‘Tis the season for beautiful fruits, berries, and fresh preserves! I thought it might be cool/daring to try and make some homemade jam.
Growing up my parents had a home in New Hampshire. Right in our backyard we had a little patch of wild blueberries, and all down the street there were bushes of wild blackberries. I remember waking up on a weekend morning and my mom handing my sister and I a little bowl for picking (unfair labor J). She would make blueberry or blackberry pancakes (yum), muffins and the best of all, blackberry jam.
Jam seemed pretty easy to create, simply crushed fruit, sugar, fruit pectin and maybe some citrus juice depending on the recipes. When making my preserves I decided to use fresh raspberries. I purchased powdered pectin from the supermarket but the directions on the pectin box were very confusing. Phil says, “You have issues with following directions” which is true! I am a creator in the kitchen so it is difficult for me when baking and obviously making jelly to do exactly what I’m told...therefore that’s probably where I went wrong. Basically the issue was that the jam didn’t set/gel, it tastes great, the color is great, its just very soupy.
After chatting with my mom and a few other jelly making friends it was recommended to me to try and use the Pomona Pectin which is actually made in Massachusetts and can be found at Whole Foods Market. The Pomona website has a great video on how to make low sugar strawberry jam. The lady in the video makes it look so easy so that’s what I’m going to try next. http://www.pomonapectin.com/
So I guess at this point I have a beautiful and delicious raspberry “sauce” and that’s what I’m calling it J. I’ve been drizzling it in plain yogurt, on biscuits and as we speak I’m snacking on some saltine crackers drizzled with raspberry goodness.
"The only real stumbling block is fear of failure. In cooking you've got to have a what-the-hell attitude."
— Julia Child
— Julia Child
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