Spiced Wine Peach Jam and Jam Exchange

I’m excited to be participating in Steph Chows Jam Exchange again this year.  The neat thing about the jam exchange is that I get to give away some of the jam I’ve been busy canning this summer and I also get to sample some jam made by another jammer.  Can’t beat that!

 

 

I had a hard time deciding what jams to make.  I wanted to make at least one jam with peaches, but I also wanted to make a jam I had never made before. I ended up doing both.

The first jam I made for the jam exchange is this Mango Raspberry Jam.  I think it tastes great!  I hope my jam exchange partner likes it. I posted about the Mango Raspberry Jam a couple of months ago. You can find the directions here.

 

Then I found this Spiced Wine Peach Jam.  It is a sophisticated jam…fun to make and a great jam for a jam exchange. The alcohol is cooked off when you boil the wine so all that’s left is the delicious flavor it imparts to the peaches.

 

 

Spiced Wine and Peach Jam

Makes: about 6 cups (1.5 L)

Recipe from The Complete Book of Small-Batch Preserving by Ellie Topp and Margaret Howard.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup (125 mL) golden raisins
• 1/3 cup (75 mL) dry red wine or pineapple or orange juice (I used dry red wine)
• 4 cups (1 L) finely chopped peaches (about 5 to 6 medium peaches)
• 3 tablespoons (45 mL) lemon juice
• 1 box dry fruit pectin
• 5 cups (1.25 mL) granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon (5 mL) ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon (2 mL) ground allspice

 

Directions:

1. Bring raisins and wine to a boil in a small saucepan, remove from heat, drain and discard liquid.

   

    

2. Combine raisins, peaches, lemon juice and pectin in a very large stainless steel or enamel saucepan.

   

    

3. Bring to boil over medium heat, stirring constantly.  Add sugar, return to a full boil and boil hard for 1 minute, stirring constantly. 

   

    

4. Remove from heat and stir in cinnamon and allspice.

   

    

5. Ladle into hot jars and process for 10 minutes.If you live in a higher altitude or need more detailed instructions on water-bath canning, please refer to the instructions at the National Center for Home Preservation.

   

    

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

   

    

   Thanks to Steph from http://stephchows.blogspot.com for hosting this wonderful Jam Exchange again. 

    

   I’m sending some of this Spiced Wine Peach Jam and some Mango Raspberry Jam to my jam exchange partner, Connie. I hope she enjoys it!

   

    

   Happy Canning!
   Cathy

Here are some of the references I use in my canning adventures. You might enjoy them as well:

• 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

Making Jam: Grapefruit Marmalade

If you’re looking for a refreshing change from orange marmalade, then I’ve got just the thing; Grapefruit Marmalade! It’s delish!

This grapefruit marmalade has become one of my favorites. It ranks up there with Citrus Marmalade. I almost submitted this as my entry in the tigress' can jam, but decided at the last minute to make Lime Marmalade instead. 

I wanted to make this marmalade over the Holidays with ruby red grapefruit because I thought it would make a beautiful and festive gift. However, I was hesitant to make it because of the way the Grapefruit Cranberry Marmalade turned out. That one was really bitter! 

I’ve heard that marmalade is supposed to be bitter, but I don’t particularly like bitter. My favorite jam, Citrus Marmalade (made with oranges, lemon and a grapefruit, including the rinds) is really good (and not bitter), so I just couldn’t accept that other marmalades had to be bitter – unless of course, you like them that way. 

I had almost given up on the idea of making grapefruit marmalade when I found this recipe in the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving. With their method, you soak the rinds overnight to get rid of a lot of the bitterness.  What a great idea!  Wish I had known about that when I made the Grapefruit Cranberry Marmalade.  If I ever make that one again, I’ll use this method. It makes all the difference – to me at least!

 

Grapefruit Marmalade

Makes: about three 8-ounce jars

One of the things I really like about this marmalade recipe is that you can make a small batch if you just want a little bit or you can make a bigger batch if you want more. How easy is that!

Ingredients:

1 large grapefruit (I used ruby red)
Water
Granulated sugar

Directions:

Wash grapefruit, score skin into quarters and remove peel. With a spoon, scrape bitter white pith from peel and discard.

Slice the peel thinly.

In a large, deep stainless steel saucepan, combine peel with water to cover generously.  Bring to a boil over medium-low heat and boil for 10 minutes.  Drain and discard liquid.  Return to saucepan.

Working over a bowl to catch juice and using a sharp knife, separate grapefruit segments from the membrane. 

Add segments and juice to peel in saucepan.  Squeeze any juice from membrane into saucepan.  Discard membranes and seeds.  Add 4 cups water to peel mixture. 

Bring to boil over medium-high heat.  Reduce heat and boil gently, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes. 

Cover and let stand in a cool place for 12 to 18 hours.

The next day, prepare your canner, jars and lids for water-bath canning.  For detailed instructions on water-bath canning, please refer to the instructions on the National Center for Home Preservation's site.

Return saucepan to medium-high heat and bring to a boil.  Boil until peel is tender, about 15 minutes.

Remove from heat and measure fruit mixture.  Return to saucepan and bring back to a boil.  Maintaining a boil, gradually stir in 1 cup sugar for each cup of fruit.  Boil hard, stirring frequently, until mixture reaches gel stage, about 30 minutes.

Remove from heat and test gel. 

If gel stage has been reached, skim off foam.  Ladle hot marmalade into hot jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace.  Remove air bubbles and adjust headspace, if necessary, by adding hot marmalade. 

Wipe rim.  Center lid on jar.  Screw band down until resistance is met, then increase to fingertip-tight.  I didn’t have quite enough marmalade to fill 3 jars so I put the half-filled jar on the right in the refrigerator.  I’ve been enjoying it!

Place jars in canner, ensuring they are completely covered with water.  Bring to boil and process for 10 minutes.  I only had 2 jars to process so I just used a big pot with trivets on the bottom instead my big canning pot. 

Remove canner lid.  Wait 5 minutes, then remove jars, cool and store.  I kept this batch for myself.  I’ll have to can some more to share.

 

Happy Canning and Baking!
Cathy

Here are some of the references I use in my canning adventures. You might enjoy them as well:

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

Here are some delicious breads that would go well with this jam!

• Light Wheat Bread
• Multigrain Bread Extraordinaire
• Sprouted Wheat Bread
• Oatmeal Pumpkin Bread
• Seven-Grain Bread
• Hearty Whole Wheat Sandwich Loaf

Lime Marmalade: Tigress Can Jam #1

The Tigress' Can Jam has begun! I'm so excited to be participating in this challenge! I'm looking forward to learning more about the canning process and making some more delicious jams.  We'll also be doing some pickling … another experience to enjoy.  I've made pickles from cucumbers but that's about the extent of my pickling adventures so far.  So look out!  Here we come...

The theme for this month is citrus fruits (oranges, lemons, limes, grapefruit, clementines, kumquats, etc). I love citrus so I had a hard time deciding which one I wanted to use.  Plus, I've already made citrus marmalade, tangerine marmalade, festive marmalade, and grapefruit marmalade.

I thought about making a marmalade with a mixture of citrus but decided at the last minute to use Persian limes.  Well, wouldn't you know it!  Tigress, the gracious host of this challenge, decided to use limes as well.  I had already started the process when I read her post or I might've chosen a different citrus. I guess it's no biggie though.  As many participants as there are in this challenge, some of us are bound to pick the same fruit. It'll be fun to see all of the different jams that everyone makes.

My oldest son was so excited when he found out I was making this marmalade.  He loves anything green - especially limes. He walked in the door and said, "I smell cinnamon and citrus!" I was baking a chocolate cinnamon babka and peeling these limes the same night so he had it right!  Check out the chocolate babka here.

 

Lime Marmalade (with Persian Limes)

Yield: About 3 1/2 Pints or Seven 8oz Jars

Original recipe from: http://homecooking.about.com/od/jellyrecipes/r/bljelly34.htm.

This recipe makes a huge batch so I adjusted the ingredients to make it more manageable. It still made enough marmalade to share, but I think 3 1/2 pints is more manageable than 10 pints - yikes!

Ingredients:

1 1/2 pounds Persian limes (about 9)
4.5 cups water 
3 pounds (6 cups) sugar

I started following the instructions included with the recipe, but partway through decided I liked the process for making grapefruit marmalade from the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving better so I used that process for making this marmalade instead.

Preparation:

This simple lime marmalade uses only 3 ingredients. The recipe is easy, but plan ahead for the limes to soak overnight to remove bitterness.

Prep Time: 25 minutes

Cook Time: 2 hours, 30 minutes

Peel the limes and cut the zest into thin strips. Cut the peeled limes in half and squeeze the juice. Set the juice aside. I put the juice in with the lime zests.

Here’s what the recipe says to do next: Scrape the pulp and seeds from the lime halves. Place in a cheesecloth bag. Place the cheesecloth bag, zest, juice, and water in a 6-quart saucepan, then cover them and soak overnight, or for about 8 hours. 

My limes didn’t have any seeds and I wanted to use the pulp so …

This is what I did: I put the zests, juice, water, and pulp in a large pot and brought it to boil over medium-high heat. 

 

I boiled the mixture gently for 10 minutes. Then I covered the pot and let it sit at room temperature for about 18 hours to remove the bitterness.

After the mixture had rested for about 18 hours, I prepared the canner, jars and lids for water-bath canning. For detailed instructions on water-bath canning, please refer to the instructions on the National Center for Home Preservation's site.

Then I brought the mixture back to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring frequently. I let it boil about 15 minutes, until the peel was tender.

Then you remove it from the heat and measure the fruit mixture. Return the mixture to the pot and bring it back to boil.  Maintaining boil, gradually stir in 1 cup sugar for each cup of fruit.  I had almost 3 pounds of fruit mixture so I used 3 pounds (6 cups) of sugar.  Boil hard, stirring frequently, until the mixture reaches gel stage, about 30 minutes.

According to the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving, there are three different methods for determining when it reaches gel stage.  I chose the candy thermometer test because this is the one the book said is the most reliable.  Maybe I’ll try the sheet test or the refrigerator (actually freezer) test next time to compare. 

To reach gel stage, the mixture should register 220 degrees on the thermometer when it is placed in a vertical position.  Make sure it does not contact the surface of the pot.

Once the mixture has reach gel stage, skim off the foam.  This is the fun part because I get to eat the foam.  Mmmm…It sure tastes good!

Ladle marmalade into clean jars, leaving 1/4 inch of headspace. Remove air bubbles if necessary and adjust headspace.  I had to remove the air bubbles.  You can see them in the jar in the photo below.  Wipe the rim.  Center lid on jar.  Screw band down until resistance is met, then increase to fingertip-tight. 

Place jars in canner, ensuring they are completely covered with water.  Bring to boil and process for 10 minutes, up to 1,000 feet altitude. If you live in a higher altitude or need more detailed instructions on water-bath canning, please refer to the instructions on this site: National Center for Home Preservation.

Remove canner lid.  Wait 5 minutes, then remove jars from water.  Let the jars sit on the counter overnight until they seal.  Once the jars have cooled and completely sealed, move them to a cool dry place for storage. If any jars do not seal, put them in the refrigerator to eat.

You’ll probably want to give some of this marmalade away but be sure to keep some for yourself.

1/29/2010 Update: After all was said and done, this jam didn’t set as well as I would’ve liked.  It turned out a little bit runny so I put it in the refrigerator to store. I just opened a jar and had some on a piece of sprouted wheat toast.  It tastes wonderful!  No bitterness, just a delicious lime flavor.  Yummy!

I'm participating in the tigress' Can Jam in 2010. We'll be making jams and pickling for a whole year. Follow my progress on this blog.  View the January Can Jam Roundup.

Happy Canning and Baking!
Cathy

Here are some of the references I use in my canning adventures. You might enjoy them as well:

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

Here are some delicious breads that go well with this jam!

• Light Wheat Bread
• Multigrain Bread Extraordinaire
• Sprouted Wheat Bread
• Oatmeal Pumpkin Bread
• Seven-Grain Bread
• Hearty Whole Wheat Sandwich Loaf

Grapefruit Cranberry Marmalade

A few weeks ago, I participated in a virtual jam swap hosted by Under the High Chair.  A lot of wonderful jams were entered in the swap and after the swap was over, I decided to try some of them.  I made and posted about Flavorista'sApple Pie Jam a few days ago. 

Another jam that I just had to try was the Grapefruit Cranberry Marmalade submitted by KitchenSimplicity.  It is a beautiful and festive jam that I thought would make a great gift for the Holidays. I decided to add it to my jam repertoire.  My supply of jams seems to be ever growing so I need to start giving some away.

This jam is beautiful; however, I thought it was a little bit too tart maybe even a little bitter. I decided my version needed to be toned down some. I think the problem was too much rind.  It seemed to overpower the rest of the flavors. If I make this marmalade again, I will only use the rinds from 2 grapefruits rather than 4. I had already cooked them into the marmalade this time so, it was either throw the whole batch out or try to salvage it.  I opted to salvage it if possible.  I added some crushed pineapple, more water and cranberries and a bit more sugar.   I liked the revised version better.  I guess my taste buds prefer sweet over tart.

Makes approx: 5 cups (my revised version makes about 8 1/2 cups)

• 4 large grapefruit (about 4 pounds)
• 1.5 cups water
• 2.5 cups cranberries
• 3 cups sugar
  
  

 

Carefully remove the rind of each grapefruit with a vegetable peeler or pairing knife, being careful to avoid the white pith. As I mentioned, I would recommend only using the rind from 2 grapefruits.  Slice the rind into thin strips. Place in a large saucepan.

Peel and section the grapefruit: Listed below are the instructions from the recipe. I didn't do it that way but thought you might like to see the method that KitchenSimplicity used.

Slice off a piece of both the top and bottom of each grapefruit until the fruit is visible. Place on a cutting board. Starting at the top and following the curve of the fruit, cut away the remaining pith until only the flesh and membrane are left. Holding the fruit on it’s side, slide a pairing knife between one section of fruit and the membrane that is holding it there, loosening it’s hold. Cut alongside the opposite side of the fruit to loosen it from the membrane on the opposite side. Continue all the way along the grapefruit.

All I did was cut the grapefruit in half and use a paring knife to remove the fruit section by section.  I had already removed the rind so after I removed the fruit, I just chunked the pith and membrane.

 

Place the grapefruit sections into the saucepan and discard the empty membrane. Add 1.5 cups water to the saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium. Lower the heat and simmer for 15 min, stirring occasionally.

Stir in cranberries and simmer for another 10 min.

Add sugar and simmer for 30 min until slightly thickened. Continuing to stir occasionally.

 

It was at this point that I realized I didn't like the flavor so I mixed together a can of crushed pineapple, a couple of cups of water, another cup of cranberries and about a cup and a half of sugar and cooked it until the cranberries were soft.  Then, I added this mixture to the rest of the batch and cooked it until it thickened a bit.

Remove from heat and allow to cool 10 min. If you don't want to can this marmalade for shelf storage, just pour into jars or plastic containers and allow to cool for another 20 min before putting on lids. Let sit on counter until room temperature. Store in the fridge or freezer.  It will keep for 3 weeks in the fridge or 6 months in the freezer.

I decided to can this marmalade for shelf storage so I placed it in sterilized jars and processed the jars in the water bath for 15 minutes. For detailed instructions on water-bath canning, please refer to the instructions on the National Center for Home Preservation 

Here is the marmalade ready to be given as a festive gift.  You might want to save some for yourself to go with all that wonderful bread you've been making.  I know I am.

 

Happy Canning & Baking!
Cathy

Here are some of the references I use in my canning adventures. You might enjoy them as well:

• Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving 
• Keeping The Harvest: Discover the Homegrown Goodness of Putting Up Your Own Fruits, Vegetables & Herbs
• Canning Across America
• Well Preserved
• National Center for Home Preservation 

Making Apple Pie Jam

I admit it, I'm obsessed with canning.  I especially enjoy making jams. I'll be participating in the tigress' can jam challenge in January, but I can't wait!  I saw this Apple Pie Jam recipe on Flavorista and just had to make it.  The recipe uses tart apples and I had some Granny Smith apples that nobody was eating.  They were just begging to be made into jam. Of course I had to oblige them - really!

The neat thing about this jam is that you can serve it on bread (my favorite) or you can use it in mini-tarts or as a dessert topping. This jam is delicious and versatile!

Apple Pie Jam
Recipe from: http://flavorista.com/apple-pie-jam/ with a few substitutions.
Makes 9 half-pints

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups water
• 1 (1.75-oz) pkg. pectin, such as Sure Jell
• 7-8 tart apples (enough to equal 8 cups prepped) I used Granny Smith apples
• 1 cup apple cider  (I used unsweetened apple juice not from concentrate)
• 2 Tbsp. lemon juice (I used the zest and juice of a whole lemon)
• 1 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. ground ginger
• 1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
• 1 tsp. butter
• 4 cups sugar (I used about 5 1/2 cups because the jam didn't thicken with just 4 cups.)
• 1 cup brown sugar
  

Directions:

If you plan to can this jam for shelf storage, prepare the canner, jars and lids.  For detailed instructions on water-bath canning, please refer to the instructions on the National Center for Home Preservation 

In a large stainless steel pot, whisk together the water and pectin. Peel, core and slice the apples.  Measure out 8 cups.

 

 

 

Place the pot over medium-high heat.  Stir in the cider lemon juice and the apples.  Stir in the cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and butter.

 

 

Bring to a boil.

 

 

 

Add sugars and stir well to dissolve. Bring jam to a full rolling boil, stirring often.  "A rolling boil" means that jam boils, even when stirred.  Boil for 3 full minutes.

 

 

Transfer jam to prepared jars and seal for shelf storage or simply cool to room temperature, seal and store in the fridge.

For shelf storage, place jars in canner, ensuring they are completed covered with water.  Bring to a boil and process for 10 minutes (if altitude is less than 1000).  If you live in a higher altitude or need more detailed instructions on water-bath canning, please refer to the instructions on the National Center for Home Preservation site.

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

 

 

The processed jars are ready to be stored (or eaten.)  Enjoy!

 

Happy Canning!
Cathy