Friday, May 21, 2010

10 Minute Strawberry Refrigerator Jam

This is a recipe I got from my friend Margaret at a Relief Society homemaking meeting a long time ago. I hadn't ever tried it. The other day another friend asked about stawberry jam, and I remembered this recipe. I got some strawberries yesterday and decided I would try the jam before my kids inhaled all the berries.

Oh man! This is good stuff. I like being able to make a small amount.  I really don't want to do a large batch and have to find freezer space, or can them.  So this is perfect. It made just a little more than 1 pint.


Here is a picture of 2 cups of strawberries, hulled, washed and sliced.


The next step is to mash them well. I used my potato masher.  Worked well and the kids fought over who got to help.



Here is a picture of the pectin and sugar. My pectin was a little past the best use by date (only by 5 years) so I wasn't exactly sure it would gel up correctly, but is worked beautifully.


Look are Erin's beautiful hands mixing in the sugar and pectin.  Mix it well and then put in the microwave on high for 4 to 5 minutes.  Watch it!  I took it out at about 4 minutes 10 seconds because it was getting ready to boil over, and who wants to clean out the microwave?



Here is the mixture after cooking the first time. It does get foamy and that is normal. I stirred it, but don't know if that is necessary.  Cook again for 5 minutes on the 6 power setting of your microwave. It was fun watching it cook this time. My kids were all glued to the microwave. At 6 power my microwave cooks for about 10 seconds and then rests for 6 seconds or so. When it would be in the cook phase, the jam would boil and come right to the top of the bowl, and then it would drop as the cook feature turned off. The kids thought this was great to see, each cook cycle it would get closer to the top of the bowl.  I think it ended just perfectly. One more cook cycle and I think it would have overflowed.  Again you might want to watch just in case.


Here is the finished jam in the jars. As you can see it made one full pint jar with just a little more. That is probably a function of how closely you measure the berries. I measured before slicing, so maybe I had a little too many strawberries, but the taste wasn't affected if there were more than 2 cups.

It is runny when it just comes out of the microwave, but it thickened up as it cooled in the refrigerator.   It was good runny too. I had just made bread, and so we enjoyed the partially full jar right away on fresh bread. YUMMY!  I will definitely do this again.  We may even have to try peaches or plums or apricots. I think it would work. I will let you know.

YUM!


Microwave (10 minute) Strawberry Refrigerator Jam 

2 cups (1 pint) Strawberries, washed and hulled
1 1/2 cup Sugar
2 teaspoons powdered fruit pectin

Slice strawberries into a 2 quart bowl. Mash well. Stir in sugar and pectin thoroughly.  Microwave 4-5 minutes on HIGH, or until mixture comes to a full rolling boil.

Reduce setting. Microwave 5 minutes on '6' power setting.  It will thicken as it cools. Pour into glasses, or jars. Cover with plastic wrap (or lid).  Store in refrigerator. For a thicker jam add an extra teaspoon of pectin.   (from the kitchen of Margaret Aragon)





3 comments:

  1. That sounds great! I will defenitly try it! I don't think I have a power setting of 6 on my microwave though..

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  2. On my microwave I have to choose cook power button, press 6 and then cook time button and put in the time. Try the defrost setting where it doesn't cook on high the entire time, but cycles on and off. It may take more time though.

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  3. This sounds great. I had some about 10 years ago and loved it. Thanks for sharing. Doylene

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