Raspberry Jam for those Christmas Hampers.

So I decided to make raspberry jam to add to the hampers, I decided on raspberry because it is so tart and delicious and we needed some here in the house too.  The recipe I will put here is for a fridge jam, now I have not made a fridge jam before but my little book of preserves states that if you sterilise the jars correctly and store the jam while it is still above 90 degrees it should preserve like other jams.   Stay tuned for this confirmation.

Firstly you need 1500g of raspberries, I strongly recommend going to a fruit farm to save yourself some money as I had these on offer and I still spent £12.  You also need 750g of sugar with added pectin.

It is a good idea at this stage to wash the jars and then dry off in a low oven until bone dry, it is best to try and time the removal of the jars from the oven to match the time the jams finished.

So to start the jam you need to put half the raspberries in first and mash with a potato masher to crush it to get the juice flowing.  Once this process starts you can add the rest of the fruit and sugar .



Stir over a low heat to dissolve the sugar and bring to a rolling boil as you can see above for exactly 5 minutes or a few minutes longer if you want a firmer jam like I did.  Once this has finished remove from the heat and stir to remove the frothy bits.  (Be careful as the jam spat at me at this stage and considering the heat on the produce this could cause serious injury!

Because this jam is a low sugar jam it is important to bottle it quickly, so leave it to cool for 5 minuets to avoid the pips separating from the jelly and then get it in those hot jars and cap straight away. 

We used some of this jam in our Sunday lunch trifle, which was delicious by the way.  I think I may make some idea cards to add to the hampers which gives people ideas on what to do with jam other than to use on toast.  Although this was pretty delicious on toast with a mug of fresh Colombian coffee please see below.  Note.. for best results spread over fresh white farmhouse crusty bread.   I think I have said it all now.