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Monday, July 18, 2011

How to Make Homemade Strawberry Jam

I am on a quest.

I am on a quest for the best pb & j ever.

To Do List:

1. Make awesome bread

2. Make awesome peanut butter

3. Make awesome jam

One down; two to go. (And yes, this jam really is awesome.)

What's really nice about this jam is that there is only one ingredient; strawberries. I added balsamic vinegar at the end because I like the combo of strawberries and balsamic so I thought that would put this over the top for me. It's just a personal preference, feel free to leave it out. Other than that, no sugar, no pectin, no unpronounceable artificial stuff, not even salt. This is true to the berries.


Homemade Strawberry Jam


Note: I'm think this would work with most berries. I already tried blueberry jam, so I'm pretty sure it would work.

Ingredients

3 baskets of strawberries, hulled and quartered (see note)
balsamic vinegar




 Put all your berries in a nice big pot. I sprayed it with nonstick spray for the sake of taking precautions, and I don't think it'll hurt.
 Mash the berries with a potato masher until the berries are nice, juicy, and jam-y. (Remember when I used a food processor last time? I didn't want to clean it, so I just didn't use it. I don't think it made it worse or anything, but if you have the overwhelming urge to scrum berry residue off a food processor, have fun!)
 Bring it to a boil...
 ...and keep it there...
 ...until it's nice and thick like this.
 Like I said above, I added balsamic vinegar at the end. If yo don't want to (or just don't have any,) then you can skip this. Easy, right?

So if you did add the vinegar, just heat the jam back up and stir t around for a bit until everything's nice and combined. Yeah, I probably didn't need to turn the heat off, but I would love to hear your feedback if any of you make this.
 So I tried it, and it was good. Very good.

But something with the consistency was off, so I whipped out my trust immersion blender (I have a Cuisinart, but I'm not sure what model it is) and whirled away.
 Look at how smooth that is!
So this filled a bit more than one 5 oz. jar, so I guessing it makes about 8 oz.

This jam is so natural and lovely. I'm not sure I've ever tasted better. And it was so easy!

Enjoy!

-Kelly M.
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3 comments:

  1. MeeshJuly 19, 2011 at 5:28 PM

    Yum! That sounds delish!

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  2. Sabrina's London DiariesJuly 24, 2011 at 5:04 PM

    Wow! Will try this recipe. I have been wanting to make some kind of jam for so long and it seems so complicated I keep putting it off for the Holidays. Here, you make it seem so easy. Just was wondering if you need to add sugar or water or anything like that? Please let me know when you get a chance.

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  3. Kelly MJuly 25, 2011 at 12:56 AM

    've always wanted to make my own jam too, but I always though you needed wierd ingredients like pectin and strange, expensive canning equitment/processes. At the very least, I though I would need some kind of thickener.
    So I found this really great, easy recipe in Real Simple, which just called for berries, salt, and sugar. I made it and it turned out really well. So I decided to give it a go with just mashed berries. And it turned out great! I don't know why everyone doesn't do it. I basically just mashed the berries and threw them in a pot. Easy, right?

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