Blood Orange Syrup: Perfect for Cocktails

It’s been quite a while since I posted a recipe here.  And I’m sorry.  I haven’t had much time to play around in the kitchen, and when I have, I didn’t take any photos.

So I’m easing back with a simple but useful recipe.  I heart me some blood oranges.  They’re sweet, juicy, and just a little more complex than your average orange.  Plus, you really cannot beat them when it comes to gorgeous color.  I’ve been anxiously waiting for their arrival at Trader Joe’s as the season is pretty short, really just late winter and early spring for us in the Northeast.  So when I finally spied a few bags hiding behind the Cara Cara oranges, I was super stoked.

Last winter, I made several blood orange olive oil cakes.  Since we currently have an obscene amount of Irish cookies (Kimberly Elites and Jaffa Cakes) at the moment thanks to a trip to the local import shop, I wanted to do something besides baking.  I thought about making arancello, but I’m worried I’d forget about it and end up with a bunch of wasted, fermented peels.  And I am still hesitant when it comes to jams and marmalades.  Then I remembered how awesome gin is with Trader Joe’s blood orange Italian soda.

Blood orange syrup and gin from the Berkshires.

Boom! I ‘m making syrup.  It is amazing in a gin and tonic, but you can use it to make blood orange margaritas or if you have a soda maker, you can make your own Italian soda.  Or you can add it to cakes or glazes to punch up the blood orange flavor.  It’s just that good.

NOTE: I used a boiled canning jar, but I did not can per se, so my batch went straight into the fridge.  It should be good for about a month (if I don’t use it up before then).

Easy Blood Orange Syrup

Yield: 1 cup

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 25 minutes

Perfect to add to a cocktail, make your own soda, or pump up a glaze.

Ingredients:

3 medium sized blood oranges
1/4 cup organic sugar (I like Trader Joe's because it has a brown sugar-like flavor)

Directions:

If you want more or less syrup, this recipe is basically half the amount of sugar to the amount of juice you have. Math that even I can do.

Juice the oranges to get 1/2 cup of juice. I usually microwave the oranges for about 15 seconds and roll them on the counter to get more juice with less arm strength.

Pour the juice and sugar into a sauce pan and cook on medium until simmering. Let the syrup reduce by half, or more if you like a really potent syrup. I stopped at the agave syrup consistency.

While the syrup is reducing, sterilize your container. I dunked my jar in boiling water for 10 minutes. Pour the syrup into your container and either store in the fridge once cooled or can it to keep it for longer. You can also store it in the freezer.

Enjoy!