In a Jam

This week's new recipe was homemade jam! Mom always makes freezer strawberry jam and says it's super easy. It takes only 4 ingredients and not a lot of time to put together so yesterday I thought I'd try it. Maybe Kyle's PB & J sandwiches will taste a little better with fresh berries! :)

I used one of the freezer jam recipes that came inside the box of fruit pectin. The recipe is here on the Kraft website: www.kraftrecipes.com/recipes/30-minutes-homemade-surejell-50137.aspx They have recipes for all kinds of fruit, but I went with plain strawberry. I bought a big container of berries last weekend thinking I'd cut them up to have with dinner a couple nights, or make strawberry shortcake or something... We didn't end up eating very many, so I thought I'd use them up before they went bad! Turns out I had just enough good ones left to get the one quart I needed!

After cutting out the stems and rinsing them, they were mashed. My potato masher isn't good for mashing smaller stuff and it was still way too chunky. So I ended up chopping the berries, too, to get smaller pieces (although I think I WOULD leave it a little more chunky next time).

The next step is to stir in the sugar.

Yes, you're seeing that correctly--there is twice as much sugar as there is mashed berries. Yikes! Makes me glad I don't eat jam too often! I knew jam/jelly was sweet, but.....wow.
So, the sugar was mixed in and then it had to sit for a few minutes. While the sugar and fruit was doing its thing, I cooked the pectin and water. it had to boil, and then be mixed into the fruit.

Last step was pouring it into containers! I had just enough to fill five little containers--aren't they cute?! :)

The hard part is letting it sit for 24 hours! I wanted to try it and make sure it turned out okay. Today for lunch I opened one and spread some on a piece of bread and asked Kyle if he would try it, as he is the main jam connoisseur in our family. He said it was good! It turned out a little more soft and runny that what I wanted so I'm hoping that being in the fridge for a while will help it set more.

I'm going to try making plum/pear jam this week, too, once I get some canning jars! Will post that later, if it turns out. :)