideas

A convenient feature of a vegetable thickener for a cook is that it hardens even at a temperature of +35 degrees. So there is no need to put the blanks in the refrigerator.

At the same time, sweets can be made not only in silicone molds, but even in plastic ones, having adopted a set for a children's sandbox. Ready sweets from them are easy to pull out - just pick them with a knife.

You can put cling film in a shallow dish and pour hot jelly into it (cooled, however, to 60 degrees, otherwise the cellophane will melt). When the mass hardens, we cut out marmalade on the agar with iron cookie cutters.