Strawberry Jam

On Monday night I tried my hand at making homemade jam for the first time. I found the recipe in one of the spring editions of Bon Appetit that my mom gave me the last time J and I went home. I had read it on the plane and knew I wanted to try it.

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The recipe is seriously so easy! (to get the full details, click on the source link for the top picture to be taken to the Bon Apetit site.) Basically you quarter some strawberries and throw them in a pot with suger and a grated granny smith apple.



You bring the pot to Medium-Low heat stiring so the sugar doesn't burn until it starts to melt.

I cheated and used a potato masher to squish everything up but the strawberries eventually get soft enough that you can just use a spoon if you'd like.

Bring the mixture to a simmer and allow to reduce for about 10-15 minutes. I don't think I waited quite long enough but since it was my first time I errored on the side of caution. I didn't want to ruin it! Here it is coming together quite nicely, starting to look like real jam!

Once it's done you transfer it to a jar or bowl, thankfully I saved an old spaghetti sauce jar that worked perfectly for the amount that I made. You let it sit for a little while and once it's cool enough to handle you cover it and put it in the fridge.

*Please excuse the crappy cell phone pictures. As luck would have it, right as I put the pot on the stove and took a picture of Ollie eating a straberry, my camera battery died. And I couldn't exactly wait for it to charge since the stove was cookin!*

I tried the jam the next morning and it was absolutely delicious. J tried a bite of it and said "that tastes like the real stuff! It's bomb [dot] com!" I can't wait to let other people try it and to possibly try different variations of it. I'm thinking a mixed berry might be amazing. Strawberries, raspberries, blackberries maybe? Or an orange mango possibly? The options are endless.

So tell me friends, have you tried something new in the kitchen lately?