Rosy Pink Grapefruit Marmalade

Ingredients

4 pounds pink grapefruits (about 5 small fruits)

9 8s ounces canning jars

Preparation

Put the pink grapefruits into a large saucepan, filled with enough water so that they float freely, bring to a boil and simmer for about 2 hours, until they are soft and a little puffed. Add more hot water to keep the grapefruits covered as needed. This can be done the day or night before finishing the marmalade. Refrigerate the fruits until you're ready to finish the process.

When you are ready to process the fruits, place a saucer in the freezer. I like to sterilize the canning jars on a large vat of water for 20 minutes and start doing it at this stage.

Place the grapefruits on a cutting board with a surrounding well to capture all of the juice. Slice and chop the fruits, being sure to leave some longer "ribbons" of rind, because they look so pretty in the final product. Remove as many seeds as you can and cut away any white membrane.

Put the fruits back into the saucepan, add the sugar and 2 tablespoons of the rose water. Let the sugar dissolve over a gentle heat and then raise the heat to bring the mixture to a boil. Allow to bubble away for 25 minutes until it has reached the setting point. Stir in the final tablespoon of rosewater. Spoon out any seeds which float to the surface.

To test for the setting point, remove the pan from the heat. Spoon about 1/2 a teaspoon of the marmalade on the chilled saucer. Allow the marmalade to cool. If it is adequately set, it should feel firm and wrinkle when the saucer is held at an angle.

Ladle into prepared jars and close the lids. At this stage, you could keep this as "refrigerator jam" or, seal them in boiling water according the manufacturers instructions.