A Tale of Three Jams, Strawberry, Raspberry & Apricot

Here are all three Jam fresh from the freezer Friday Morning. Strawberry is on the left, Apricot in the middle and Raspberry on the right side.  The half full container on top is a mix of the three, the bits that weren't enough for their own container.(Clickety Biggety All Photo's in this post)

Last week Sandy posted on her blog about some Freezer Jam she had made. This intrigued me as I had never heard of freezer jam and I like the idea of making my own jam using whatever fresh fruit and however much sugar I want. After a couple of days with me leaving multiple questions for Sandy about this mysterious sweet substance and her being gracious and kind enough to post all the details on her blog I was ready to give it a try on my own. :D

Beverly also posted Jam on her blog and sent me some info to help me get started on my way. :D

Thursday I went to the new Whole Foods here in town. I wanted to go early in the day because I figured every asshat in the world would be shopping in preparation for the 4th of July weekend. I was wrong. Every freaking grocery store tourist was there inspecting the new whole foods. It was like a food zoo full of idiots. There was a handful of people with shopping carts and actually picking up stuff, but the place was packed with people being general irritating Looky Lou's. Literally pointing out stuff that they would have to come back to actually shop for. Blew my fucking mind.

I am a woman of little patience and these human road blocks were not moving out of my way.

The other half of the people were there just getting quick serve pre-made foods for lunch. There are several seating areas in the place and it was full with many more people just milling around complaining about having to wait. Milling about blocking walkways to get around the store. *head desk*

I didn't even stop to look at those areas most crowded with human speed bumps. I had a list and I treated it like an Olympic sporting event getting what I needed and going to the next item. The only reason I went there a week after it opened was because I had a $10 off coupon and it wasn't far from my previous errand stop that day. I think I'll be waiting a while before I go back. It was cool to have so many naturally grown items at hand, but damn I hate people. I hate stupid people. *icky shivers* The only good thing about all that was the fact there were no lines at all to check out since most of the people were just taking up space and not buying that day. *L*

/end mini rant

So back to Jam, I grabbed the only fruit pectin the store had, Pomona's Universal Pectin. It said it would work on traditional cooked or freezer jam. PLUS it said I could use as little sugar as I wanted. AND it said I could use honey instead of sugar. *SuperOtterHappyDance*

How freaking sweet is that?! SuperSweet!

So in addition to the pectin and fruit I grabbed some yummy Blackberry Honey and some Agave. The agave is for a future batch of jam or baking. It's a nice sugar substitute when you don't want that honey taste. Though the jam doesn't really taste like honey at all, just bright pure fruit yumminess. :D

The box came with a recipe leaflet, which you can find here on their website. It's Recipe Card 1. I used the no cook freezer recipe. Though it did say to cook the apricots beforehand and let cool.

The only thing I needed my stove for otherwise was to heat up the water and pectin for each batch. That was good as the kitchen didn't get hot and irritate me. *L*

Here's the organic fruit I used for my jam.

First I made the Raspberry Jam. I followed the instructions and made the Calcium water and set that aside. Then into the Vita-Mix went the raspberries. I had 2 cups of the puree so I added 1/4 cup honey, 1/8 cup lemon juice and the water, pectin and calcium water. Though I didn't read the directions clearly and had failed to heat up the water and pectin separately. *sigh* So after I mixed it all together I put it on the stove to get hot to activate the pectin.

Naturally it didn't work out as well as I would have liked. It didn't set as solidly as the others as you can see by the photo here.

I'm thinking of making a Raspberry Jam Cake to take to a knit-together later this evening with the rest of the Raspberry Jam. Having never made a cake with Jam this should be interesting... Mmm with a light lemon glaze on top. We'll see how the day goes.

The next Jam I made was the Strawberry. I had 4 cups of pureed fruit and used 1/2 cup honey. This time I followed the directions properly. :D

We had the strawberry Jam with biscuits for breakfast Friday and the Raspberry and Apricot with biscuits on Sunday. I also learned I could make a small batch of 4 biscuits at a time. *L*

The last jam I made was the apricot. It is by far my favorite. Which surprises because I thought it would be strawberry. The other two jams are raw fruit and this one is cooked. I'm not sure if that what's makes the flavor seem more pronounced or what. Next time I'm going to try to cook the berries and see what becomes of that. I only had one cup of the cooked apricot puree so I only used 1/8 cup of the honey. I let the fruit cool down before making the jam as per the box instructions before adding the pectin and calcium water.

It has a very bright apricot flavor and I loves it muchly.

It was a lot of fun to make and definitely worth the little bit of effort to make it. The honey loves the taste and loves that there isn't any white granulated sugar in it.

I think next time I will try my hand at peach jam, cherry jam and kiwi jam. :D

Big Thanks to Sandy & Beverly for introducing me to the world of easy to make, super yummy freezer jam.

So when are you going to try your hand at Jam Making? :D

Comments

[Stacey (aka Fiber Pusher)]

I got my fruit, I got my pectin.. and then found out you can't use anything other than sugar with this type and am very sad. /sigh On the upside, I have 6 lbs of verrrrry good sweet cherries to eat

[Cookie]

If it doesn't set, you can use it over ice cream if you don't want to do cake.

I am so proud of you for making the freezer and for going to the new Whole Foods.

xo

[Beverly]

Yum--those biscuits look delish! Thanks for the tip about the pectin. I'll have to scope out my Whole Foods and see about that!

[Devorah]

We love our Whole Foods. Best price on milk in the area. And their 365 brand stuff rocks!

That jam looks so yummy! Too bad I don't cook. Even had trouble making tuna salad today. Couldn't remember where we keep the tuna. ;-)

[Angie]

Oh my. Look at the delicious biscuits and jam(s)! Yummy. Very.