Strawberry picking…. so many we made Jam!

Strawberries were plentiful today at Groveland PYO so we picked two large punnets full. Abbie was delighted that my instructions were to pick small ones – this meant that any large berries got consumed immediately!!

A particularly large one...

So to the jam – it takes a while to make because of the leaving stage. We started before lunch and did the boiling at about 4pm.. I will take you through the stages of how we made our soft set strawberry jam. Abbie helped before the boiling stage, but for safety reasons, she didn’t help when the jam was boiling hot.

Soft-set Strawberry Jam

You need:
Strawberries – good to have at least a pound/1/2kg of them
Sugar – I use a 1/3:2/3 mixture of granulated sugar and preserving sugar to get a soft-set rather than hard set (a trick I learned from one of our matrons at school)
1 lemon per 2lbs strawberries
Large pan with lid
Jam jars (I’ll talk about how I sterilize them later)
If you have it… a funnel is helpful to get the boiling hot jam into the jars
2 saucers – put into the freezer

1.Remove all the stalks from the strawberries and put them into a container

Abbie demoing what your strawberry should look like

2. Weigh your strawberries – you will need an equal quantity of sugar – we had 3lb of strawberries, I used 2lbs preserving sugar and 1lb gran sugar

How many strawberries have you got?

3. Combine sugar and strawberries in your large pan and leave to stand, with lid on to deter flies, for about 4 hours. This helps to macerate the strawberries. I don’t chop my strawberries up as I like to squish them onto toast, but you could do for a more even distribution.

The two sugars we used

Before the cooking stage, begin sterilizing your jam jars – there are different ways to do this; I put mine in the dishwasher and run it on the hottest setting. To the cooking….
4. Heat up the strawberry/sugar mixture, stirring to help dissolve the sugar.
5. Keep the jam on a rolling boil, reducing the heat underneath, for 5 minutes (so that it is boiling, but doesn’t rise too far up the pan)
6. Add lemon juice and boil for a further 10 mins
7. Test the set of your jam – take a saucer from the freezer and remove a little of the jam on a teaspoon, put onto the saucer to rapidly cool it. For a soft-set, the jam should crinkle when you push your finger into it.
8. If it doesn’t crinkle, put the saucer back in the freezer keep boiling for 5 mins and then test using the other saucer.
9. Repeat this until you are happy with the set.
10. Cool slightly – maybe until your jars are sterilized – and then fill up the jars (be careful), screw the lids on and leave it until you need it.

Jam for the next 6-12 months!

Jumping, juicing, jelly, jam tarts….. and all things that start with ‘j’!

Abbie was learning about the letter ‘j’ this week so when her friend, Lily, came to play I thought it would be great to theme the day, using this letter – just call me ‘alpha mother’!  After lunch and much JUMPING, we headed to the kitchen to JUICE the citrus fruits ready for the JELLY and then bake some JAM tarts ready for tea with Lily’s mum and little brother.  Abbie and Lily shared all the tasks really well and I think they did a fantastic job – do you agree?

Jumping.....

Jelly..... bashing the cardamon the most fun way I know!

Orange and Cardamon Jelly – Nigel Slater (from The Kitchen Diaries)

12 oranges, 1 lemon, 1 pink grapefruit

6 cardamon pods

8 sheets of gelatine

1 tsp sugar (optional)

• Squeeze the oranges – you need just under a litre of juice – reserve for later.
• Squeeze grapefruit and lemon – put into small pan with equal quantity of water
• Remove 3-4 strips of zest from grapefruit and lemon and add to pan
• Split open cardamon pods – can do this with the flat side of a knife (although much more fun with a hammer!) – add to the pan
• Heat the pan until the juice bubbles – lid on, turn heat off and leave for 15 minutes
• Slide the gelatine sheets into cold water – 1 at a time – leave to soften for 5 minutes
• Pour juice, through a sieve, into a scrupulously clean bowl – reserve the cardamom seeds
• Lift the softened gelatine sheets from the water and whisk into the warm juices until dissolved – it takes seconds
• Add orange juice and stir thoroughly, making sure that every bit of gelatine has melted
• Add reserved cardamom seeds – they will float around, apparently pointlessly, but will in fact discreetly give some of their flavour to the jelly as it sets
• Refrigerate for 4-5 hrs

Enough for 6-8

Jam tarts.... rolling out the pastry

...adding jam

Jam and Jelly all done!

 

Jam Tarts – the easy way

I bought ready rolled pastry today – life is too short! Pre-heat oven to 180C.  Use a cutter just bigger than your tin ‘holes’ and cut 12 crimped  rounds to push into the dips.  Fill each with a small tsp of jam and bake for 10-12 mins – take tarts out of dips and cool on a rack. Child’s play!