I've been living a homestead lifestyle now for quite a few years and I've been preserving food for at least 3. One thing I hadn't made up until this month though was apple jam. I've no idea why it's taken me this long to attempt making apple jam. We've had apples gifted to us numerous times and it isn't that much different from making apple pie filling which I have made and water bath canned before. I can't remember what it was that triggered me to give making apple jam a try but I'm glad I did.
We were gifted a couple of big bags of apples and so I had enough to use in a selection of recipes. There were so many apples I had to rope in my husband to help me with the peeling and chopping. Some of the apples we dehydrated, my sons love these as a lunch box snack so I always dehydrate apples when I can get hold of them. Some were turned into fruit leather, another favourite treat the family enjoy. I also used some to make apple and tomato chutney, a pie filling and finally experimented with making apple jam.
It took a good few hours to peel and chop the apples but it was well worth the effort in order to make a good stock of different things that the family can enjoy through the winter. I do my best to stock up the 'winter pantry' by preserving whatever I can get my hands from the allotment, garden and things gifted to us, so that we have a good amount of food to get us through until the next harvest season.
After all his hard work peeling the apples my amazing husband even made time to make me some scones so that we could test out some of the apple jam. It is delicious and according to my youngest son a new favourite of his. Now that I know we enjoy it I will be doing the recipe to me family folder to remind me to make another batch next time we get our hands on a batch of apples.
This is the recipe I used to make apple jam
- Ingredients
- 1kg Apples, peeled, cored and finely chopped
- 300g Sugar (Caster or granulated would be fine)
- ½ lemon, juiced or 2tbs lemon juice
- 1 cinnamon stick or 1tbs cinnamon powder
- 350ml water
Method
- STEP 1
Tip the chopped apple and caster sugar into a large saucepan along with 350ml of water and bring to a simmer, stirring to dissolve the sugar.
- STEP 2
Cook, stirring regularly, for 30 mins until the apples have collapsed.
- STEP 3
Stir in the lemon juice, add the cinnamon stick and simmer gently for another 5 mins until the mixture is thick and glossy.
- STEP 4
Use a jam thermometer to check that the mixture has reached a safe jam temperature.
- STEP 5
Divide between clean, sterilised jars and seal. Once opened, keep in the fridge and use within one month.
Comments