Agave Sweetened Strawberry Mango Freezer Jam

That is a mouthful.


I have been experimenting with agave syrup as a sweetener. I am trying to stay off refined sugars and that includes in my jams. I never have liked a jam where I can taste more sugar than fruit anyway. I usually make reduced sugar jams.

This jam was pure experiment. I have never sweetened my jam with Agave and I almost never make freezer jam. And I decided to combine mango and strawberries.

How did it turn out? LOVE IT. It is so fresh and delicious it tastes like I am putting a strawberry mango smoothie onto my toast. Plus I love that Agave syrup is not a refined sugar and has a low glycemic index.

Now I use a special pectin for my low sugar jams called Pomona's pectin. It works wonders with no sugar or low sugar jams and jellies. I buy mine at the health food store but it can also be ordered online from www.pamonaspectin.com



The recipe
4 cups of sliced strawberries
2 cups of mangos diced.
(you need enough fruit to make 4 cups mashed total)
1/2 C agave syrup or to taste.
1/4 Cup lemon juice
3 tsp of pomona's pectin powder
4 to 7 tsp of calcium water (the calcium water is part of the pomona's pectin pack. It tells you how to make it in the package.)
3/4 Cup Water


1. Wash and rinse air tight freezer safe containers.

2. Prepare fruit. I gave mine a pulse or two in the blender since mangos can be hard to mash. Don't overprocess your fruit. You want some chunks in your jam.

3. Add lemon juice and fruit to large bowl. Combine

4. Add agave to fruit and stir well.

5. Bring water to a boil

6. Put hot water in blender or food processor. Add pectin. Vent lid and blend on low 1-2 minutes until dissolved. If you do not vent your lid slightly the water will overflow when blending.

7. Add hot liquid pectin to fruit.Stir until well mixed.

8. Add 4 tsp calcium water to fruit and stir well. Jell should start to appear.If not continue adding calcium water one tsp at a time until jell form. The jell on this jam is softer than a canned or cooked jam.

9. Fill containers with jam until 1/2 inch from top. Cover and freeze immediately.

10. To eat thaw and keep in freezer up to 1 week.

Tip:
Once you take this out of the freezer it is so good almost freezing cold.

Pineapple Pear Jam

OK, first of all, I don't know what is going on with all my buttons. Please excuse the crazy photo bucket upgrade stuff. I did not make my own buttons and am therefore completely ignorant as to what to do. I am seeking help but please bear with me until then.

Now onto the real post.

Sweet Sunshine. Pear season is here and I am happy to say I made it through my first 30 lbs of pears. One of my favorite pear recipes comes from a fellow canner and neighbor. She sent this pear pineapple jam recipe my way last year and I was hooked. It is such a refreshing and unique jam. It is actually the only jam I make with the full amount of sugar and is therefore a little more time consuming then my other jam recipes.

This recipe can be doubled. I made seven 4 oz jam jars and 3 half pints from the following amounts.

4 Cups of pears peeled and cored and mashed to make 3 cups

10 oz of crushed pineapple (1/2 a 20 oz can)

1 1/2 Tbs lemon juice

1 package of fruit pectin ( I did not use Pomonas Pectin for this recipe)

4 1/2 cups of sugar.

Prepare and sterilize jars and jar rings. Keep jars warm in boiling hot water or on the Heated dry setting of your dishwasher until ready to use.

Mash pears and add pineapple. Pour fruit into a 6 or 8 quart saucepan. Gradually stir in pectin. Over high heat, and stirring constantly bring fruit to full boil that cannot be stirred down. Add entire amount of sugar all at once and stir to dissolve. Return to a full rolling boil and boil for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Skim foam from top. Ladle into hot jars and fill 1/8 inch from the top. Carefully place lids and tighten rings. Process in a water boiling canner or steam canner for 5 minutes. Add an additional five minutes for every 3000 miles above 3000 miles above sea level. i.e. I process for 15 minutes because my altitude is above 6000 feet.

Enjoy and don't forget to give a few away.

Triple Berry Jam

Triple Berry Jam, be still my heart, I just love this stuff.

Now I realize that I have been posting a lot of canning, jam and herb recipes, but that is what I do in the summer -- A big part of my food storage plan is to store up summer's bounty.

My Boysenberry and Blackberry bush our having a heyday in my backyard. Unfortunately, I have yet to get enough of one berry at once to make jam. OK actually, we just can't keep from eating the little beauties as they come off the vine full of the taste of sunshine. I also can't remember which bush is blackberry and which is boysenberry. So I combined 2 cups of the black beauties with a cup of strawberries to make this triple berry jam. And seriously, its hard to keep myself from eating it by the spoonful. Oh I do hope I can hoard enough berries for another batch.

I basically followed the same recipe for my blueberry jam. I used my Pomona pectin. I still have enough from my original box left for another batch of jam. The Pomona Pectin is a very economical purchase for your food storage.

2 Cups of mashed berries make appx. 2 jelly jars.

Recipe

3 cups of mixed berries (boysenberry, strawberry, blackberry)mashed to make 2 cups.

1 tsp Pomona Pectin

1 tsp calcium water (packet available in Pomona Pectin)

3 Tbsp lemon juice

1/2 to 3/4 Cup fructose or sugar

Rinse, and mash berries. Add lemon juice and calcium water. Mix.

Combine sugar and pectin in a separate bowl and mix well. Bring fruit to a boil and add pectin/sugar mixture to jam. Stir vigorously for 1 to 2 minutes until pectin is fully dissolved. Return to boil and remove from heat. Fill jars to 1/4 inch of the top. Wipe rims clean and place two lids and rim rings onto jars. Process jam jars in a boiling water canner or steam canner for 5 minutes plus one additional minute for every 1,000 feet above sea level.

When done processing, remove from water and let jars cool completely. Make sure your seal is complete. Lid should be concave and sucked in.

Opened jars last for three weeks once opened. (Like its going to be around that long.)

Reduced Sugar Blueberry Jam

Featured Food Storage: Your Own Preserves
Pantry Suggestion: Pomona's Universal Pectin

Did you realize that sugar makes up 55 to 85 percent of most jam's or jellies, especially the ones you make yourself. I think jam tastes great even without all that sugar which is why I almost always make my jams with reduced sugar.

I bought 2 pounds of blueberries with good intentions to make up lots of blueberry jam. But, I had some of those blueberries in my yogurt. My kids ate them by the handful. They slowly disappeared. Finally, I set up guard and refused any more eager fingers access to my blueberries. By that time I only had enough to make two jam jars. Thank Heavens for my new favorite find, Pomona's Universal Pectin. I had heard about it on another blog and found some at the health food store. This stuff is great for so many reasons. First of all you can use any sweetener including, honey, sugar, fructose, stevia. I am a big fructose user so I pulled out my fructose. The ratio of sugar to jam is dramatically smaller because this pectin is calcium activated. Second, I love this stuff because one box makes several recipes and you can half or double the recipe as needed. That is just really difficult with the typical store bought no sugar needed pectins. Third, this jelly gelled so beautifully and the taste turned out great.
This pectin uses a calcium water solution that comes with the pectin.
If you can't find this economical and healthier alternative for your jams, visit http://www.pomonapectin.com/


The original recipe available in the box
4 Cups mashed blueberries.
1/4 Cup lemon juice.
2 tsp pectin
2 tsp calcium water
3/4 Cup fructose or sugar

Prepare your jars and lids. Sterilize 4 to 5 pint size jars. I just put mine on the sanitize setting in the dishwasher and keep them warm in there while preparing the jam. Simmer your lids on low for at least 10 minutes. Do not let your water boil.

Add lemon juice and blueberries to a large bowl. Mash your blueberries. Don't over liquefy. Add calcium water to mashed blueberries. Stir. Add pectin to the sweetener and stir to combine.
Bring fruit to a boil. Add pectin/sugar combo, stir vigorously for 2 minutes or until all pectin is dissolved. Return to boil and remove from heat. Fill jars to 1/4 inch of top. Place lids and screw on rims. Boil 5 minutes in boiling water canner. Add one minute for each additional 1,000 miles above sea level. I processed for 12 minutes. Remove from water. Place on a towel and let cool. Check lids for good seal. Lids should be sucked down.

Mine gelled withing 24 hours and I was licking blueberry jam off the knife the next day. Yum!