jam making

This year the apricot trees have produced loads of fruit. This could have been down to the unusual rainfall we had during the past winter.

I decided it was time to try to make my own jam. Previous attempts last year were not too successful. My next job was to find an easy to do “mugs” recipe. The one I found to be the easiest was a Delia recipe which was handed down to her by her mum.

Simple – wash the fruit and de-stone. Grease the saucepan with a little bit of butter, just enough to stop everything sticking, not loads. Then layer the cut fruit with jam making sugar and finish off with a few squeezes from a lemon. Leave this in the saucepan overnight or even for the next day. When you come to make the jam, the sugar has already started to dissolve. Heat gently until all the crystals have gone and then go for the boil. Put a small plate in the freezer ready to test the setting of the jam. I boiled the liquid for 10 minutes and then did my test. The jam settled on the plate and didn’t run so that was it. Ready for the jam jars.

The jars had been previously washed in the dishwasher and were now sterilising in a low oven, 100C and the lids were in a saucepan of simmering water.

The end result is absolutely delicious.

The jars are all ready for labelling but I haven’t designed the labels yet and the colour printer is on its way.

Each time I made a batch using 1.1kg apricots and 1kg of jam making sugar which filled approx 5 jars, depending on size.

I have been given about a kilo of cherries so I’ve followed the same method which is soaking now. Let’s hope the recipe works with cherries.

The plum trees are almost ready to pick, I just need lots more jam jars!