Jam-making and preserving are usually reserved for the spring and summer months and revolve around the usual rhubarb jam (no pectin, jalapeño jam, strawberry jam, and blueberry jam. Winter is typically for marmalades, whether orange marmalade, grapefruit, lime marmalade, or a combination like this three-fruit marmalade. But what about autumn?

In the fall, I like to make plum jam and cinnamon apple jam, which tastes like apple pie in a jar. It's the perfect ode to fall. It tastes amazing dolloped on toast, slathered with salted butter. You can also use it under the sliced apples in this puff pastry apple tart or this apple galette!

Key Ingredients

You don't need much to make apple jam. Here's what you need:

• apples—use apples that hold their shape when cooked for a jam with more texture (like Cortlands, HoneyCrisp, Gala, or Golden Delicious) or use apples that break down when heated for a smoother effect (like McIntosh apples)
• sugar—you can use white granulated sugar or brown sugar for more flavour or a combination
• spices and flavours—I like to use whole spices to flavour jams so I can fish them out before transferring it to jars. For this apple jam, I used cinnamon sticks, star anise, a vanilla bean, and a pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
• lemon juice—I use fresh lemon juice, but bottled will work

Please see the recipe card for the exact ingredients and quantities.

Substitutions and Variations

• Apple variety—for an apple jam with distinct apple pieces, use Cortlands, Russets, HoneyCrisp, Gala, Golden Delicious, and Granny Smith varieties. They hold their shape, even with extensive cooking. For a more saucy, spreadable texture, use McIntosh apples or a variety that is good for sauce.
• Spices—use your favourite warm whole spices so you can remove them later before transferring to jars. I love to infuse apple jam with cinnamon sticks, vanilla bean, or even star anise!
• Apple-pear jam—you can replace half the weight of apple with pears.

How to Make Apple Jam Without Pectin

The most challenging part of this recipe is prepping the apples. It's a little tedious and takes time, but it's worth it because the rest of the recipe is quick and easy!

Step 1: Since you have quite a bit of diced apple to prep and chop, it's best to place the peeled and/or diced apple in a bowl of lemon water to prevent the fruit from browning (image 1). Once you've diced all the apple, you can drain it and combine it with the other ingredients (sugar, spices, and lemon juice) (image 2). Heat the mixture to dissolve the sugar (image 3), then take it off the heat and place a round of parchment directly over the fruit (image 4). Let everything macerate for a few hours or overnight.

Step 2: After macerating overnight, the liquid in the pot will be darker in colour, but the fruit will still be light (image 5). Bring the mixture to a boil and heat it until syrupy (image 6).

Note: if you boil the apple jam to 220 °F (the jam setting point for most jams), the jam will gel like a jelly and be very thick after 24 hours. For this jam, you may prefer to heat to below the setting point to create a more syrupy jam.

Step 3: I like to use a masher to break down some of the apple chunks to create a more spreadable texture (image 7). Some prefer to go so far as using an immersion blender to blend the jam. Transfer the jam to sterilized jars using a non-reactive funnel (image 8).

Note: this makes a small batch of jam so you can store it in the fridge. If you prefer to seal the jars, fill them to ¼ inch from the top before closing them and boiling them in a canning pot immersed in boiling water for 10 minutes.

Top Jam-Making Tip

One of the easiest ways to make sure your jam will set properly when it cools is to check the jam temperature to make sure you achieve the jam setting temperature, also known as the jam setting point. Using a thermometer and a home canning kit will make your life infinitely easier if you are going to make a lot of homemade jams.

For this jam, boiling to the set point will likely yield a jam that is gelled like a jelly, so you may want to go below that. Dollop a spoonful of jam onto a frozen saucer to check the set as it's cooking so you can boil it to the desired texture.

Other Apple Recipes

Everybody loves baked goods made with apples. They are so comforting! For something a little different, try this apple butter pie or this maple apple pie. And if you want a big cake to serve a crowd, make this apple bundt cake served with salted caramel.

If you are short on time or for a weeknight dessert, this apple crisp is always well-received! And if you live alone, you can still make an apple crisp for one in 2 minutes of cooking time!

If you tried this recipe for the best cinnamon apple jam (or any other recipe on my website), please leave a ⭐ star rating and let me know how it went in the comments below. I love hearing from you!

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Cinnamon Apple Jam

Learn how to make the best apple jam with this easy recipe, flavoured with cinnamon, vanilla bean, star anise, and nutmeg.

Course Breakfast

Cuisine American

Prep Time 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time 15 minutes minutes

Maceration 1 day day

Total Time 1 day day 35 minutes minutes

Servings 50 tablespoons

Calories 48kcal

Author Janice Lawandi

Equipment

• Big pot
• ChefAlarm thermometer
• Canning kit
• Mason jars

Ingredients

• 1.2 kg Cortland apple(s) such as Cortland apples, peeled, cored and diced or sliced thinly
• 200 grams granulated sugar
• 250 grams light brown sugar
• 52.5 mL fresh lemon juice
• 1 vanilla bean
• 1 cinnamon stick(s)
• 2 star anise
• 1 pinch ground nutmeg

Metric - US

Instructions

• Combine the apples with the sugar, lemon juice, and spices in a pot. Bring to a boil to dissolve the sugar.
• Transfer the mixture to a container, top with parchment, and store in the fridge overnight.
• The next day, place the apple jam mixture into a pot and heat on medium-high. Cook the mixture until it thickens, stirring often.
• Take the pot off the heat, and let stand for 5 minutes, stirring every so often. Remove the spices and vanilla bean.
• Transfer the mixture to sterilized jars, leaving a ¼-inch headspace. Process for 10 minutes in a water canner, then let rest 5 minutes in the canner before transferring jars to a towel-lined tray. Let stand overnight, undisturbed.

Notes

• For the apples, if you use an apple variety that breaks down when cooked (like McIntosh), the jam will be more smooth, whereas if you use an apple variety that holds its shape when cooked (like Cortlands or Honeycrisp), your apple jam will have more texture.
• You can dice or slice the apples, depending on the texture you want.
• Weigh the prepared apple after removing the peel and the core. Use up to half the weight of apples in sugar. I started with 1.2 kg of fresh apples, which yielded 1 kg after peeling and removing the core, so I used 450 grams of sugar.
• This jam is quite sweet and you could use slightly less sugar, especially if you are using a sweet apple variety. But remember less sugar may impact the texture and the shelf life.
• For the spices, use whole spices if you can so that you can have a beautiful jam without any murkiness from ground spices. You can use any spices you like. I prefer warm autumn spices, mainly cinnamon sticks.
• For the sugar, you can use granulated sugar, brown sugar, or a combination of the two. Brown sugar will impart more flavour.
• Use a thermometer (like the ChefAlarm) to help you know how close you are to the jam setting point. For this jam, boiling to the setting point will result in a gelled jam, much like jelly, whereas heating to under the setting point will result in a more fluid, syrupy, soft-set jam.
• This recipe makes about 3x 250 mL (1-cup) jars but make sure to sterilize a few extra just in case. The yield depends entirely on how much water you boil off!

Nutrition

Calories: 48kcal | Carbohydrates: 12g | Protein: 0.1g | Fat: 0.1g | Saturated Fat: 0.01g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.01g | Monounsaturated Fat: 0.01g | Sodium: 2mg | Potassium: 34mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 11g | Vitamin A: 13IU | Vitamin C: 2mg | Calcium: 7mg | Iron: 0.1mg

This recipe was adapted from Preservation Society Home Preserves, which is available to purchase from Amazon.

The post Cinnamon Apple Jam (no pectin) appeared first on The Bake School.

I like to dedicate the late spring and summer months to preserving the season, making small batches of jam whenever I have the chance. In the late spring, I usually make honey apricot jam and this rhubarb jam, whereas later in the summer, I focus on blueberry jam, strawberry and red currant jam, plum jam, and even jalapeño jam.

Ingredients To Make Small Batch Rhubarb Jam

The beauty of making jam at home is that all you need are two ingredients: fruit and sugar:

• Fruit: Use either fresh or frozen rhubarb, chopped into 1–2 inch pieces.
• Sugar: Use granulated sugar for the cleanest rhubarb flavour. Brown sugar, honey, or maple syrup would alter the flavour quite a bit and I don't recommend using them.
• Flavour: Add a vanilla bean, sliced open so that the seeds infuse the jam OR add some crushed juniper berries, which is what I did this time

Note: the set of pectin and jam is generally pH dependent, as is the ability to preserve and store jam. Some recipes will call for lemon juice, but I don't think it's necessary given the acidity of rhubarb. Before you dive into making this recipe, please read all about the jam setting point so you know all the tricks to determine if your jam will be set.

Please see the recipe card for the exact ingredients and quantities.

Substitutions And Variations

This recipe is flexible up to a point. You can make the following substitutions or changes:

• Fresh or frozen rhubarb: swap frozen rhubarb for fresh rhubarb, following the same steps and boiling the jam until you reach the setting point
• Flavouring: I added juniper berries because I think it's a perfect pairing with rhubarb, reinforcing the herbal, vegetal notes of rhubarb. By all means, skip it and don't use any flavour elements, or use a vanilla bean, split down the middle and added to the pot with the rhubarb and sugar. The vanilla pods will infuse the jam as it boils.

You can replace half the weight of rhubarb with the same weight of strawberries to make strawberry rhubarb jam. Follow the same directions. If your strawberries are sweet or if you prefer your jams to be less sweet, you may drop the amount of sugar to 500 grams (1 pound), which is half the weight of fruit in this recipe. Do not reduce the sugar more than this. Otherwise, you will reduce the shelf life of the jam and also the set may be looser.

How To Make Small Batch Jam

Step 1: Combine the sugar with the chopped rhubarb and flavour ingredients (vanilla, juniper berries, etc) and let them macerate for at least 30 minutes to an hour to get the rhubarb to release some of its water. The mixture will become very fluid.

Step 2: Once the mixture has macerated, heat the jam on the stove and bring it to a boil. Continue boiling and stirring continuously until you reach the jam setting point or until the jam achieves the desired texture.

Step 3: Transfer the hot jam mixture to clean jars. Fill to ¼-inch (6 mm) headspace. Clean the rim and close the lid, inverting the jars immediately for a couple of minutes before inverting back to upright to form a vacuum. Alternatively, you can boil the jars in a hot water bath for 10 full minutes at a rolling boil and then remove them. The seal should form.

Note: Use a non-reactive funnel and ladle to fill the jars with hot jam. The funnels are included in most canning kits.

Ensuring Jam Set Without Pectin

Rhubarb is low in pectin, and pectin contributes to jam set. This doesn't mean that your rhubarb jam won't set if you make a batch of rhubarb jam without pectin. But the fact that rhubarb is low in pectin does mean that you must make sure to hit the jam setting point, temperature-wise.

Use a fast-reading digital thermometer to check the temperature as the jam cooks and to make sure that every batch of jam sets properly: this way I know I've hit the jam setting point, ensuring that it will set when it cools. I like to use the Thermapen or ChefAlarm.

For jams, I aim to boil the mixture above 215 ºF (102 ºC) and up to 220 °F (104 °C). The wrinkle test or frozen plate test is another method you can use to ensure jam set. You can also check the set by lifting the spatula you are using to stir the jam above the pot to see how it drips off. If the jam drips off in sheets and doesn't look watery, it's likely going to set. After all, nobody wants runny, watery jam! This is one of the best rhubarb recipes on this blog.

To measure the temperature of the jam as it cooks, I use a Thermapen which is very fast at registering temperatures and temperature changes. This is a handheld model, and the ChefAlarm probe thermometer with a cable would be better suited for making jam because you can use it hands-free!

Storage

When it's time to use your jam, always use a clean spoon or knife to take out a serving and don't double dip into the jar of jam because you will contaminate it. Once the jar is open, you must store it in the refrigerator. Otherwise, mold may develop. An open jar of jam will last up to one month if stored in the refrigerator.

Other Rhubarb Recipes

If you love baking with rhubarb as much as I do, here are a few more rhubarb recipes to try:

If you tried this recipe for the best rhubarb jam (or any other recipe on my website), please leave a ⭐ star rating and let me know how it went in the comments below. I love hearing from you!

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Small-Batch Rhubarb Jam (no pectin)

This easy small batch rhubarb jam recipe is flavoured with juniper berries for a beautiful way of preserving rhubarb without pectin (includes canning instructions). This way you can enjoy this rhubarb throughout the year.

Course Breakfast

Cuisine British

Prep Time 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes minutes

Total Time 40 minutes minutes

Servings 4 cups

Calories 93kcal

Author Janice Lawandi

Equipment

• Big pot
• ChefAlarm thermometer
• Mason jars
• Canning kit

Ingredients

• 900 grams fresh rhubarb about 8 to 9 stalks, chopped
• 750 grams granulated sugar you can reduce the sugar to 500 grams but not less than that, if desired.
• 7.5 mL dried juniper berries roughly chopped

Metric - US

Instructions

• Wash five 250 mL jars and lids. Place the jars on a sheet pan in the oven and heat them at 250 °F (121 °C) to sterilize them while you make the jam. Keep the jars in the oven until you will use them. Keep the clean lids aside on the counter for later.
• Combine the rhubarb, sugar, and juniper berries (if using) in a large, deep pot.
• Cook the fruit and sugar mixture on medium heat to first dissolve the sugar.
• Increase the heat to medium–high and continue to cook the jam, allowing it to come to a full boil, stirring with a wooden spoon so it doesn't catch on the bottom and burn.
• The jam will bubble up high in the pot initially and then eventually settle again. Continue cooking the jam until it reaches about 217–220 °F or 103–104 °C (the jam setting point).
• Divide the jam among the jars, leaving a ¼ inch headspace. Remove air bubbles, wipe the rims clean, then cover with the lids, fingertight. If any of the jars aren't filled full, don't seal them. Instead you can cover them and enjoy them right away, storing in the fridge. You will likely fill 4 to 4.5 jars.
• Seal the closed jars according to the manufacturers recommendations. I used Bernardin jars and I boiled my jam jars for 10 minutes to seal them. You can also invert the closed jars and keep them upside down for a couple of minutes before flipping them right side up. With either method, a vacuum should form.
• Let sit 24 hours undisturbed before storing them in the pantry.

Notes

I like to check the temperature of the jam as it cooks to ensure that jam reaches the jam setting temperature point so it sets properly in the end. A probe thermometer with a longer cable like the ChefAlarm would be great for this purpose!

If you are looking for an awesome cookbook dedicated to homemade preserves, the Preservation Society book on preserves is my favourite and  it's available on Amazon.

For a less sweet jam, you can reduce the sugar to 500 grams but not less than that, if desired.

Nutrition

Calories: 93kcal

The post Small-Batch Rhubarb Jam Recipe Without Pectin appeared first on The Bake School.

Jalapeño jam, also called pepper jam, is made from a combination of spicy jalapeño peppers and Bell peppers. It's tangy, sweet, and spicy, all at once and it's a favourite of mine.

Jalapeño jam is similar to pepper jelly in terms of taste, with a few differences in texture:

1. pepper jelly is usually clear with no fruit pieces, whereas you can see. the fruit in the jalapeño jam, usually finely diced sweet peppers and hot peppers.
2. pepper jelly is usually set and gelled with added pectin, like liquid Certo, whereas this jalapeño jam is thickened by cooking it with high pectin fruit up to the jam setting point.

Ingredients needed

If you want to make a jalapeño jam without pectin, you will need:

• jalapeño peppers: I used green jalapeños but if you can find red ones, that would give the jam a nicer colour! Pick peppers that are firm and unblemished and as fresh as possible. You could substitute more Bell pepper for a regular pepper jam, or you could opt to replace a portion with a more spicy pepper, but remember a little goes a long way with some varieties!
• Bell peppers: I have made this with red and orange Bell peppers, which are sweet. You can also use yellow Bell peppers. Any sweet pepper will work here. Again pick them firm and unblemished. Check the stems to know if they are fresh.
• apples: the addition of apples to this jalapeño jam recipe is very smart because they are full of pectin, which helps the jam set up so that it is thick and not runny.
• lemon: lemon adds a ton of flavour and in this case, whole lemon wedges are used, so that again they can contribute some pectin, which is predominantly in the peel of the fruit.
• sugar: you cannot make this jam without sugar. You could use a combination of brown sugar and regular granulated sugar if you want to add more flavour, but the sugar is essential for balancing the acidity and spice in this jam, and also for ensuring the jam will gel properly and set nicely.
• apple cider vinegar: you could use a regular white or distilled vinegar, but I love the flavour of apple cider vinegar. The vinegar, like the lemon, will bring down the pH of the jam and ensure that you can safely can this recipe and also to ensure that the pectin will form a gel network so that the jam will set.

Ratio for pepper jams

Like with most jam recipes, I do not recommend deviating from the quantities listed. You can play with the type of sugar, the type of vinegar, the variety of peppers (both Bell and jalapeño), substituting and replacing weight-for-weight.

If you have more or less fruit to work with, adjust the recipe accordingly in order to respect the ratio of fruit to sugar, keeping it consistent. I have successfully halved the recipe without issues, making a small batch of 2 jars of jalapeño jam.

This recipe isn't hard, but it does take a lot of chopping. Camilla suggests using a food processor to make things go a little faster, but I decided to do all the prep by hand, making tiny cubes out of the apples, red peppers, and jalapeño. Your arms will get tired from all that chopping, but I think the texture is better and the chunks more even if you chop everything by hand.

Pepper jam that sets without pectin

For this recipe, you combine low pectin jalapeño peppers and Bell peppers with fruits that are higher in pectin (lemons and apples) to help with achieve the perfect set. It's very smart! The lemons and apples provide plenty of pectin to do the job, but you also need to make sure to boil the jam sufficiently:

• The set can be loose if you boil it to just above the boiling point but not further (around 101–102 ºC or 214–216 ºF).
• The set will be more firm if you boil the jam to 103–104 ºC (217–219 ºF). It will have a more gelled, soft jelly-like texture.

Decide the texture you want before you begin and watch the pot of jam as it boils: the bubbles will be less volatile and more stable as the jam thickens.

What to serve it with

Jalapeño jam is great served with meat, so steak, chicken, pork or even lamb because of the combination of spicy, vinegary, sweet flavours it provides. It goes with everything.

Another popular way of enjoying it is to make pepper jam and cream cheese sandwiches with bread, or you can serve it on matzoh or crackers. It's sweet and vinegary, and I love it.

If you love making preserves, be sure to check out the spiced apple jam for late fall canning, three fruit marmalade in winter, plum jam in the summer, and rhubarb jam without pectin in spring.

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Jalapeño Jam

This jam is the perfect combination of spicy, sour, sweet. It tastes great on toast with cream cheese, or as an accompaniment to a bbq steak or meat.

Course Condiment

Cuisine American

Prep Time 45 minutes minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes minutes

Total Time 1 hour hour 5 minutes minutes

Servings 4 jars of 250mL

Calories 55kcal

Author Janice Lawandi

Equipment

• Big pot
• ChefAlarm thermometer
• Mason jars
• Canning kit

Ingredients

• 2 lemons quartered, seeds removed
• 540 grams Cortland apple(s) finely chopped (I used Cortland apples)
• 350 grams red bell peppers finely chopped
• 350 grams jalapeño peppers seeded and finely chopped
• 5 mL Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt
• 600 grams granulated sugar
• 750 mL cider vinegar see note for variation on vinegar quantity

Metric - US

Instructions

• Prepare jars and lids.
• In a large pot, combine the lemons, apples, red peppers, jalapeños, salt, sugar, and vinegar. Bring to a boil over medium–high heat. Reduce heat and simmer, stirring often and reducing the heat as necessary, until thick. Remove from heat and fish out the lemons, which will now just be soft pieces of peel; discard lemons.
• Ladle jam into the hot jars to within ¼ inch of the rim. Remove any air bubbles and wipe rims. Place the lids on the jars and screw the bands on until fingertip-tight. Process in a boiling water canner for 10 minutes.

Notes

• This jam is quite vinegary in taste but make sure to boil it sufficiently, not only to thicken it but also to mellow out that vinegar taste. Acetic acid is quite volatile and so boiling will cause some of that to evaporate.
• For this jam to set, you need to boil it to the jam set point, at 220 °F (114–115 °C) at sea level. I've found with some batches, boiling up to the set point can even result in a fully gelled preserve, much like a pepper jelly and without having added any extra commercial pectin!
• For a spicier jam, use less Bell peppers and use more jalapeños. Just make sure that the total weight of peppers is the same (~700 grams). You can also opt to incorporate spicier peppers in the mixture, but be careful as some hot peppers are quite spicy and too many may make the level of heat unbearable for some people.  
• If you find your yield is much higher than the yield in the recipe (meaning you end up with more jars of jam than expected), it could be that you didn't boil the jam for long enough. The set may also be more loose because there is more water in it.

Nutrition

Calories: 55kcal

Cookbook source

This recipe was adapted from Camilla Wynne's book, Preservation Society Home Preserves: 100 Modern Recipes. What I love about Camilla Wynne's book on preserves is that she takes the worry out of canning, and a lot of the sugar too.

Her jams and marmalades really taste like the fruit that's in them. Her preserves are fruit with just the right amount of sugar, not sugar with some fruit. There's still a lot of sugar that goes into her jams, don't get me wrong, but there is so much less in her recipes than in some of the older jam books and recipes I've come across.

Since I already own the French version of this book (Les Conserves selon Camilla, available on Amazon Canada), published in 2013, I've had a few years to test a lot of recipes in the book and adapted others. I've tried the marmalades several times (remember when I explored how to use the setting point  to ensure your jams and marmalades set properly?). Some of the jam recipes are inspired from boozy cocktails or made with the addition of fun spices. There are fruit syrups and pickle recipes too. Lots of unique, tasty treats in this book and I want to try them all! For this post, I went with something new: the jalapeño jam from the Chutneys, Relishes and Savoury Jams" chapter. Basically, this book review was an excuse to make myself jalapeño jam.

Robert Rose Inc. sent me the cookbook to review. Thanks for supporting the companies that allow me to create content for Kitchen Heals Soul. As always, please know that I wouldn’t work with a sponsor nor recommend a product if it wasn’t worth it.  

The post Jalapeño Jam Recipe (no pectin) appeared first on The Bake School.

Ingredients to make the best blueberry jam

To make any jam at home, including blueberry jam, a lot of people are surprised that you don't need any special ingredients. The proof is this homemade blueberry jam only requires three ingredients to make:

• Fresh blueberries, ideally a mixture of wild and farmed blueberries in season
• Granulated sugar, but you can also go wild and try some alternative sugars, like brown sugar, or a combination of granulated sugar and honey or maple syrup.
• Lemon juice, which helps ensure the perfect set, balances out the sugar, and also makes sure the pH of preserves is safe for canning.

Ratio of fruit to sugar

You'll notice that we aren't using pectin in this recipe. Blueberries are quite high in pectin, especially when compared to other fruit used in jams, like rhubarb, which is very low in pectin.

The key to making preserves and jams that set properly without pectin is using the right ratio of fruit to sugar, and to boil the jam for long enough to evaporate the water. That evaporation concentrates the mixture, making it thicker, less fluid and thin.

For blueberry jam, I like to use a ratio of 2 parts fruit to 1 part sugar, by weight, so for 1 kilogram of prepared fruit, I use 500 grams of sugar. If you prefer to talk in percentages, 33 % of the total weight of ingredients is sugar and 67 % is fruit. There's also a quarter cup of lemon juice, and though lemon juice is an essential ingredient in homemade jams, the weight is pretty insignificant compared to the weight of sugar and fruit.

Key steps and techniques

Like with most jam recipes, the basic steps are all the same and you can use the same techniques to make blueberry jam at home:

• Prepare the fruit. You may have to wash or clean the fruit, sorting through it to remove any stems or leaves, but also to remove any fruit that isn't looking good. Berries that are past their prime won't make better jam, contrary to popular belief.
• Macerate the fruit with the sugar and lemon juice. Macerating helps the sugar dissolve, bringing some of the juices out of the fruit. Combined with heat, this step ensures that the pectin is released into the mixture, which will help ensure the perfect set.
• Boil the fruit until the jam setting point. You'll notice in the blueberry jam recipe below, this is done in two stages
  1. heat the mixture until the sugar dissolves, then remove a portion to blend it until smooth in a blender. Add the smooth purée back to the pot.
  2. boil the mixture until it reaches the jam setting point, around 102–103 ºC (or 215–217 ºF).
• Transfer to jars and seal, either by boiling the closed jars in boiling water for a full 10 minutes or by inverting the closed jars upside down for 3 minutes. For more information on canning, read this guide to home canning.

Ensuring the perfect set with the jam setting point

Have you ever made jam that is thin and runny, and seemingly lacking in flavour? It's likely you didn't boil the jam long enough to hit the jam setting point, the temperature where the jam has boiled for long enough that a good portion of the water has evaporated and the pectin can do its job of setting the jam texture so it's thick and not so fluid and liquid.

Remember fruit contains a lot of water. Blueberries are made up of over 80 % water, and once you heat the berries, the fruit burst and the water is released into the jam, making a very soupy preserve if you don't boil it for long enough.

With most jam recipes, it's hard to give a cooking time because some jams can take even an hour of boiling to achieve the perfect set. I boiled this batch of blueberry jam for 30 minutes, until it reached 103 ºC (217 ºF). I think I could have actually pushed it further and boiled it for longer, but I liked the taste and texture at this point so I proceeded to can it.

You could also boil a little less, to 102 ºC (215 ºF) but make sure that you let it boil to that jam setting temperature. The jam has to reach that temperature and maintain it for long enough to ensure the proper set. Recall, this is the same for marmalade, which also has to be boiled to a certain temperature to achieve the marmalade setting point.

Other methods for determining jam set

If you don't want to watch the temperature, there are other ways of determining if your jam will set once it's cooled down:

1. Watch the bubbles: you'll notice that the initial bubbles of boiling jam are very easily popped, they appear and disappear very quickly. The mixture is very fluid. When you approach the jam setting point, the bubbles will become more stable and appear like blinking fish eyes on the surface, more stable and less prone to popping so easily.
2. Watch the texture: lift your spatula or wooden spoon high up out of the pot of jam and watch the jam fall off. When the jam isn't cooked enough, it will run right off the spatula like water. The more it boils, the more viscous the jam will be and it will drip down off the raised spatula more slowly and some will even gel on the end
3. Do a plate test by dolloping a small ½ teaspoon amount on a frozen plate. Return the plate to the freezer for 30 seconds to a minute, then push the edge of the dollop with your fingertip. It should wrinkle. If it doesn't wrinkle and the dollop appears very fluid/liquid, you need to cook the jam more.
4. Observe how the jam behaves as its boiling: the more you evaporate off the water and concentrate the mixture of fruit and sugar, the more viscous and thick the jam becomes. It will become very glossy and it will spit at you and even burn your arms with dollops of boiling jam that shoot out of the pot at you.

Special equipment for making jam at home

I highly recommend investing in a canning kit made up of the smaller tools you will need in order to properly seal your jars, including a magnet to transfer the clean lids to the jars to avoid contamination, as well as a headspace measuring tool to make it easier to verify that you are filling the jars correctly, and a non-reactive funnel that will help you fill the jars without spilling and without dirtying the edges (which would ruin the seal!).

The kit should also come with jar lifters which are so helpful when moving the jars in and out of the water bath! You will also need a big pot preferably with a rack, like this one on Amazon, in order to boil the jars of marmalade for 10 minutes.

In order to achieve the perfect texture, it's very important to boil marmalade just enough so that it is thick, but not so much that the peel becomes chewy. A thermometer like a fast-reading Thermapen helps judge how far along you are in the cooking process and works perfectly with this recipe and method. The Thermapen is what I use. For a hands-free setup, a probe thermometer with a longer cable like the ChefAlarm would be better because then you don't have to hold it with your hands, which would be much less dangerous to use than my hand-held setup.

Jam-Making FAQs

What to Eat With Blueberry Jam

Blueberry jam is a little unusual in that most people immediately think of strawberry jam and orange marmalade when they think about homemade preserves. I'm here to tell you that blueberry jam is a real treat and very special because it has such a unique, delicate flavour.

If you've ever wondered what to use blueberry jam for, I highly recommend serving it on toast with cream cheese spread thick. Blueberry jam is also great with blue cheese or even goat cheese (if you are a fan). You can also serve blueberry jam with savoury meats, like pork (which is traditionally served with apple sauce).

Of course, you can also use it as a filling for these delicious jam-filled shortbread cookies. Or just spoon it over yogurt or homemade ice cream, like this cardamom ice cream!

More Blueberry Recipes

Blueberry season spans much of the summer. Besides jam, I always make a point of baking with them, making a lattice top blueberry pie, this easy blueberry crumb cake (topped with cinnamon streusel) and, of course, blueberry muffins sweetened with honey.

If you tried this recipe for the best small-batch blueberry jam (or any other recipe on my website), please leave a ⭐ star rating and let me know how it went in the comments below. I love hearing from you!

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Blueberry Jam

Learn how to make this easy blueberry jam with just three ingredients and no pectin! It's boiled to the jam setting point to ensure the perfect set.

Course Preserve

Cuisine American

Prep Time 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time 30 minutes minutes

Maceration time 30 minutes minutes

Total Time 1 hour hour 20 minutes minutes

Servings 80 tablespoons

Calories 38kcal

Author Janice Lawandi

Equipment

• Big pot
• Canning kit
• Mason jars
• Wooden spoon

Ingredients

• 1.2 kg fresh blueberries washed and picked over to remove any stems
• 600 grams granulated sugar
• 60 mL fresh lemon juice

Metric - US

Instructions

• Mix the berries with the sugar, lemon juice in a large bowl.
• Cover the mixture and let the berries macerate for at least 30 minutes. Stir every so often to help the sugar dissolve. You can also leave them to macerate in the fridge overnight to make jam the next day.
• Transfer the macerated fruit and all the juices into a big pot and place the pot with the macerated berries on the stove. Heat on medium, uncovered, stirring every so often.
• Once the sugar is completely dissolved, turn off the stove and take the pot off the burner.
• Ladle a third of the jam mixture into a blender jar, cover partly, then blend until smooth. Transfer the blended mixture back to the pot.
• Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring with a wooden spoon to help distribute the heat.
• When the jam comes to a boil, continue cooking it until it hits the jam setting point, around 102-103 °C (215–217 °F).
• Take the pot off the stove. Let stand 2 minutes then stir well to distribute the fruit.
• Divide the jam among the jars, leaving a ¼ inch headspace. Remove air bubbles, wipe the rims clean, then cover with the lids, fingertight. If any of the jars aren't filled full, don't seal them. Instead you can cover them and enjoy them right away, storing in the fridge.
• Seal the closed jars according to the manufacturers recommendations using a water bath canning kit. I used Bernardin jars and I boiled my jam jars for 10 minutes to seal them.
• Remove from the canner. Let sit 24 hours undisturbed before storing them in the pantry.

Notes

This recipe makes 4–5 small jars (of 250 mL  (1 cup) each)

Make sure to sterilize your jars by washing them well and then heating them on a sheet pan in the oven at 250 ºF for at least 30 minutes. Ladle the hot jam into the hot jars.

Nutrition

Calories: 38kcal | Carbohydrates: 10g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 1g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 1g | Sodium: 1mg | Potassium: 12mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 9g | Vitamin A: 8IU | Vitamin C: 2mg | Calcium: 1mg | Iron: 1mg

The post Blueberry Jam appeared first on The Bake School.

Though I say that apricot jam is my favourite jam, I think plum jam ranks high on the list too. It has such a vibrant colour and flavour, and it makes a great filling for donuts. It's also very easy to make, and you don't need to add any commercial pectin to achieve the perfect set!

Steps for perfect plum jam

Plum jam is easy. Here's a breakdown of the steps:

1. Prepare the fruit, washing and drying it, then chopping it into small pieces.
2. Macerate the fruit, mixing it with sugar, which draws out the water and helps break down the fruit so that your jam will boil quickly and the sugar will be all dissolved.
3. Boil the jam until you reach the jam setting point. You can use a thermometer to help judge the set, but also a frozen plate test. It's just like determining the marmalade setting point so watch the jam as it boils: the bubbles will be more stable when you approach the perfect set.

Tip: you don't have to peel the plums to make jam, which makes this recipe even easier to do. Just wash and chop the fruit, discarding the stone and stems as you go.

Ways to flavour plum jam

Plum jam is great plain, but why not try infusing it? You can infuse it with your favourite tea or spices, like cinnamon or cardamom.

Adding spices like cinnamon yields a plum jam that tastes like plum pie filling. It's amazing the flavour you can get out of just one cinnamon stick.

Canning tools to make your jam-making easier

Don't forget, if you are afraid of home canning, or if you don't have the proper tools, I have product reviews on the blog for a home canning starter kit that you can purchase from Amazon to get you going (tool kit on Amazon & starter kit from Bernardin on Amazon). Make sure to have a probe thermometer to take away the guessing of when the jam is cooked enough. I use a Thermapen which is very fast at registering temperatures and temperature changes, but the ChefAlarm is a great hands-free option!

The basic plum jam recipe is adapted from Camilla Wynne's book Preservation Society Home Preserves (available on Amazon).

I like to use a thermometer when I boil a batch of jam: the thermometer allows you to monitor the temperature of the jam, thus ensuring you achieve a high enough temperature so your jam will set when it cools. This is the jam setting point. You can also use the plate test (also known as wrinkle test) by dolloping jam on a frozen saucer.

Storage

If you seal the jars properly and use clean sterilized jars, you should be able to keep this jam indefinitely in a cool, dry place, away from light.

I've tested both canning the jars by boiling the closed jars for 10 minutes to seal them or inverting the closed jars, then inverting again back to upright. Both methods work well.

If you don't seal the jars properly, or if you have a doubt, just keep the jars in the fridge.

When it's time to using your jam, always use a clean spoon or knife to take out a serving and don't double dip into the jar of jam because you will contaminate it. Once the jar is open, you must store it in the refrigerator. Otherwise, mold may develop. An open jar of jam will last up to one month if stored in the refrigerator.

Once common misconception is that you can reboil a jar of jam that has developed mold. I would not recommend this. I also would not recommend removing the layer of mold from the top and eating what's below. The mold you see is a fraction of what exists below and it's better to be safe: toss the contents of jar, wash and sterilize the jar, and reuse it to make a fresh batch of jam.

What to make and serve with plum jam

When you start making jam at home, you will inevitably wind up with many jars of it. It makes a great gift, but you should also keep some for yourself to enjoy and to bake with! Here are a few ideas of what you can bake with jam and what to serve with it:

• Jam-filled shortbread cookies
• Thumbprint cookies
• Bostock
• Scones
• Butter biscuits
• Brioche kneaded in the stand mixer

Other jams to make in the summer

Summer calls for making preserves. Each month, focus on one fruit and by the end of the summer, you'll have a rainbow of jams to enjoy year-round:

• In the early summer months, the most obvious jam to make is rhubarb jam (no pectin) and also honey apricot jam
• Mid summer, focus on the berries, like this strawberry red currant jam and this blueberry jam
• At the end of the summer, make this spiced apple jam and the plum jam featured here

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Plum Jam

Homemade plum jam is a a fabulous treat for breakfast. You can make it plain, or flavour it with cinnamon, or infuse it with Earl Grey tea flavour

Course Breakfast

Cuisine American

Prep Time 1 hour hour

Cook Time 20 minutes minutes

Total Time 1 hour hour 20 minutes minutes

Servings 4 jars

Calories 35kcal

Author Janice Lawandi

Equipment

• Big pot
• ChefAlarm thermometer
• Mason jars
• Canning kit

Ingredients

• 1.25 kg Italian plums pitted and diced
• 450 grams granulated sugar
• 65 mL fresh lemon juice

Flavour options (choose one or the other, or neither)

• 1 cinnamon stick(s) optional
• 22.5 mL loose leaf Earl Grey tea optional

Metric - US

Instructions

• In a medium bowl, combine the chopped plums, sugar, lemon juice and flavour (either a cinnamon stick OR the Earl Grey tea leaves wrapped in a cheesecloth to form a make-shift tea bag). Stir everything together and let rest on the counter for 6 to 8 hours, stirring every so often. The juices from the plums will form a syrup with the sugar as it dissolves.
• At the end of the day, stir once more and then cover with plastic wrap and chill overnight.
• The next day, transfer the macerated plum mixture to a large pot and heat on medium–high to bring it to a boil, stirring often.
• Skim off any foam as needed and continue to boil/stir until the jam has thickened (I boiled one batch to 215ºF and the other to 217ºF). The jam is probably thick enough when it starts spitting at you.
• Remove the cinnamon stick or the Earl Grey tea bag from the pot. Transfer the hot jam to hot, sterilized 250-mL mason jars using your handy canning tool kit available on Amazon, leaving ¼" headspace. Cover with clean, sterilized snap lids. If a jar isn't filled full, put it in the fridge to enjoy right away.
• Process in a large boiling water batch for 5 minutes, then leave them another 5 minutes, still in the canning pot but off the heat before transferring the jars to a clean towel on the counter.
• Let the jars rest overnight before labelling and storing them.

Notes

For the Earl Grey tea, use a good quality tea. I suggest Kusmi, for example, which you can buy on Amazon .

This recipe is adapted from the Preservation Society book on preserves, available on Amazon.

Remember that checking the temperature of your batch of jam as it cooks with a thermometer can help you determine if you have hit the jam setting point. Use a digital probe thermometer for faster readings, like the ChefAlarm which will register changes in temperature in 3 seconds or less!

Nutrition

Calories: 35kcal

The post Plum jam appeared first on The Bake School.

This honey apricot jam is a variation of the classic apricot jam. We replace a portion of the sugar with honey which adds a lovely honey-flavour to this jam.

Picking fruit for jam

Most jam makers will agree that you should include about 25% unripe fruits in each batch of jam because those unripe fruits have a higher level of pectin, which will help the set. You need to be careful because too much unripe fruit and your jam will taste like sour, unripe fruit (duh!).

Ripening apricots

To ripen apricots and other stone fruit that were picked too early, you can try setting them in a bowl on the counter. Another trick is to place them in a paper bag with an apple. The apple releases ethylene, which will speed up the ripening process.

A couple of days on the counter and unripe stone fruit will transform into something great.

If you like apricots, you will love this jam! If you aren't a fan of honey, you can replace it with the same weight of sugar.

Reducing the sugar in apricot jam

I wouldn't recommend using less than half of the weight of fruit in sugar, so if you have 1.2 kilos of fruit, don't use less than 600 grams of sugar. Otherwise, the jam may not set properly. Remember that both the honey and granulated sugar count as sugar in this recipe, so the combined total of the two shouldn't go below 600 grams.

Jam setting point

Have you ever made jam that is thin and runny, and seemingly lacking in flavour? It's likely you didn't boil the jam long enough to hit the jam setting point, the temperature where the jam has boiled for long enough that a good portion of the water has evaporated and the pectin can do its job of setting the jam texture so it's thick and not so fluid and liquid.

With most jam recipes, it's hard to give a cooking time because some jams can take even an hour of boiling to achieve the perfect set. I boiled this batch of apricot jam for almost 30 minutes, until it reached 103 ºC (217 ºF).

You could also boil a little less, to 102 ºC (215 ºF) but make sure that you let it boil to that temperature and make sure it stays there for long enough. Recall, this is the same for marmalade, which also has to be boiled to a certain temperature to achieve the marmalade setting point.

Freezer test

Serving suggestions

This honey apricot jam is great on English muffins and on buttered toast with a little salt. It has a bright apricot taste with honey's sweet, unique flavour. You can use this to fill jam thumbprint cookies and jam-filled shortbread cookies.

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Honey Apricot Jam

This apricot jam is sweetened with both sugar and honey, which adds a ton of flavour to this easy apricot preserve

Course Breakfast

Cuisine American

Prep Time 30 minutes minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes minutes

Total Time 50 minutes minutes

Servings 5 jars (250 mL/1 cup)

Calories 41kcal

Author Janice Lawandi

Equipment

• Big pot
• ChefAlarm thermometer
• Mason jars
• Canning kit

Ingredients

• 1.2 kg apricots
• 450 grams granulated sugar
• 350 grams wild flower honey
• 60 grams fresh lemon juice
• 30 mL loose leaf black tea optional, but I love tea in jam!

Metric - US

Instructions

• Wash & sterilize jars and lids for canning. Prep a large canning pot full of water and bring it to a boil.
• Combine the first 4 ingredients in a separate large pot. Let sit for 1 hour at room temperature.
• Meanwhile, wrap the tea leaves in cheesecloth to make a bundle. Drop it into the pot of fruit.
• Place the pot of syrupy fruit on the stove and heat on medium heat to bring the mixture to a boil, stirring every so often. You may want to skim off some of the foam that forms as you heat. Continue to heat the mixture until the bubbles are more stable, the jam sets nicely on a frozen saucer, and the jam is well above 215ºF (I aim for about 218ºF if I can get it there).
• Turn the heat off and let the pot of jam sit for 5 minutes, then stir to evenly distribute the fruit. Remove the tea bag.
• Transfer the jam to sterilized, hot jars, leaving a ¼" headspace. Top with sterilized lids and screw shut 'until finger-tight.
• Place the jars in the canning bath, and bring the water back up to a boil with the lid on. Boil for 10 minutes, then turn the heat off and let it sit for 10 minutes off the heat. Remove the jars from the bath and set on a towel-lined baking tray. Let stand at room temperature overnight.

Notes

To better understand the impact of temperature on set, check out this post about the jam setting point

Nutrition

Calories: 41kcal | Carbohydrates: 11g | Protein: 0.2g | Fat: 0.1g | Saturated Fat: 0.004g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.01g | Monounsaturated Fat: 0.02g | Sodium: 0.4mg | Potassium: 40mg | Fiber: 0.3g | Sugar: 10g | Vitamin A: 279IU | Vitamin C: 2mg | Calcium: 2mg | Iron: 0.1mg

If you know me, you know I love jam. All jams, really. Over the years, I've successfully made spiced apple jam, plum jam, rhubarb jam with juniper berries, and even jalapeño jam. Clearly, I have a little thing for jam.  I wouldn't say that I am an expert in jam, but I've made a few batches over the years.

Recipe adapted from Preservation Society Home Preserves: 100 Modern Recipes by Camilla Wynne. I also recommend Jam Bake by the same author, which includes many more jam recipes, new techniques for canning and preserving, and recipes to make with your homemade preserves!

The post Honey apricot jam appeared first on The Bake School.

Taking advantage of citrus season is one of the best ways to beat the winter blues, and making marmalade is a fun weekend activity that is so rewarding, especially considering that it's minimal effort. Yes, there are a lot of steps, but there's nothing too complicated:

1. Boil the sliced citrus limes in a large pot of water, until they are very tender and soft, for over an hour.
2. Combine the softened sliced limes with sugar and lemon juice.
3. Boil the lime marmalade to 219–220 ºF (104–105 ºC). This is the ideal setting temperature for marmalade based on my tests.
4. Transfer the marmalade to clean jars to seal them using either the water bath method or by inverting the jars for 2 minutes.

If you've never made it and aren't familiar with making preserves at home please read about how to make marmalade and the marmalade setting point before proceeding!

What you need to make this marmalade recipe

The best way to make lime marmalade is with the whole fruit because it's simple to do and doesn't require any added pectin. All you need are:

• whole limes, washed and scrubbed well
• water—tap water is fine: if you can drink it, then you can make marmalade with it
• sugar—granulated or special fine sugar works great here, and you don't need to invest in superfine sugar, which is more expensive. Superfine sugar will dissolve faster than regular granulated sugar, but the results will be the same!
• lemon juice—I prefer the taste of freshly squeezed lemon juice, as opposed to the bottled kind, and since the recipe already has a lot of acid present, you don't need to worry about the pH

Do not use jam sugar, also called gelling sugar, for this recipe. Jam sugar actually combines fine sugar with pectin and an acid (like citric acid) to promote gelling and set when making jams, marmalades, and sugar-based preserves. You do not need extra pectin for this and the other marmalade recipes on this site so please use regular granulated or fine sugar for this recipe!

Types of limes

For this recipe, we are using standard grocery store limes. The variety is Persian or Tahitian limes, at least in North America. They are seedless and not too small, which makes them very easy to handle. These limes are sour with bitter notes.

You could also try this recipe with key limes, also known as Mexican limes. Use the same weight of fruit as suggested in the ingredients for this recipe, so use 650 grams of key limes to make key lime marmalade. Note that key limes have seeds, so you will have to remove them as you slice the fruit. Since key limes are sweeter, you may reduce the sugar slightly. The minimum would be to use a 1:1 ratio of key limes to sugar by weight.

Special equipment

Surprisingly, you actually don't need anything special to make marmalade at home from scratch. You will need:

• a knife and cutting board to slice the fruit
• a big heavy-bottomed pot
• a wooden spoon or a heatproof silicone spatula
• canning jars and lids (always use new lids to ensure the rubber seal isn't damaged)
• a canning kit—you can read all about the components of a home canning kit but usually they come with a non-reactive funnel, a gauge for measuring the headspace between the surface of preserves and the lip of the jar, an air bubble remover, and a magnet for easily picking up the lids
• a digital thermometer, like a Thermapen or hands-free ChefAlarm, a fast-reading, accurate thermometers recommended for home cooks and bakers

Cookbooks on Preserves

If you are interested in simple recipes and techniques for making preserves, like this marmalade, check out Camilla Wynne's books on preserving:

• Preservation Society Home Preserves, covering all forms of preserves from jams and marmalades to pickles and savoury preserves
• Jam Bakes (available on Amazon), which is dedicated to making preserves and baking with them too!

I used both these books to research this recipe and follow Camilla Wynne's methods closely as she taught me how to make Seville orange marmalade years ago. Highly recommend!

The method

For most marmalade recipes on this site, we use the whole fruit method, where you immerse the whole fruit in a large volume of cold water, and bring it to a boil, cooking for 1–2 hours, until the fruit is very tender, and so soft that you could use your hands to tear the fruit apart easily. With this method, you slice the whole soft fruit, so the cut of the peel can be quite rustic and more coarse, less "refined" than you might want. I used this method to make classic orange marmalade, grapefruit marmalade, and even three-fruit marmalade.

If you want a finer-cut marmalade, start with sliced citrus fruit. With this method we are still using the whole fruit, meaning peel, pith, flesh, and all, but we are starting the process with sliced citrus instead of the whole fruit. This is the method we are using to make this lime marmalade.

The sliced citrus is brought to a boil in lots of water, and it's simmered for two hours, until very soft and tender.

Avoiding chewy peel

One of the big problems with making marmalade is that the peel can end up hard and chewy if you don't handle the fruit correctly. To avoid this, you have to boil the whole fruit (or sliced fruit in this case, or sliced peel) for over 1 hour, until the peel is extremely tender and so soft you can tear the fruit without using any force.

Whole citrus fruit should be so soft you can poke the handle of a wooden spoon or even your thumb through the fruit without any effort. One visual cue for knowing how long to boil sliced citrus is to observe the pith (the white part of the peel). The pith should no longer be opaque and completely translucent. You should see no patches of white from the pith. If any remain, the peel will be chewy.

If you find your water has evaporated before the sliced fruit has cooked long enough, add more water. This will give the citrus peel more time time to cook and then, all you have to do is boil it down again to evaporate off the excess water.

For this recipe, you do not need to remove the pith of the fruit from the peel, but you do need to take the time to properly soften the sliced fruit before adding sugar and proceeding with marmalade-making. If you don't do this step correctly, the peel will be tough and the marmalade will be inedible unless you strain out the toughened pieces of peel.

How to tell when the marmalade has boiled enough

Once you've added the sugar and the lemon juice, it's time to cook the marmalade. There are many ways to determine if you have hit the marmalade setting point:

• watch the temperature: use a digital thermometer to monitor the evolution of the temperature as you boil the mixture of citrus, sugar, and lemon juice. The setting point for marmalade is 104–105 ºC (220 ºF).
• watch the bubbles: early in the cooking process, the bubbles form and pop fast, whereas when you've hit the setting point, the bubbles are more stable, resembling blinking fish eyes
• watch the texture: marmalade boiled to the setting point is viscous and will drop in thick sheets off a spatula or wooden spoon, as opposed to a more fluid liquid texture at the beginning.
• use a frozen plate to do the plate test: freeze a few side plates or saucers in the freezer for an hour, then place a dollop of the cooked, hot marmalade on the plate, and put it back in the freezer for 1 minute. Retrieve the plate and nudge the dollop with your fingertip: does it wrinkle and seem "set"?

If you use a few of these tests and the marmalade passes inspection, you can transfer the mixture to jars to seal them. Remember for some of the more time-consuming tests, you should take the pot of marmalade off the heat or else you risk overcooking it! This is very important and if you overcook the marmalade, it will be dry and pasty, like a fruit candy or verging on a jelly or pâte de fruit, as opposed to spreadable marmalade.

Methods for sealing jars of homemade preserves

There are two major ways to seal jars of homemade preserves, and a third which is considered unsafe today (sealing with paraffin). The two best methods to seal jars are quite different, but the end result is the same: you are creating a vacuum in the jar to preserve the contents and prevent air and microbes from getting in.

For both methods, start by transferring the marmalade to warm, clean jars, then close them with lids until fingertight, then:

1. The quick and easy way: immediately invert the closed jars of hot marmalade, letting them sit upside down for 2 minutes. Flip the jars back upright, and let them stand for 24 hours undisturbed.
2. The long way: bring a large canning pot to a boil, then carefully drop the jars into the boiling water bath so that they are immersed. Bring back up to a rolling boil and boil jars for 10 minutes. Carefully lift the jars out of the bath and let stand for 24 hours undisturbed

With both methods, the jar lid will likely make a popping sound, a good indicator that the contents are sealed. If you don't follow either of these methods, you will have to store the jars of marmalade in the fridge.

Storage

If the jars are properly sealed, you can store marmalade in a cool, dry place, away from the light for 1 year. After that, the marmalade will still be good, but you will notice the vibrant colour will change and the marmalade will become darker.

Store open jars of marmalade (or jars you have not sealed) in the refrigerator.

Frequently asked questions

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Lime Marmalade

Learn how to make lime marmalade with this easy recipe, made from whole limes and without any added pectin.

Course Breakfast

Cuisine British

Prep Time 30 minutes minutes

Cook Time 2 hours hours

Soak time 8 hours hours

Total Time 10 hours hours 30 minutes minutes

Servings 5 jars of 250 mL

Calories 49kcal

Author Janice Lawandi

Equipment

• Mason jars
• Big pot
• Canning kit
• ChefAlarm thermometer

Ingredients

• 650 grams limes this is roughly 8 limes
• 1.5 L water
• 1000 grams granulated sugar
• 60 mL fresh lemon juice

Metric - US

Instructions

• To prepare the limes, slice off the ends to discard them, then quarter the fruit and thinly slice. Transfer the sliced fruit to a big pot and add the cold water. Put the lid on the pot and let the sliced fruit soak for about 12 hours (overnight).
• After soaking for 12 hours, uncover the pot and place it on the stove. Turn the burner on to high heat and bring the mixture to a boil. Once at a boil, cover the pot (or partially cover) and reduce the heat to a slow simmer (medium–low or even low) and let the fruit slices simmer for 1.5 hours.
• Uncover the pot, and let the citrus continue to simmer for another 30 minutes. The water will slowly evaporate over this time and most importantly, the white pith of the lime peel will become completely translucent. The fruit slices will be very, very soft and tender. This Cuisinart pot from Amazon is a decent size for the job. The goal is to soften the pith (the white part of the peel) so that it is completely translucent. During this step, most of the water will evaporate and you will be left with about ½–⅓ the original volume. Do not try to speed up this step and do not boil the fruit too vigorously or else you risk the peel being chewy and hard!
• Once the fruit slices are very soft and the volume has reduced by almost two-thirds, turn off the heat and let the fruit sit for one hour before proceeding. This is to further ensure that all the fruit has softened sufficiently.
• Add the sugar and lemon juice to the pot with the softened citrus fruit. Bring the mixture back up to a boil over medium–high heat, and continue to cook, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon or heatproof spatula (grab this spatula from Amazon), until you reach the marmalade setting point (104–105 ºC or 220 ºF)—use a fast-reading digital thermometer like this one from Thermoworks. You can also check the consistency by letting the marmalade drip off a spatula over the pot. It should fall in a thick sheet as opposed to a very fluid, loose droplets.
• When the marmalade reaches the set temperature, slide the pan off the heat, and let it cool for 2 minutes, then give it a good stir. This is to ensure that your canned marmalade will have an even dispersion of peel/fruit.
• Line a rimmed baking sheet with a large kitchen towel (these Nordic Ware sheet pans from Amazon are great). This will be the “cooling station” for the jars.
• Divide the mixture between 5 or 6 sterilized jars (I prefer wide-mouth mason jars like these Ball jars on Amazon), leaving a headspace of ¼ inch. If the last jar has a larger headspace, that will be your jar to enjoy right away, storing it in the fridge.
• Wipe the rims of all the jars with a lightly moistened paper towel. Top each of the jars with a sterilized lid, and tighten the band until it is finger tight. The Ball canning kit on Amazon is key for this step and the next! Get it on Amazon.
• Flip the closed jars upside down and let them stand, inverted, for 2 minutes, before flipping back upright. You will hear a popping sound soon after you've flipped the jars, a good sign that the vacuum seal is created.
• Let the jars cool, untouched, for 24 hours before putting them away.

Notes

This recipe makes 5 to 6 jars of 250 mL of lime marmalade. Make sure to prepare 6 jars to make sure you have enough ready when it's time.

To prepare jars for this recipe, start with washed jars. Set them on a sheet pan in an oven at 250 ºF, and leave them for at least 30 minutes before filling them.

Note that lime marmalade isn’t green, and more of a golden colour. If you want the marmalade to be green, you will likely have to add a drop of food colouring.

Nutrition

Calories: 49kcal | Carbohydrates: 13g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 1g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 1g | Sodium: 1mg | Potassium: 9mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 12g | Vitamin A: 4IU | Vitamin C: 3mg | Calcium: 3mg | Iron: 1mg

The post Lime marmalade appeared first on The Bake School.

Apricot jam is the best, but people hardly think of it. It's sweet and fruity, and so flavourful. And it's THE jam to make in late spring or early summer when apricots are in season. If you've missed apricot season, check out this peach jam recipe to satisfy your craving!

Like the other jam recipes, this jam is made without pectin and instead depends on the pectin of the fruit and cooking to the jam setting point to ensure the perfect set every time!

Ingredients you need to make this recipe

The beauty of making jam at home is that you really only need three things: ripe fruit, granulated sugar, and lemon juice. It's that simple!

• fresh apricots—opt for ripe apricots that aren't overly ripe. If the fruit are too ripe, they won't have as much pectin. Some jam makers actually include a portion of less ripe fruit when making homemade jam. The less ripe fruit have more pectin, and the quantity of pectin drops as the fruit ripens
• sugar—most home bakers and cooks object to the amount of sugar when they make jam. However, you really can't reduce it by much. I like to use granulated sugar. It doesn't impart any flavour, which means this jam will taste just like sweet, fresh apricots
• lemon juice—use fresh lemon juice because the flavour is better. Don't skip it because the acidity is important to help balance the flavour but also to achieve the perfect set

See recipe card for quantities.

Choosing the right fruit

It's a very common misconception that you should use over-ripe or old fruit to make homemade jam. Actually, this isn't a good idea. As the fruit age, the pectin in the fruit breaks down. The older the fruit, the less pectin you have to work with to achieve the perfect set.

Actually, professional jam makers usually use a combination of ripe fruit (slightly less pectin) with slightly under-ripe fruit (higher in pectin). This way, they can achieve the perfect set, without compromising flavour. You can use 25 % slightly under-ripe fruit with 75 % ripe fruit for this recipe.

Don't use any fruit that is going bad. The idea is to preserve the fruit at peak season when they are perfect, fresh, sweet, and unblemished.

Substitutions

With only three basic ingredients, there isn't much room for ingredients substitutions, but:

• Apricots—you can do a mixture of apricots and another stone-fruit, like apricots plus peaches. Or you can try apricots plus mango, which is another winning combination (reminiscent of this peach mango pie!)
• Granulated sugar—replace a portion of the sugar with the same amount of honey to add more flavour
• Lemon juice—instead of fresh lemon juice, you can use bottled lemon juice.

In this recipe, I do not recommend replacing the sugar with any sugar substitute like stevia or Splenda. It will not work. You need sugar to achieve the best jam set in this recipe.

You'll also notice that I use regular granulated sugar or special fine sugar, i.e. regular white sugar. You don't need jam sugar (also called gelling sugar or jelly sugar), which has commercial pectin mixed in. There's nothing wrong with jam sugar. But in this recipe, it's not necessary and would be an extra expense for no good reason.

Instructions

Making jam at home is easy. It takes a little time, but once it's done, you will have 4 or 5 jars of apricot jam. You can keep the jam for months and months, or give out as gifts.

Maceration

The first step in most jam recipes is to macerate the chopped fruit with sugar. Maceration draws out the fruit juices and helps extract pectin. This helps with the set of the jam so that you don't have to add commercial pectin. This step also helps dissolve the sugar. When you boil the mixture, the texture will be smooth without any sugar crystals.

Boiling to the jam setting point

Achieving the perfect set, whether for marmalade or jam, is tricky. It can take some experience to be able to judge, visually, if your pot of jam has boiled sufficiently to set properly later. Here are three things to look at to determine set:

1. the bubbles: when the jam first comes to a boil, the bubbles are quite volatile. They form and pop almost instantaneously. Whereas when the jam has thickened enough, the bubbles will be more stable and resemble blinking fish eyes. The visual cues are hard to see for beginners. If you are learning to make marmalade and jams, I recommend you observe the changes in the bubbles as you go, but you should rely on other methods to decide when your marmalade has reached the setting point.
2. the wrinkle plate test: freeze a few small saucer plates in your freezer overnight. When you think your jam is cooked enough, retrieve a saucer from the freezer and place a dollop of hot marmalade on the plate. Put it back in the freezer for 1 minute, then take it out and push the dollop with your finger: if the dollop wrinkles nicely, your jam is probably done, if it's still too fluid to wrinkle, keep cooking.
3. the temperature: measure the temperature with a thermometer. You want to cook jam to somewhere in the range of 102-103 °C (215–217 °F), depending on how fluid or thick you want it. Don't overcook your jam because you will ruin the fresh flavour of the fruit and the sugar will caramelize, so be careful how high you push the temperature before you stop cooking.

Hint: I like to monitor the temperature using a Thermapen or a ChefAlarm, both of which are fast-reading digital thermometers that are calibrated so that they work well!

The ratio of fruit to sugar is important

The amount of sugar is not important, but rather the ratio of sugar to fruit (i.e. the amount of sugar compared to the amount of fruit) is what is essential to making good jam with the right set, that stores well for long periods, and where the sugar doesn't crystallize over time. You'll notice we have double the weight of fruit compared to the weight of sugar. This works for most fruit-based jams. You'll notice with something like orange marmalade, you will need equal parts by weight of fruit and sugar.

Storage

If properly sealed, your jars of homemade jam will last for years, but technically one year is the recommended shelf life. Over time, you will notice the colour will change, the bright orange will darken with time. This is normal and not a sign of the jam degrading or going bad, so don't worry if the colour darkens!

Store sealed jars in a cool, dark place.

Note that if you don't seal the jars properly, or if you have a doubt, just keep the jars in the fridge.

When it's time to use your jam, always use a clean spoon or knife to take out a serving and don't double dip into the jar of jam because you will contaminate it. Once the jar is open, you must store it in the refrigerator. Otherwise, mold may develop.

After the jar of jam is open, you must store it in the refrigerator and according to most professional canners, an open jar of jam will last up to one month if stored in the refrigerator.

Once common misconception is that you can reboil a jar of jam that has developed mold. I would not recommend this. I also would not recommend removing the layer of mold from the top and eating what's below. The mold you see is a fraction of what exists below and it's better to be safe: toss the contents of jar, wash and sterilize the jar, and reuse it to make a fresh batch of jam.

What to serve it with

Apricot jam makes a great filling for jam tarts, but it's also great for breakfast, smeared on slices of brioche bread or even on cinnamon raisin bread!

Frequently asked questions

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Apricot Jam

Learn how to make this easy apricot jam with just three ingredients and no pectin! It's boiled to the jam setting point to ensure the perfect set.

Course Preserve

Cuisine American

Prep Time 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time 30 minutes minutes

Maceration time 30 minutes minutes

Total Time 1 hour hour 20 minutes minutes

Servings 4 jars

Calories 30kcal

Author Janice Lawandi

Equipment

• Big pot
• Canning kit
• Mason jars
• Wooden spoon

Ingredients

• 1 kg fresh apricots washed and coarsely chopped, discarding the pit and stem
• 500 grams granulated sugar
• 60 mL fresh lemon juice

Metric - US

Instructions

• Mix the chopped apricots with the sugar and lemon juice in a large bowl.
• Cover the mixture and let the fruit macerate for 30 minutes to an hour. Stir every so often to help the sugar dissolve.
• Transfer the macerated fruit and all the juices into a big pot and place the pot with the macerated fruit on the stove. Heat on medium, uncovered, stirring every so often to help the sugar dissolve completely.
• Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring with a wooden spoon to help distribute the heat.
• When the jam comes to a boil, continue cooking it until it hits the jam setting point, around 102-103 °C (215–217 °F). Watch the bubbles and do a wrinkle plate test to verify the set.
• Take the pot off the stove. Let stand 2 minutes then stir well to distribute the fruit.
• Divide the jam among the jars, leaving a ¼ inch headspace. Remove air bubbles, wipe the rims clean, then cover with the lids, fingertight. If any of the jars aren't filled full, don't seal them. Instead you can cover them and enjoy them right away, storing in the fridge.
• Seal the closed jars according to the manufacturers recommendations, either using a water bath canning kit or by inverting the hot jars of jams for two minutes before flipping right-side-up.
• Let the jars sit 24 hours undisturbed before storing them in the pantry. Don't forget to label them with the date and the name of the jam!

Notes

This recipe makes 4–5 small jars (of 250 mL  (1 cup) each).

Make sure to sterilize your jars by washing them well and then heating them on a sheet pan in the oven at 250 ºF for at least 30 minutes. Ladle the hot jam into the hot jars.

Nutrition

Calories: 30kcal | Carbohydrates: 8g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 1g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 1g | Sodium: 1mg | Potassium: 33mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 7g | Vitamin A: 241IU | Vitamin C: 2mg | Calcium: 2mg | Iron: 1mg

The post Apricot jam appeared first on The Bake School.

Pepper jelly and jalapeño jam are other favourites of mine. It's sweet and spicy, and sometimes it can even be a little vinegary. I especially love toast with a thick layer of cream cheese or a mild goat cheese, and then topped with an embarrassing amount of pepper jelly. Sometimes I add lettuce or sprouts (if I have them on hand), in an attempt to be healthy. Greens on a pepper jelly toast happen rarely at best. I just want the jelly, really.

This recipe for cranberry-pepper jelly is from the November 2011 issue of Bon Appétit. Combining two of my favourite preserves into one seemed like a genius idea to me, and boy was it ever. It's quite spicy, loaded with cranberries, and with just a hint of sweetness. It would make a great accompaniment to a Thanksgiving turkey, or even just a simple Sunday roast chicken. Delicious! And yes, I also ate it by the spoonful, and dolloped over slices of toasted bread with some goats cheese, spread thick. 

I stuck to the original Bon Appétit recipe pretty closely, and only slightly changed the method.

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Spicy Cranberry Pepper Jelly

Learn how to make a spicy cranberry pepper jelly with this easy recipe. You can use fresh or frozen cranberries.

Course Preserve

Cuisine American

Prep Time 5 minutes minutes

Cook Time 15 minutes minutes

Total Time 20 minutes minutes

Servings 50

Calories 21kcal

Author Janice Lawandi

Ingredients

• 3 red bell peppers seeded and finely chopped
• 2 long red chilli peppers seeded and finely chopped
• 200 grams granulated sugar
• 7.5 mL crushed hot pepper flakes
• 1.25 mL Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt
• 15 mL fresh lemon juice
• 60 mL liquid pectin I used Certo pectin
• 750 mL frozen cranberries you can use fresh of course!, thawed

Metric - US

Instructions

• In a medium saucepan, stir together the chopped peppers, granulated sugar, pepper flakes, and salt. Let the mixture sit at room temperature for 30 minutes so that the peppers begin to release some of their juices.
• On medium heat, bring the mixture to a simmer, stirring occasionally. Make sure all the sugar is dissolved before proceeding.
• When the sugar is dissolved, add the lemon juice and liquid pectin, and stir. Continue simmering for another 10 minutes
• Add the cranberries, and simmer gently for another 10 minutes or until the cranberries have burst and the mixture has thickened slightly.
• Transfer jelly to sterilized jars, and let cool completely before refrigerating. Alternatively, you can seal the jars according to your jar manufacturer’s instructions.

Notes

This recipe makes 3 jars.

Nutrition

Calories: 21kcal | Carbohydrates: 5g | Protein: 0.1g | Fat: 0.1g | Saturated Fat: 0.01g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.02g | Monounsaturated Fat: 0.004g | Sodium: 13mg | Potassium: 27mg | Fiber: 0.4g | Sugar: 5g | Vitamin A: 262IU | Vitamin C: 13mg | Calcium: 1mg | Iron: 0.1mg

The post Spicy cranberry-pepper jelly appeared first on The Bake School.

After going berry picking, sometimes the best course of action is to make jam. Jam is a great way of preserving big batches of berries for long term storage. And if you use a home canning kit to properly seal the jars, you can store them for a long time in a cool dry place. 

Equipment

To make homemade jam, you don't need much! Here's a rundown of the tools you need to make this jam and other preserves:

• a stove
• a big pot
• a wooden spoon or heatproof spatula
• a canning kit that includes a non-reactive wide-mouth funnel, jar lifters, headspace measuring tool, etc.
• 250 mL jars or 125 mL jars to store your preserves in
• a Thermapen or a ChefAlarm to monitor the temperature

If you choose to process the jars to seal them, you will need a canning kit, which comes with a jar lifter, a helpful tool to measure headspace and remove air bubbles, among others. You can actually skip the step of boiling the closed jars to seal them and instead, invert the closed jars of hot jam and let them stand upside down for 2 minutes before flipping right side up. This will create a vacuum and seal the jars too.

One thing to remember when making jam is that the riper the fruit, the lower the pectin, in many cases. Strawberries are a prime example of a fruit that, when ripe, they have less pectin than the unripe berries. Stone fruit too suffer from this problem. So jams made with some of these fruit can end up a little on the soft, runny side of set, especially if you haven't boiled them long enough to achieve the jam setting point. 

Combining fruits in a batch of jam can have some benefits, especially when you are trying to make a jam with a fruit that is lower in pectin. Blueberries and red currants are great berries to throw into a batch of summer jam because these berries are higher in pectin and so they can help jams with other fruit achieve a better set, without having to resort to commercial pectin.

I did a little strawberry jam experiment to see this in action: I used extremely ripe, freshly picked strawberries to make three batches of homemade jam. To this end, I made:

1. plain strawberry jam to see how the set when strawberries alone are used and these aren't very high in natural pectin, especially when they are at their peak, flavour-wise
2. strawberry rhubarb jam to see what happens when you add a low pectin fruit like rhubarb
3. strawberry red currant jam to see what happens when you incorporate a high pectin fruit like red currants

Interestingly, what I found was that the strawberry jam made with red currants set so fast, I barely had to boil it. It gelled almost immediately, so fast that I wasn't sure what to do because I almost didn't made it to the jam setting point (above 215 ºF). 

On the other hand, adding rhubarb when making a batch of strawberry jam led to a more complex sour-sweet flavour, but it also led to the softest set. Not surprising since rhubarb isn't known for its pectin content. That's why this rhubarb jam recipe without pectin is so special: it takes a certain technique to achieve a good set with such a low pectin fruit.

Feel free to play with the ratio of strawberries to red currants in this recipe, but remember, more red currants may lead to a firmer set! And for more currant inspiration, check out this roundup of red currant recipes, which includes red currant muffins! Later in the season, you can make this black currant cake (when the red currants are no longer available).

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Strawberry and Red Currant Jam

This easy jam doesn't require any gelling agent or thickener because red currants are so high in pectin!

Course Preserve

Cuisine British

Prep Time 30 minutes minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes minutes

Chill time 12 hours hours

Servings 50

Calories 44kcal

Author Janice Lawandi

Equipment

• Big pot
• Canning kit
• Mason jars
• Wooden spoon

Ingredients

• 500 grams fresh strawberries hulled and roughly chopped
• 450 grams red currants
• 450 grams granulated sugar
• 45 mL fresh lemon juice
• 1 vanilla bean split in two, seeds scraped and added to fruit

Metric - US

Instructions

• Mix the berries with the sugar, lemon juice, and the vanilla bean (the split pod and the seeds) in a big pot.
• Cover the mixture and let the berries macerate in the fridge overnight.
• Place the pot on the stove, uncovered and bring the mixture to a boil, stirring occasionally.
• When the jam comes to a boil, continue cooking it until it hits the jam setting point, around 102 ºC (215 ºF).
• Remove from the heat. Fish out the used vanilla bean pod and discard it.
• Divide the jam among the jars, leaving a ¼ inch headspace. Remove air bubbles, wipe the rims clean, then cover with the lids, fingertight. If any of the jars aren't filled full, don't seal them. Instead you can cover them and enjoy them right away, storing in the fridge.
• Seal the closed jars according to the manufacturers recommendations using a water bath canning kit. I used Bernardin jars and I boiled my jam jars for 10 minutes to seal them.
• Remove from the canner. Let sit 24 hours undisturbed before storing them in the pantry.

Notes

This recipe makes 6 small jars (of 125 mL  (½ cup) each) or 3 large jars (of 250 mL (1 cup) each)

Make sure to sterilize your jars

Nutrition

Calories: 44kcal | Carbohydrates: 11g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 1g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Sodium: 1mg | Potassium: 41mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 10g | Vitamin A: 5IU | Vitamin C: 10mg | Calcium: 5mg | Iron: 1mg

Storage and food safety

If you have gone through the process of sealing the jars properly, then you should be able to store this jam for a year in a cool, dry dark, place. After this time, you will notice the jam looses its bright, vibrant colour. It will still be good enough to it, but it won't be the same.

Note that if you don't seal the jars properly, or if you have a doubt, just keep the jars in the fridge.

When it's time to using your jam, always use a clean spoon or knife to take out a serving and don't double dip into the jar of jam because you will contaminate it. Once the jar is open, you must store it in the refrigerator. Otherwise, mold may develop.

After the jar of jam is open, you must store it in the refrigerator and according to most professional canners, an open jar of jam will last up to one month if stored in the refrigerator.

Once common misconception is that you can reboil a jar of jam that has developed mold. I would not recommend this. I also would not recommend removing the layer of mold from the top and eating what's below. The mold you see is a fraction of what exists below and it's better to be safe: toss the contents of jar, wash and sterilize the jar, and reuse it to make a fresh batch of jam.

The post Strawberry and red currant jam appeared first on The Bake School.