Hasenfrühstück

Ever since I started learning German, I've been interested in German cuisine and in trying traditional German recipes. As Easter is not that far away, various Easter recipes and paraphernalia began popping in my feed. Among them was this carrot and apple marmalade, called "Hasenfrühstück" or Rabbit's breakfast, which is typical, it seems, for German speaking countries, to be prepared at home for Easter.

As we love making home-made jams and carrots and apples are a staple in our home, especially in winter, I was quick to jump to the suggestion. 

There are plenty of variations on the recipe, as is the case of any recipe, so here are the proportions and the procedures that I chose for my carrot-apple-marmalade:

Ingredients:

• two big apples, cored and peeled, 500 g
• 700 g carrots
• 500 g sugar
• 200 g carrot and apple juice, store-bought
• juice from half-lemon
• half-teaspoon of apple pectin
  

Preparation:

Cut the apples and carrots into pieces (but better grate or chop in the chopper), cover with the juice of half a lemon, add 500 g sugar and 200 g juice (best would be fresh orange juice). Stir, heat up, turn the plate off and leave the mixture to stew and soften. Once the carrots and apples are soft enough, blend with an immersion blender. Even better, if the carrots and apples were grated in advance - we skipped that step, but experience showed that it the effort was recommendable.

As I was not sure, whether the pectin in the apples would be enough to thicken the marmalade, I added half a teaspoon of apple pectin. Alternatively, you might want to boil the jam a bit longer, until you get the desired texture.

Once the marmalade is ready, pour it hot into clean glass containers, close them tight and turn them over, until they cool. Store them in a cool and dark place.

Serve the marmalade with croissants or bagels and coffee and enjoy :) 

The taste is definitely carroty and might not be for everyone, but we liked it - it is fresh and different. Next year I would add more sour taste, to neutralize the sweetness - freshly squeezed orange juice instead of the carrot-apple juice and more freshly squeezed lemon juice - in hindsight I would have added the entire lemon squeeze - apples, carrots and citrus go really well together!