Jam

 Recycling posts today .  Check out these fine Jam and Jelly recipes.

Blueberry Fig Jam

Tomato Jam

Muscadine Jam

Cranberry Fig Jam

Bread Machine Jelly 

If you want to find more jamming and canning recipes check out Canning with Crackerberries book.

This is part of the A-Z blogging challenge.  Be sure to check out some of the other bloggers in the challenge as well as Crackerberries.  

Jelly Jamming and Jalapeños

Jelly Jamming and Jalapeños

Bread Machines are not just for bread!

3½ cups fresh berries, such as strawberries, blueberries, cranberries (shown above)  slightly crushed but not mashed.

*Sidenote: All of the berries work well.  I want to try finely chopped jalapeños - let me know how it works if you do!

1- 2 oz. pkg. powdered pectin

3 tbsp. lemon juice

1 cup sugar

Put all ingredients in the bread machine and press the jam cycle. Pour hot jam into freezer safe containers, leaving ½” at top. Cover tightly to store in freezer or refrigerator. Jam will thicken upon cooling.

Food for Thought:

Fun Facts about Jalapeños

• Cooking reduces the heat of jalapeño peppers. While it would be rare to eat a whole jalapeño pepper, sliced and diced jalapeños make a spicy addition to tomato and mango salsas, nachos, black and pinto beans and corn-based dishes.
• If you like your food hot, leave more of the inner white membrane on the chopped pepper, as that is where most of the capsaicin is concentrated. You can also roast jalapeños and other chili peppers, for a smokey flavor.
• Jalapeños are mostly available green, turning red as they mature. Only 4 calories in one pepper.
• Like other peppers, jalapeños are a rich source of vitamin C, with almost 17 milligrams in a small pepper. That is equal to 18 percent of the recommended daily allowance for men and 23 percent for women.
• Vitamin C is an antioxidant that helps prevent damage from free radicals, rogue molecules that can cause cell damage in your body. 
• Jalapeños also supply a good amount of vitamin A, which supports skin and eye health.

Welcome to the 2018 A-Z Blogging challenge.  This will be my fourth year. Every year I take on the challenge with hopes of disciplining myself to keep writing throughout the year as much, if not more than just through the monthly challenge. (It certainly is a challenge.)  Some years are better than others.  Some I just lose track of time.  This year I have decided to put my favorite hobbies together. A recipe that is tried and true as well as some thoughtful insight.  Please note some of these recipes have been shared before, however they have gone through years of testing and this is the perfected recipe.  I really hope one of my recipes or “Food for Thought” inspires you to do something great.  Enjoy the read and the photos, try the recipe, share your thoughts or comments, and most of all, have FUN with the challenge this month!

Cheers,

Canning with Crackerberries

You've seen many of these recipes here. But I've added a few secret recipes as well.  The garden harvest is ready and you're itching to get your canning jars boiling.  In a few days you will be able to order the printed version, but if you can't wait the Kindle/E-book is now available! 

Want to know what's inside?  Pickles, relishes, tomatoes, preserves, jams, jellies and a whole chapter of hodge-podge recipes to store your garden harvest.

Click to purchase kindle version

Muscadine Jam

Muscadine Jam

Heard it through the grapevine … makes ya wanna sing doesn’t it?  We had a friend from church give us a bushel of Muscadine grapes…they smell so good.  In the past I have mashed them and turned them into wine.  This year was no different, however I had a lot of grapes leftover that would not fit in my wine vat (a large cooler), so I decided to make jam instead of jelly.  Jelly is made by squeezing all of the juice out of the grapes and tossing out the pulp that is left.  To me, throwing out the pulp is the best part of the grapes, and that seems like such a waste, and I hate to waste food. 

I remember eating peanut butter and jam sandwiches as a kid one time when we were out haying in the fields.  The jam had seeds in it and it was so good (later we found out that the ‘seeds’ were ants – thanks, Mom).  But, it occurred to me that I could make grape jam with the tiny seeds if I pulverized the whole grape, skin, seeds and all in my blender. Muscadine grapes typically have large seeds. This jam is the best grape jam that I’ve ever tasted (sorry, Smucker’s).

I have also researched to see what the pros and cons are from eating grape seeds, and found many pros.  Grape seeds are typically turned into grape seed oil used for cancer prevention, diabetes, pain relief for arthritis as well as many other health benefits.  Eating grape seeds will improve your health.  They are packed with omega-3 fatty acids and a high level of vitamin A and E.

9 ½ cups blended Muscadine grapes (3 1/2 quarts whole grapes)

9 cups sugar

½ cup lemon juice

Put grapes in blender with ½ cup water per batch, (I did about 5 cups of grapes at a time) and blend on low at first, then high for 1-2 minutes, until pulverized.  Add all ingredients to your preserving pot and bring to a boil over high heat.  Once it comes to a rolling boil, reduce heat slightly, but continue to boil.  Stir often.  Cook 50-60 minutes or until gel stage is reached, 218°- 222°.  Once gel stage is reached remove from heat and skim off any foam and stir constantly for 2-3 minutes (this will prevent the muscadine seeds from floating to the top).  Spoon into hot sterilized jars and process in boiling water bath 5 minutes; remove jars, place on cooling racks for 24 hours.

Yield: 12 8 oz. jelly jars.

© Crackerberries 2012

Cranberry Fig Jam - In the Bread Machine

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Too many Figs?  Here's an idea for you.

My bread machine has a jam cycle and I’ve never tried it because, to me, making jam in a bread machine just seems like cheating.  Today I had some leftover cranberries, and the fig tree looks so sad with all of those over ripe figs that I just can’t keep up with.  The birds are helping, but they only eat half of a fig, and then move on to the next one.  I decided to try out the bread machine where it's so dang hot to stand at the stove stirring, and stirring, and stirring.

2½ cups mashed figs (about 2 dozen)

1¼ cup mashed cranberries (½ bag)

1 pouch of Certo liquid pectin

3 Tbsp lemon juice

Put all ingredients in the bread machine and press the jam cycle.  My bread machine does a 2lb loaf size.  Recipes should not exceed 3½ cups (mine did by ¼ cup and I didn’t have a problem).  Good luck.  I can’t wait to try it again! 


Yield: five 8oz. freezer jars.

©Crackerberries 2012