Late Summer Jams

We have been busy in the kitchen devouring every page of the Blue Chair Jam cookbook. So far we have made the Children's Strawberry Jam and the Pluot Jam with Orange blossom and Sloe Gin.  Summer may be over but  you wouldn't know it in Los Angeles
where the temperature is still 85 degrees and the Farmers Markets are still full of late summer strawberries. Eager to enjoy them while we can, we washed and hulled 4 pounds of berries, a task that was more enjoyable and less time consuming than I'd expected it to be. 

Halving and removing the pits from the Pluots on the other hand took some perfecting. I tried cutting the pit free but this left a lot of fruit still on the pit.  After much trial and error I found that a dishtowel helped to grip the pits and remove them cleanly. Another tip, the more ripe the fruit, the loser the pit. 

The strawberry jam was an excellent choice as a starter recipe. Berries, sugar and lemon juice. Simple. The berries cooked down into a thick, rich dark consistency and the large amount of lemon juice keeps the jam from being too sweet and cloying. I have been tempted to try canning and jam-making for years but was put off by the amount of special equipment it called for and the tedious nature of boiling each jar for sterilization.

 

 
Rachel offers a batch sterilization and sealing method that appeals to my fuss-free nature, (simplify, simplify) and it works! We set the oven to 250 degrees and placed the washed and dried jars and lids on a cookie sheet, then into the oven for 30 minutes and the sterilization step was painlessly complete. When the jam was ready, we filled each jar, replacing the lids, then placed them back on the cookie sheet and into the oven again for 15 minutes. As they cooled on the countertop each successfully sealed jar gave a loud POP, and we congratulated each other on a job well done.

The Pluot jam recipe is delicious and the process really brings out the subtle apricot flavor in the fruit. I left out the orange flower water simply because we didn't have any, and added an extra splash of the slow gin instead.  It adds a subtle berry flavor to the jam.   This jam turned out to be a bit looser than the Strawberry, but I think it will be the perfect topper for pancakes this weekend.