Crock Pot Blackberry Vanilla Jam

It’s been a while since I’ve participated in the Can It Up! Challenge hosted by Hima at All Four Burners.

I got a new cooktop and I was nervous about messing it up with water-bath-canning. I let several months of jamming pass me by, but when it came time to can berries, I just couldn’t resist any longer. The jam-making bug hit. It was time to make some blackberry jam.

 

One Saturday, I talked my sister into going to our favorite farm to get some blackberries and peaches. We each got a gallon of blackberries. I ate most of the berries, but I did save some for this blackberry jam and some for another canning project. You’ll have to stay tuned to find out about that one.

 

Since I’ve made blackberry jam a few times, I wanted to do something different this time.  So I decided to make it in a crockpot. I made apple butter in a crockpot with great success so I wondered how it would work with blackberries.

I went to one of my favorite places for inspiration – Pinterest, of course. I found this Crock Pot Blackberry Jam recipe from Repeat Crafter Me. Sarah has some really cute downloadable recipe cards for this jam so you’ll want to check out her post.

I took it a step further and canned it using the water-bath-canning method. I also enhanced it by adding a couple vanilla beans.

Last year, when I made vanilla strawberry jam, we loved it so I thought this would be a nice touch for the blackberry jam. Boy was it ever!  I really enjoy blackberry jam but the vanilla puts it over the top, at least in my book.

 

Crock Pot Blackberry Vanilla Jam

Adapted from Crock Pot Blackberry Jam and Crock Pot Maple Apple Butter

Makes: 3 to 4 Eight ounce jars

Ingredients:

• 2 pints blackberries, rinsed and drained *
• 2 cups sugar
• 1-2 vanilla beans
• 3 tablespoons lemon juice

* I used 2 pints of blackberries measured by weight (using kitchen scales) not volume (measuring cups).  But you can use 2 pints from the market to make things easy.

 

Directions:

Gently mash the blackberries in a bowl with a potato masher. They should still be a little chunky.

 

Transfer the crushed berries to a crock pot and add in the sugar, lemon juice and vanilla beans. You can slit the bean and scrape out the pods if you like.  I just split them and placed them in the crockpot.

Cook on low for 2.5 hours, stirring twice. Remove the lid and cook on high for 2-3 hours. When the jam is thickened discard the vanilla beans and ladle into canning jars.

The jam didn’t thicken as much as I would’ve liked in the crockpot so I transferred it to a regular pot and brought the jam to a rolling boil while the jars and lids were being sterilized.

 

Here is my mise in place. Oh yeah!  That’s for bread making, but having everything ready and in it’s place works really well for jam making too.

 

Once the jam reaches the boiling point and passes the cold plate method (i.e. the jam doesn’t run), ladle it into 8 oz jars (leaving 1/4-inch headspace), wipe the rims with a clean cloth, add the lids and rings, and process the jars in a boiling-water bath for 10 minutes.

Refer to the instructions at the National Center for Home Preservation.

 

Turn off the heat, remove the canner lid, and let the jars rest in the water for 5 minutes.  Remove the jars and set aside for 24 hours. Check seals, then store in a cool, dark place for up to 1 year.

 

I enjoyed participated in Can It Up! this month.  It felt good to be canning again.   

 

Happy Canning!

Cathy

Lemon Sunshine in a Jar

The fruit of the month for the January Can It Up! challenge is citrus. I love citrus fruits!  They taste so clean and fresh.

This Lemon Jelly reminds me of golden sunshine. It was cloudy and cold the day I made it, and when I walked into the kitchen, it smelled like the fresh scent of sunshine. I know sunshine doesn’t have a scent, but lemon is one that I associate with it. So I named my jelly Lemon Sunshine in a Jar.

It has an interesting flavor. It tastes like lemon marmalade without the rinds. It’s a little citrusy and a little sweet, but at the same time, a little bit bitter like marmalade. It takes a little getting used to, but I like it. It reminds me of summer and during the cold months of winter, we can all use a little pick me up.

 

I have a lime tree that has a lot of tiny buds, but no blooms yet. I would’ve loved to have used some of the limes for this challenge, but they’re not ready yet. I’m looking forward to canning something with all of those limes, but it will be a couple of months.

 

I also have a lemon tree, but it hasn’t figured out that it’s supposed produce lemons. So for this challenge, I had to use lemons from the farmer’s market.

 

Lemon Sunshine in a Jar

Makes: About Four 1/2 Pint Jars

Adapted From: The Joy Of: Jams, Jellies, and other Sweet Preserves by Linda Ziedrich

 

Ingredients:

• 1 pound of lemons (I used 3 large lemons) *
• 7 cups water
• About 3 1/2 – 4 1/2 cups sugar (depends on how much liquid you have after the jelly drips in the jelly bag)

* You can substitute limes for the lemons in this recipe

 

Directions:

1) Wash the lemons 

My lemons were not organic so I poured boiling water over them and scrubbed them really well before slicing them.  If you use organic or home-picked lemons that aren’t covered in pesticide, you can skip this step.

2) Slice the lemons

Slice the lemons into thin slices – about 1/8 – 1/4-inch thick.  Put the slices into a non-reactive pot and cover them with water.  I used non-chlorinated water.

 

3) Soak the lemons overnight

Cover the pot with a kitchen towel and let the lemons soak in the water for 24 hours at room temperature to bring out the flavor of the lemons. 

While the lemons were soaking, the aroma was delightful and brightened things up. The kitchen smelled like sunshine.

 

4) Cook the lemons

Bring the sliced lemons and water to a boil over medium-high heat.  Reduce the heat and let the mixture simmer for 40 minutes.

 

5) Let the jelly drip

Get out a container and rest your chinois inside. Line the chinois with damp cheese cloth. Pour the lemon mixture into the chinois and use your wooden tool or the back of a spatula to press all the juice out of the mixture. 

 

Or if you prefer, pour the cooked mixture into a damp jelly bag over a pot or bowl. Let the liquid drip for several hours.

 

6) Measure the liquid

I ended up with about 3 1/2 cups, you might end up with more. Pour the liquid into the preserving pan. If you end up with more liquid, you should do this step in two parts. Since I only had 3 1/2 cups, I did it in one step. I added 3 1/4 cups of sugar and stirred the mixture over medium heat until all of the sugar had dissolved.  Then I raised the temperature to medium-high heat.

 

7) Boil the mixture

Boil the mixture until it reaches 221 degrees F. on a jelly thermometer.  Once you reach 221, shut the fire and let it rest for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, turn the fire back up to reach 221 degrees. This little rest ensures a good gel. 

 

8) Ladle the jelly into jars

Ladle the jelly into hot, sterilized half-pint canning jars. Release the trapped air using a Bubble Remover and Headspace Tool. Then add the lids and rings, and process the jars in a boiling-water bath for 10 minutes. For more information on water-bath canning, refer to the National Center for Home Preservation web site.  

 

9) Let jars rest on counter overnight

Turn the heat off. Remove canner lid. Wait 5 minutes, then remove the jars, and let them sit on the counter for 24 hours to cool and ensure they are sealed correctly. You should hear the lids pop if they are sealed properly.

 

10) Store jars in a cool, dry place.

Place the sealed jars in a cool, dry place for storage for up to a year. If any of the jars do not seal properly, place them in the refrigerator. They will last for a couple of months in the refrigerator.

 

Thanks to Hima of All Four Burners for hosting the Challenge. It’s time to Can It Up!

Happy Canning!

Cathy

 

Here are some of the other citrus jams I’ve made over the past several years:

• Orange Marmalade
• Grapefruit Marmalade
• Festive Marmalade
• Christmas Marmalade
• Citrus Marmalade
• Lime Marmalade

 

Canning resources:

• Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving
• The Complete Book of Small-Batch Preserving
• Keeping The Harvest: Discover the Homegrown Goodness of Putting Up Your Own Fruits, Vegetables and Herbs
• National Center for Home Preservation

Can It Up! Cranstrawberry Jam

The theme for the November Can It Up! Challenge is Cranberries. I had a hard time deciding what to make for this month’s challenge. I’ve never been a fan of canned cranberry sauce so I don’t eat it. It wasn’t until I tried fresh cranberry relish that I actually enjoyed it. When I found this recipe for cranberry jam, I thought it would be a good alternative to cranberry sauce/relish. It has fresh cranberries and oranges and frozen strawberries. I figured you couldn’t go wrong with those ingredients.

 

The recipe called for frozen strawberries in light syrup. I had some strawberries in the freezer from my strawberry-picking excursion in the Spring so I used those instead. I had more than the recipe called for but less than enough to double the recipe so it ended up making about half again as much. I added more cranberries and oranges. My adapted recipe is listed below.

This jam was perfect for Thanksgiving Dinner. Due to the additional cranberries and oranges and the lack of sweetener in the frozen strawberries, this jam turned out more like a relish than a jam. We enjoyed it as relish on slices of turkey and as jam on the Pocketbook Dinner Rolls I brought.  You’ll learn about the rolls in another post.

 

Cranstrawberry Jam

Makes: About 8 cups

Adapted from: The Complete Book of Small-Batch Preserving by Ellie Topp and Margaret Howard

Ingredients:

• 24 ounces frozen sliced strawberries, thawed
• 12 ounces fresh cranberries
• 2 large unpeeled oranges, cut into large pieces
• 5 cups granulated sugar
• 2 pouches liquid fruit pectin
• 3 tablespoons orange juice

 

Directions:

Step 1: Prepare the fruit

Place the strawberries in a large non-reactive pot. Coarsely chop the cranberries and orange in a food processor.  Add to the pot with the strawberries.

 

Step 2: Cook the jam until it thickens

Stir in the sugar and bring the pot to a full boil over high heat and boil hard for 2 minutes, stirring constantly.

 

Step 3: Add the pectin

Remove the pot from the heat and stir in the pectin and liqueur, if using.

 

Step 4: Ladle the jam into jars

Ladle the jam into hot, sterilized mason jars, leaving 1/2-inch headspace. Release the trapped air using a Bubble Remover and Headspace Tool. Then add the lids and rings, and process the jars in a boiling-water bath for 10 minutes. For more information on water-bath canning, refer to the National Center for Home Preservation web site.  

I ran out of jelly jars so I used pint-size jars. I didn’t quite have enough jam to fill four jars completely so one jar went in the refrigerator instead of being processed in the water-bath canner.  That’s the jar I took with me to Thanksgiving Dinner. 

 

Step 5: Let jars rest on counter overnight

Turn the heat off. Remove canner lid. Wait 5 minutes, then remove the jars, and let them sit on the counter for 24 hours to cool and ensure they are sealed correctly. You should hear the lids pop if they are sealed properly.

Step 6: Store jars in a cool, dry place.

Place the sealed jars in a cool, dry place for storage for up to a year. If any of the jars do not seal properly, place them in the refrigerator. They will last for a couple of months in the refrigerator.

 

Thanks to Hima of All Four Burners for hosting the Challenge. It’s time to Can It Up!

Happy Canning!

Cathy

 

Canning resources:

• Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving
• The Complete Book of Small-Batch Preserving
• Keeping The Harvest: Discover the Homegrown Goodness of Putting Up Your Own Fruits, Vegetables and Herbs
• National Center for Home Preservation

Can It Up! Cardamom Apple Cider Butter

It’s been a couple of years since the Tigress Can Jam. I thoroughly enjoyed participating in that challenge so when Hima of All Four Burners contacted me to let me know about Can It Up!, I jumped on the bandwagon right away.  Now I have an excuse for being a canning fanatic. Not that I needed one, but that’s my story and I’m sticking to it. I participated every month in the Tigress Can Jam, but I do like the idea of a more low key challenge this time. 

As you might expect, the fruit of the month for October is Apples. I love Fall and going to the mountains to see all of the beautiful colors and visiting my favorite farm along the way to get apples. I came back with several different varieties of apples, but for this Apple Butter, I used Winesap.

 

I started canning several years ago and now, every year, I make apple butter. I wanted to try something different this year so I searched through all of my canning books for ideas. I finally found two recipes that sounded really good. Both versions use apple cider and one used cardamom instead of cinnamon. I really like cardamom so that sounded like a great addition. I also added some nutmeg to give it a bit of a kick.

I used what I liked about both recipes and streamlined the process by cooking it in my slow cooker, until the water-bath-canning part, that is. So instead of laboriously peeling and coring the apples, and slaving over the stove to cook down the apples, I let my slow cooker do all the work. It made things so much easier.

 

Cardamom Apple Cider Butter

Makes: 4- 6 Pints

Adapted from: Canning and Preserving with Ashley English and Put em Up! by Sherri Brooks Vinton

 

Ingredients:

• 5 pounds of cooking apples, stems removed (I used Winesap)
• 3 cups apple cider, divided 
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 tablespoon Cardamom
• 1/8 – 1/4 teaspoon Nutmeg

 

Directions:

Step 1: Cook the apples

Wash the apples, remove the stems and slice them into quarters. Place the sliced apples and 2 cups of apple cider in the crockpot. Cook on low for 4 to 5 hours until the apples are soft.  Stir the apples occasionally to make sure they cook evenly.

 

Step 2: Puree the apples

Cool the apples slightly, then run the mixture through a food mill to remove the seeds and skins.

 

I used the medium screen to make the puree.

 

Step 3: Cook the puree until it thickens

Return the apple puree to the pot. Add the additional cup of apple cider,  the lemon juice, sugar, cardamom, and nutmeg.  Cook the mixture on low for a couple more hours until it is thick.

 

Step 4: Ladle the butter into jars

After the butter thickens, ladle it into pint-size mason jars, leaving 1/4-inch headspace. Release the trapped air using a Bubble Remover and Headspace Tool. Then add the lids and rings, and process the jars in a boiling-water bath for 10 minutes. For more information on water-bath canning, refer to the National Center for Home Preservation web site.  

 

Step 5: Let jars rest on counter overnight

Turn the heat off. Remove canner lid. Wait 5 minutes, then remove the jars, and let them sit on the counter for 24 hours to cool and ensure they are sealed correctly. You should hear the lids pop if they are sealed properly.

 

Step 6: Store jars in a cool, dry place.

Place the sealed jars in a cool, dry place for storage for up to a year. If any of the jars do not seal properly, place them in the refrigerator. They will last for a couple of months in the refrigerator.

 

Thanks to Hima of All Four Burners for starting this Challenge. It’s time to Can It Up!

Happy Canning!

Cathy

 

You might also enjoy these Apple Butter recipes:

• Apple Butter
• Cranapple Butter
• Crockpot Maple Apple Butter
• Sweet and Chunky Apple Butter

 

Canning resources:

• Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving
• The Complete Book of Small-Batch Preserving
• Keeping The Harvest: Discover the Homegrown Goodness of Putting Up Your Own Fruits, Vegetables and Herbs
• National Center for Home Preservation