This spring I vowed that I would buy heaps of peaches to freeze for the winter months. I've tried buying out-of-season peaches before, and they are flavorless.
Summer was coming to a close and I hadn't secured my peaches, and the price at the grocery store was prohibitive. I was resigned to another peachless winter. Then, I realized that the co-op was selling lugs of peaches. Of course I
bought one.
Am I ever glad I did.
I froze over half of them, we ate several of them fresh (with cream of course!), and I made this lovely jam with the rest.
It really is the easiest jam I have ever made. All that's required is throwing all (three) of ingredients into a pot and boiling for about half an hour. Then just ladle the jam into jars and refrigerate. You could also process these in a water bath to make them shelf-safe, but I prefer to keep mine in the refrigerator or freezer. I'm lazy like that.
And now, as we move into fall, I have a bit of summer preserved.
PS: My jars are Weck Tulip jars. I bought mine from Terrain.
What's your favorite summer fruit?
No-Pectin Peach Jam
Ingredients:
- 6 pounds peaches
- 1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 4 cups sugar (I used evaporated cane juice)
Directions:
1) Peel and pit the peaches, roughly chop and place in a large pot. Add the lemon juice and mash them together with a potato masher to desired consistency (I don't like my jam too chunky).
2) Stir in the sugar and bring to a boil over medium heat. Continue to boil, stirring frequently, until the jam reaches about 210-220 degrees F (99-105 C) and thickens, about 25-30 minutes (I didn't bother measuring the temperature and just boiled the jam until it looked good). You can test the thickness by dropping a little bit of jam onto a cold plate.
3) Ladle the jam into sterilized jars and either cool and refrigerate/freeze or process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes (
here's a how-to if you've never done a boiling water bath).
Some links are affiliate. All opinions are my own - I wouldn't recommend something to you guys unless I liked the product.
