It's that time of year again! Strawberry season is upon us! For you folks in the cold North, you still have another month to wait for berries! Someone gave me a bunch of "leftover" berries the other day and it was so many that my first thought was to make freezer jam with them! I ended up making 20 (1/2 pint) containers and still had enough left over to make a batch of strawberry shortcake! WooHoo!
Strawberry freezer jam is so quick and easy to make! And makes such a nice gift when you pair it w/ a loaf of homemade bread or biscuits. To make preparing the berries quicker, I chop mine in my food processor. But you could mash your berries with a potato masher or just mash them with your hands even. At any rate, any work that goes into making the jam is WELL worth the effort!
STRAWBERRY FREEZER JAM
Strawberry freezer jam is so quick and easy to make! And makes such a nice gift when you pair it w/ a loaf of homemade bread or biscuits. To make preparing the berries quicker, I chop mine in my food processor. But you could mash your berries with a potato masher or just mash them with your hands even. At any rate, any work that goes into making the jam is WELL worth the effort!
STRAWBERRY FREEZER JAM
2 cups
crushed strawberries (buy 1 qt. fully ripe strawberries)
4 cups
sugar, measured into separate bowl
3/4 cup
water
1 pkg.
SURE-JELL Fruit Pectin
RINSE 5
(1-cup) plastic containers and lids with boiling water. Dry thoroughly.
Discard stems. Crush strawberries thoroughly, 1 cup at a time. Measure
exactly 2 cups prepared fruit into large bowl. Stir in sugar. Let
stand 10 min., stirring occasionally.
MIX water
and pectin in small saucepan. Bring to boil on high heat, stirring
constantly. Continue boiling and stirring 1 min. Add to fruit mixture;
stir 3 min. or until most the sugar is dissolved. (A few sugar
crystals may remain.)
FILL containers
immediately to within 1/2 inch of tops. Wipe off top edges of
containers; immediately cover with lids. Let stand at room temperature
24 hours. Jam is now ready to use. Store in refrigerator up to 3 weeks
or in freezer up to 1 year. (If frozen, thaw in refrigerator before
using.)
*I'm still trying to master the low sugar version. I made both kinds yesterday. The regular one set up quite nicely but the low sugar one did not. I'm working on fixing it and figuring out what I did wrong.
If I can't fix it, I'll have 8 jars of ice cream topping to give away as gifts! When life hands you runny jam, make ice cream sundaes! :-)