Making freezer jam is so simple, it's just a little time consuming. After washing the strawberries it seems like it takes forever to get the stems out. In the past I've used a pastry cutter to mash the strawberries, but this time I used the food processor (also a past Christmas present). It was much faster and made the strawberries less chunky which I prefer anyway.
I used two different kinds of pectin. The first was the Ball brand (in the first picture) and then Sure-Jell. I usually always use Sure-Jell, but Ball was on sale so I thought I'd give it a try. The Sure-Jell is much, much better. It probably has to do with the 4 cups of sugar to 2 cups of fruit ratio. The Ball brand had more fruit than sugar so it's going to be the healthier option. It almost tasted kind of bitter, though. I think strawberries need lots of sugar. :)
Another time consuming part of the process are washing all of the dishes that are used. I'm so glad we have a dishwasher which makes everything a lot quicker.
Here's our jam for the year!
It helps that I have plenty of entertainment while I'm in the kitchen. Gavin never gets tired of playing peek-a-boo with the colander. I tried to get him in action, but it's just blurry.
3 comments:
I love kitchen stuff for Christmas! I got an electric griddle this year, and I was thrilled. Your jam looks yummy!
Marcie, I wish you would have taught me how to make jam last year (I guess we both were suffering from lack of sleep and a newborn). It looks so good!
We just made jam last week and it is so yummy. There is something so wonderful about homemade jam. We made a double batch of strawberry jam and a new recipe of peach/raspberry. I wanted to do raspberry but peaches were on sale for .69/lb so I compromised. Ah the life of a student's wife. :)
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