Kitchen Jam

Image by trekkyandy via Flickr

Cranberries have appeared several times in the Kitchen Jam cupboard – and they’ve already lent their holiday tang and color to two of the 12 jams of Christmas. But in selecting #12, the final jam of this series, I wanted to improv a simple riff on a wonderful recipe I discovered in Aimee’s Under the High Chair Virtual Jam Swap – a variation on Grapefruit Cranberry Marmalade which was submitted to the swap by Cheri of Kitchen Simplicity.

I’ve made Cheri’s original recipe – and it’s wonderful! But we’re for real at the wire now when it comes to holiday gifting; no time for the extra steps of zesting whole grapefruits and boiling the fruits for an hour to get them to the gel point. We (or at least I) need quick and easy. We need bottled juices that metamorphize into jam – and if they can be transformed into lower-sugar jam, even better!

I used Florida’s Natural brand 100% unsweetened ruby red grapefruit juice (the original version, not the one with added calcium.) This brand has no-added-anything. I also used some pureed (hello, food processor or blender) fresh cranberries. It’s a slightly different consistency than Cheri’s no-pectin, slow-cooked marmalade, but the clear and bright tastes are a beautifully rosy way to wake up a morning. Make sure to let your gift recipients know that this is an unprocessed jam that should be kept refrigerated and used quickly, or kept frozen for longer storage. Enjoy!

BTW, once again, no compensation was received from Florida’s Natural Brand for their mention in this blog. But hey, gang, if you’re interested in sponsoring me, by all means drop me an email – I have no problem accepting money from products I actually use.

Grapefruit-Cranberry Jam
3 1/2 cups refrigerated ruby red grapefruit juice
1 cup pureed fresh cranberries
3 cups sugar
1 box/package of low or no-sugar pectin
1 cup water

• Mix the sugar and the package of pectin thoroughly in a large saucepan.
• Stir in the cranberry puree and one cup of water, and mix thoroughly.
• Bring the mixture up to a boil on medium-high heat, stirring constantly.
• When the cranberry-sugar-pectin mixture reaches a boil that can’t be stirred down, boil for one minute. Remove from the heat.
• Add the grapefruit juice to the hot cranberry-sugar-pectin mixture. Stir for one minute until thoroughly mixed.
• Pour the mixture into prepared (sterilized, hot) jars or freezer containers, leaving 1/2 inch headspace.
• Allow to cool and set for 24 hours at room temperature. Check for gelling, label with a use-by date and store for up to three weeks in the refrigerator, or up to one year in the freezer.

Makes about 6 one-cup jars of jam.

Image via Wikipedia

I’d love to say this recipe is all mine – it’s so simple, it took me more time to type it up than to make it. But I can’t take any credit for inventing it; I just followed directions.

This jelly comes straight out of the insert in the package of Ball (R) No-Sugar Needed Pectin. I didn’t even juice whole pomegranates (which is quite the process) to get the raw juice for this jelly; I used POM bottled juice from the grocery store. One bottle of unsweetened 100% pomegranate juice, some lemon juice, 3/4 cup of sugar per cup of juice, 1 box of low sugar pectin – mix, boil, pour into containers and serve, can or freeze. It really is that simple. Enjoy!

BTW – full disclosure – neither POM nor Ball nor Sure-Jell/Kraft Foods have contributed in any way to the sponsorship of this post or my blog. But hey, folks at POM, Ball and Kraft, I’m sure open to the idea. Call me, or drop me an email. When it comes to jamming, I can (sometimes) be bought!

Pomegranate Jelly
1 box Ball (R) low or no-sugar pectin
3 cups sugar
4 cups pomegranate juice (100% juice, unsweetened)
2 tablespoons lemon juice

• Prepare the jars (sterilize, and then keep hot in either a pan of hot water, your dishwasher after the hot rinse cycle, or your oven set at around 200 degrees F.
• In a large saucepot, combine pectin with pomegranate and lemon juices and bring to a full boil. This jelly foams up and the bubbling doubles its volume, so use a large pot even if the amount of juice in the pan seems very shallow.
• Add sugar and boil hard for 1 minute, stirring constantly.
• Remove from heat, and skim off the foam with large metal spoon.
• Pour the jam into hot sterilized jars, cover with lids and rings.
• Process jars in a hot-water bath for 5 minutes according to the directions for hot-water-bath canning from the USDA.

Makes 5-6 one-cup jars of jam.

Image by Windsors Child via Flickr

Chabear01 shared this recipe over at Recipeza’ar, based on a recipe she found in the November 1996 issue of Family Circle magazine. I didn’t change it much; I don’t put the peels through a food mill because straining the cider through a fine sieve is less work. The taste is the essence of autumn, the jam a beautiful orange-gold in the jar. It does take a lot of cooking time, but the payoff is worth it. Enjoy!

(Roasted) Apple-Pumpkin Butter
3 lbs McIntosh apples
2 ½ cups apple cider
1 ½ cups brown sugar
1 cinnamon stick about 5 inches long, or 1 ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 ¾ cups solid-pack canned pumpkin

• Peel and core apples. Save the peels and cores in a saucepan.
• Add 2 cups of the apple cider to the apple peels and cores in the saucepan.
• Bring to a boil over high heat; once the cider boils, reduce the heat to low. Cover the pan and simmer the peels in the cider for 30 minutes.
• While the peels simmer, combine the apples, brown sugar, cinnamon stick (or ground cinnamon) and the rest of the cider in a 4-6 qt. saucepan.
• Bring to a boil over medium heat. Once the apples are boiling, reduce the heat to low, cover and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 30-40 minutes or until the apples begin to fall apart.
• Drain the cider from the apple peels and add it to the cooking apples.
• Keep stirring, uncovered, 45-60 minutes or until the apple mixture is thick.
• Remove the cinnamon stick and discard. Stir in the pumpkin.
• Heat the oven to 300 degrees. Pour the apple-pumpkin mixture into a 9 x 13 or larger shallow roasting pan. With oven door slightly ajar, roast the apple-pumpkin puree, stirring every 15 minutes, for 1 to 1 1/2 hours, or until it’s thick enough to spread.
• Spoon into sterilized 1 cup canning jars, leaving 1/2 inch headspace and wiping the jar rims clean.
• Top with hot lids and bands, and process in boiling water according to USDA directions for hot water bath canning: 5 minutes.
• Cool jars completely on wire rack; store them in a cool, dark place for up to 6 months.

Makes 6-8 one-cup jars.

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I love the impressiveness of Bananas Foster, flambe’d table-side to bring to a close a terrific meal. This jam is my attempt to put the gooey, caramel-rum-banana essence of Bananas Foster into a jar. As it turns out, Bananas Foster Jam is also one of the easiest gifts to make, and its taste is as impressive as the original. Simple, too – make it from readily available bananas, with no added pectin. The sugar and rum combine to carmelize and thicken the jam.

If you’re an Elvis fan, this is a great complement to peanut butter for a rock’n'roll style PBJ. If you want to extend the Bananas Foster taste, it’s also wonderful as a topping for a rich vanilla ice cream – maybe with a bit of real whipped cream on top.

Or you can eat it like I do, right out of the jar. Enjoy!

BANANAS FOSTER JAM
8-9 ripe but still firm bananas (about 3 cups, mashed)
½ cup lemon juice
2 cups white sugar
2 ½ cups dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
¼ c. dark rum
¼ cup water (if needed)

• Mash the bananas, using a fork or pastry blender. Add in the lemon juice, and measure to be sure you have at least three cups of jam.
• Put the bananas into a 6qt. saucepot. With the banana mixture on the heat, stir in the sugars and cinnamon.
• Cook over medium heat, stirring every few minutes until the bananas are a thick puree – about 45 minutes.
• After 45 minutes, stir in the dark rum, and continue cooking for at least 15 more minutes to cook the alcohol out of the mixture.
• Remove from the heat and fill sterilized jars, leaving ¼ inch headspace. Adjust the caps.
• Process in a hot-water bath according to USDA directions: 15 minutes for one-cup (8 oz.) jars.

Makes 5-6 cups of jam.

Image by mbgrigby via Flickr

I decided to make pear butter (and several kinds of pear jams) when this year’s pear harvest flooded the farmer stands and supermarkets. This was inspired by a recipe from Elise Bauer at Simply Recipes which I found earlier this summer. Pears, right now, are $1/pound. And pear butter made in the crockpot is 15 minutes of work, and 6-8 hours of set-it-forget-it time…perfect for holiday jams!

A friend suggested roasting the pears first – a variation I haven’t yet tried. However, any process that softens the pears will work, and roasting would definitely deepen the pear flavors.

I changed up Elise’s spices; her original recipe uses star anise, ginger, nutmeg and cardomem. For me, the simplicity of vanilla, ginger and pears just works better – but if you prefer the more intense spices of apple butter (cinnamon, ginger, and cloves) they work well, too. If you don’t have a food mill, a colander and the back of a metal spoon to press the pears into puree will also work. You could also peel the pears, which will save work straining out the bits that don’t make a good butter – but the peels help add pectin and consistency (and flavor) to the finished butter. If you don’t have a crockpot, you can cook the puree into butter on the stovetop, on very low heat in a heavy pan; you’ll need to stir it often to make sure it doesn’t burn or stick. The crockpot does eliminate that problem. Enjoy!

(crockpot) PEAR BUTTER
3 lbs chopped Bartlett pears
1 inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled and coarsely chopped
1 1/2 cups water
2/3 cup lemon juice
2 1/2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon lemon zest
½ (about 3 inches) of fresh vanilla bean, whole

• Chop and core the pears, removing the bruised parts. No need to peel them, unless you don’t have a food mill and want easier straining later.
• Put chopped pears, ginger and piece of vanilla bean into a large pot with the water and lemon juice.
• Bring the pears to a boil, reduce the heat, cover, and simmer 25-30 minutes or until the pears are completely soft.
• Remove from the heat. Remove the vanilla bean from the puree and set aside.
• Put the pears and liquid through a food mill, catching the puree in large measuring bowl (I like to use my Pyrex® 8-cup measuring cup/bowl.)
• Discard the peels and unusable bits, and measure the puree. You should have approximately five cups of puree.
• For every cup of pear purée, stir in 1/2 cup of sugar, stirring until the sugar is dissolved.
• Split and scrape the vanilla bean to remove the seeds. Add the vanilla bean seeds to the pear puree, stirring well.
• Pour the mixture into a 3-4 qt. crockpot. Set the crockpot to medium and let the mixture cook down overnight or between six and seven hours. The cooked pear puree should be very thick.
• Test for ‘butter’ consistency by putting about a teaspoon of the mixture onto a chilled plate; if it’s not runny, it’s done. If it’s runny, cook for another hour or two and repeat the test.
• Place the hot pear butter into hot sterilized canning jars, leaving ¼ inch headspace.
• Process in a hot-water-bath according to the USDA instructions: 10 minutes for one-cup jars.

Makes 6 to 8 half-pint jars.