The makings of a proper raspberry jam.
As I get older, one of the things I love most about being an adult is the ability to make the rules in your own life. Want to stay up all night playing video games? Do it. Pizza for breakfast? Why not! I particular enjoy making up holiday food traditions, ones I will force my future children to follow for years to come, whether they enjoy it or not.
The first one I’ve decided on? Homemade brioche doughnuts filled with raspberry jam for Christmas morning. To me, nothing says decadence and simplicity more than a proper raspberry jelly doughnut, and after making some with my old culinary school friends in Chicago, I was hooked. I knew it had to be a special, once a year only sort of treat, because fried foods and my ibs aren’t the best of friends, so Christmas it was.
Raspberries! Organic and plump and ready to be jammed.
And what is the key ingredient in raspberry jelly doughnuts? Say it with me–RASPBERRY JELLY! But since I don’t have the patience to make jelly, I settled for a delicious raspberry jam recipe that I canned.
Recipe: Leena’s Raspberry Jam
Summary: Inspired by a recipe from Small Batch Preserving by Top and Howard
Instructions
- Heat the sugar in a low oven (250 F) for 15 minutes, as this will help the sugar incorporate with the fruit better.
- Put berries into a stainless steel sauce pan, and bring to a boil over high heat, mashing berries with a fork or potato masher as they heat. Once boiling, allow to boil hard for 1 minute while stirring.
- Add sugar to the mashed cooked berries and return the mixture to a boil until mixture starts to hold its gel, 5 minutes.
- to test the jam’s gel, put some hot jam on a frozen plate and place in freezer for 2 minutes. Remove, and if the jam moves very little, it is properly gelled. If not, place back on heat and cook a few minutes longer, testing again until gel is set.
- once gel is set, taste the test jam. If sugar is overwhelming the raspberry flavor, add some bottled lemon juice, one tablespoon at a time, to brighten the flavor. I used 3 tablespoons for my jam.
- Can the jam using proper canning procedure, leaving 1/2 inch headspace and processing half pint jars for 10 minutes.
- Yields 4 cups of jam.
Microformatting by hRecipe.
The mashed, cooked raspberries.
Heating the sugar in the oven.
The finished raspberry jam.
The finished canned raspberry jam!
~LTG!
Tags: canning, jelly doughnuts, raspberries, raspberry jam
