Friday, January 21, 2011

Easy Strawberry Jam



I love making jams and I wanted to make best use of the strawberries which are in season. I usually puree the fruit and go about with my jam making. I found a recipe here and the method interested me. I followed her first step where in the berries are mixed with sugar and left for few hours. I felt this gave a good texture to the jam. As usual, I made it in microwave. So that doesn't stop those who doesn't have a MW oven. This can be very well be made on the stove top and I think it will get done in almost the same time. This jam is quite easy that you have just mix all the ingredients and cook for around 15 minutes.



You need
  • Strawberry,hulled and halved - 2 cups
  • Sugar - 3/4 cup
  • Lemon juice - from half of a lemon




Method

  
Take the strawberries and sugar in a bowl. Keep it aside for 4 hours or so. Lightly mash the berries in between. The sugar would have drawn the juice out of the berries and you can find the berries slightly pulpy too. Transfer the mix to a microwave safe bowl. Add juice from half of a lemon and micro high for 12 minutes. Give a stir at 5 minutes interval. Give a standing time of 3 minutes and do the plate test to see if the jam is set. Ladle into sterilized jars. 




Adjust the sugar according to the sweetness of the berries. Adding too much of sugar will make the jam sticky and the flavor of berries will not come through.  Enjoy on a warm toast for breakfast or tea. Try making it yourself and see how it easy it can be. Once you taste home made jam, I am sure you will never go for store bought ones.  I usually make in small batches and it gets over in 10 days. If you are making a big batch, you can as well refrigerate for longer shelf life.



  

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