As you could see in my last post, I have received alot of fresh berries over the last little. A flat of berries actually.
Half a flat of fresh B.C. strawberries and half a flat of fresh B.C. raspberries. What to do with them, other than eat them with our Sunday morning pancakes. Oh yeah, we did that. For the past 3 weeks. I could actually eat pancakes right now, true fact. But, that's a story for another day.
I had planned on buying this many berries, not only for pancake consumption, but also to make jam.
My second favourite jam, is raspberry. Sorry little red berries, but blackberry jam steals my heart. Since blackberries are not quite ready yet, raspberry jam it is.
My mom never really canned alot a stuff when I was younger and my dad usually just did pickled vegetables, so I didn't have a family recipe to fall back on. Of course, the internet being my constant companion and recipe provider, supplied me with a recipe. What the best part was, it only had 2 ingredients. Raspberries and sugar. Even better.
After my first attempt, which was on a Wednesday night, which was the completely wrong thing to do. I realized, I needed alot more time to make jam. Don't get me wrong, I got 2 very large jars of jam that night, but I think I forgot how much work and time and space canning takes up. I didn't finish those jars until well after 10pm.
My second attempt was this past Saturday, with a less stressful outcome. I got 5 more jars from this double batch and I didn't have that time crunch that was held over my head on Wednesday. Moral of the story, canning takes up alot of time, so don't try and crunch it into a weeknight.
The results were a thick, but not gummy fresh, but tart raspberry jam. The first batch, I followed the recipe exactly and I found the jam a little sweet for my liking, so in the second batch I removed an entire cup of sugar. I like my raspberry treats to be a little tart, and it didn't effect the cooking stage at all. I also did not remove the seeds. I prefer the seeds in my jam, for flavour, but if are a seed-a-phobic, feel free to strain them out.
This jam is perfect for morning toast or slathered on your third batch of pancakes this week.
Raspberry Jam
[ from Epicurious ]
This recipe is for small batch canning. I got two 500ml jars out of a single batch. If you want to have more than 2 jars, just double the batch and increase the cooking time slightly.
4 cups white sugar
4 cups raspberries
Place sugar into a shallow, ovenproof pan and warm in a 250 degree oven for about 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, put berries in a large heavy-bottomed pot and turn to high. While the berries are heating, mash thoroughly with a potato masher (or forks), until smooth. Bring the berries to a boil and boil vigourously for about a minute. Pour in the warm sugar and stir, bringing mixture back to a boil. Boil for 3 - 5 minutes, stirring constantly, until a cool, metal spoon dipped into the mixture shows a thick, gel running off the spoon.
Ladle mixture into sterilized jars and process as per the following.
