Thursday 28 August 2008

The easiest way to make jam - ever!

This recipe came from my lovely mother in law and she now uses it to make all her jam - which is delicious by the way :) It takes about 15 minutes and at the end you have lovely jars of jam.

You will need

Berries (I used blackberries which had been picked when camping)
Sugar
Microwavable bowl
Microwave
Electric hand whisk (optional)
Jars for your jam

1. Firstly wash your berries - I do this as ours come straight from the bush and I need to make sure that the bugs have gone!

2. Weigh your berries. You should ideally have 1lb of berries to 1lb of sugar but if you have more or less then just adjust your sugar - just make sure you have a ratio of 1:1

3. Pop your berries and sugar into the microwavable bowl and microwave on full for 4 minutes. They will look a bit like this.

4. Stir your berries and then microwave for a further 4 minutes.

5. Stir the berries again and pop back in for another 3 minutes.

6. I now whizz the jam to get rid of the lumps of berries that are left but this is a personal thing (remember that your jam is boiling at this stage so be careful!) You can also push the jam through a sieve if you want to remove the pips/seeds. Again this is a personal preference.

7. Once I've whizzed the jam I normally put it back in the microwave for another 2 minutes to ensure that it has boiled enough to make it set. It will still appear runny at this stage so if you aren't sure if it needs boiling again you can leave it to cool for a bit and if it still doesn't look like it is going to set then you can pop it back in the microwave.

8. Pour your jam into jars and let it cool - I would place your jars into some warm water first to ensure that they don't crack when the hot jam goes into the cooler jars.

9. Ta da - you have lovely jam without all the fuss of thermometers and great big jam pans!

If anything doesn't make sense then just leave a comment :)

11 comments:

Amby said...

Hi, I read Cuteable and just clicked over because I've been wanting to make some jam! How perfect. Thanks for the easy recipe.

Amby

Moiface said...

Thanks for the tip!

Lindsey said...

Truly you are psychic! Evie and I have been blackberrying and she desperately wants to make jam but I haven't got the first idea of how to do it. This sounds so easy - even I must be able to manage it :o) Cheers hun.

Anonymous said...

*cry* no microwave, guess I'm sticking to the traditional jam method :)

We're blackberry picking monday!

Tip Top said...

Love the styling of the photo!!!!

Still sounds a bit technical for me.....

picklesticks said...

I love the look of that jam! Food is very important at the moment.

Ollie + Junebug said...

I'll have to try this this weekend! Adding to my recipe book now!

Nat said...

Gotta try that one out! Thanks for the recipe!

Anonymous said...

Fifteen minute jam! You deserve to be famous for that! Wow, I'll give that a try...

Anonymous said...

what is whizzing?

Swirlyarts said...

Whizzing refers to what you do with a hand whisk - the breaking down of the berries using the whisk. Making the jam smooth essentially!