JuBella.com - Get Your Creative Dose

Good morning everybody! Trusting that everyone had a creative weekend? It’s a holiday(labor day) here in the Sates so I get an extra day to spend with the family. Last weekend I finally got around to fixing some homemade jam! I will probably never by store bought jams & preserves again…because this homemade jam in which I combined fresh strawberries with fresh blueberries was pure delight! It’s fresh, not too sweet, natural, and you know exactly what is going into it. My favorite part about “jamming” is that the combinations are endless when it comes to getting creative with your fruit blends and spices! I really want to make peach-apricot next, and then pear(my grandmother use to make pear preserves and it is so good). Anyhow, I made this jam in a matter of minutes and then we all enjoyed it on non other than a peanut butter and jelly sandwich! If you really want to make some quick jam, then you might want to try buying the Freezer Jam/fruit pectin in your canning section of your market.

A few days after the little one wanted to make some ice cream, so we added in a bit of the strawberry jam into the ice cream before freezing to make strawberry ice cream and it was fantastic! Usually homemade ice cream calls for heavy cream, but I opted to use a non-fat yogurt(you could use soy if you like) and rice milk and the flavor was perfect and the texture was very much like yogurt/sorbet…see…

Homemade Strawberry Jam
Makes 1-1/2 cups

Ingredients
4 C. Whole Strawberries (if you want to make the one pictured, use 2 C. blueberries & 2 C. Strawberries)
1 C. Natural Cane Sugar
1-2 Tbsp. Fresh Lemon Juice(optional)

Directions:

Chill a small plate or bowl in the freezer or over ice water.

In a 10 or 12-inch wide skillet, bring fruit, sugar, and lemon juice to boil over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat to medium and cook, stirring constantly and skimming foam as necessary. Cook about 8-10 minutes, until mixture begins to look syrupy and thickens slightly.

Spoon ½ teaspoon of the hot fruit onto the cold plate and let it rest for 30 seconds. Tip plate to one side; jam should be a soft gel that moves slightly. If mixture is thin and runs down side of plate, the gel is too soft. Return skillet to heat and cook jam 1 to 2 minutes longer, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and repeat test.

Cool jam to room temperature before serving. Because a minimum amount of sugar is used, the jam needs to be refrigerated to prevent mold from forming. Refrigerate 2-3 weeks.

For longer storage, freeze or process hot jam in a boiling water canner for 10 minutes.**

Option: If jars are sterilized (heated in boiling water for 10 minutes) it’s possible to use the inverted method to preserve jam: Pour hot jam into hot sterile jar leaving 1/8 inch head space. Wipe rim and apply prepared lid and ring. Screw ring on firmly. Invert jar and leave for 5 minutes. Turn jar right side up and let cool 12-24 hours. The heat from the jam will destroy mold spores. This method is not foolproof, so if you are preparing a lot of jam, process the jam in a boiling water canner. ~Recipe by Marjorie Braker

Looking forward to a week of creative bliss!

Tags: blueberries, breakfast, homemade jam, jam, jellies, peanut butter and jelly, preserves, strawberry jam

This entry was posted on Monday, September 1st, 2008 at 7:00 am and is filed under Cooking & Recipes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.