Kristen's Recipes

4 C. smashed, fresh raspberries , use a potato masher to smash the raspberries
4 C. sugar
¼ C. fresh lemon juice

Place berries in a large stainless steel or enamel saucepan. Bring to a full boil over high heat, stirring continuously. Boil hard for 1 minute, continuing to stir. Add sugar, return to a boil, and boil until mixture reaches 220ËšF on a candy or instant thermometer. Ladle into clean jars for storage in the freezer or into sterilized jars if processing with a water bath. If water-bath processed, this jam can be stored at room temperature.

12 oz. Granny Smith apples (about 2 large)
4 pounds peaches, peeled, pitted and diced (about 6 C.)
2 C. granulated sugar
3 T. strained fresh lemon juice

Sterilize jars by boiling for 10 minutes in a large canning pot; leave them in the pot to stay hot. Put a small plate in the freezer. Put the flat lids in a heat-proof bowl. Quarter and core the apples, reserving the cores and seeds. Tie cores and seeds in a cheesecloth bag and set aside. Put the peaches and sugar in a wide, 6- to 8-quart preserving pan or other wide shallow pan. Bring to a simmer over medium-high heat, stirring frequently, and continue to cook until the juices just cover the peaches, about five minutes. Pour into a colander set over a large bowl. Stir peaches gently to drain off juice. Return juice to pan, along with the apples and the cheesecloth bag. Bring to a boil over high heat and cook, stirring occasionally, until syrup is thick and reduced, about 15 minutes.

Return peaches and any accumulated juices to pan, along with the lemon juice. Bring back to a simmer and cook, stirring frequently, about 15 minutes, until peaches are very tender and a small dab of jam spooned onto the chilled plate and returned to the freezer for a minute becomes somewhat firm. (It will not gel.) Remove from heat. Remove apples and trimmings, and stir gently to distribute fruit in the liquid. Ladle hot water from the canning pot into the bowl with lids, and remove jars from hot water bath.

Ladle hot jam into the jars, leaving 1/4 inch head space at the top. Wipe jar rims with wet paper towel, if necessary. Put a flat lid and ring on each jar, and tighten until snug. Return the jars to the canning pot, making sure water covers jars by at least 1 inch. Bring to a rolling boil and boil for five minutes. Remove jars from the pot and let sit untouched for 12 hours. (After one hour, check to see if the jars have sealed. If the center of the lid can be pushed down, it hasn’t sealed. Immediately move any unsealed jars to the refrigerator. They should keep for a couple of weeks.) When you’re all done, label your pretty little jars and store them in a cool, dark place.

10 C. fresh blueberries
6 C. granulated sugar
¼ tsp. salt
2 T. lemon zest
â…“ C. fresh lemon juice

This is a canned preserve, so it’s important to make sure your jars and lids are sterilized. If you plan to freeze yours, then you can skip over this first part. To begin, fill a large stockpot half full of water [you are going to want the water to be over the tops of your jars by a couple inches, so make sure you have enough water in there for that] and set over a medium burner. Make sure the rack is in the bottom. Carefully put in the jars and lids. Once this comes up to a boil, cover and turn off heat. You are going to turn it back on high for about the last 10 minutes of the preserve cooking time, to sterilize the jars and have the water hot enough to can the final product. Wash blueberries and pick over, removing any debris and spoiled berries. Place about half of the berries in a 5 to 8 quart heavy pot. Crush well with a potato masher. Stir in the other half of the berries, the sugar, salt and lemon zest. Place the pot over a medium flame, and cover with a lid. Stir every few minutes. Once the mixture comes up to a simmer or low boil, remove the lid, and continue to stir every 5 minutes, or more often if they start to stick at all. Place a small plate in the freezer – this will be to test the doneness of the preserves. Cook about 25 minutes, and test a small amount on the cold plate you put in the freezer. After sitting on the plate for a minute or so, the preserves should look pretty thick, and should not run very freely if you tip the plate. If the mixture is still too thin, keep cooking, and check again about every 5 minutes, returning the plate to the freezer after each check. How long it takes is going to depend largely on the moisture content of the berries you are using. This batch took about 40 minutes total. At the 30 minute mark, return your large pot of water and jars to a boil. When the preserves are thick enough, stir in the lemon juice and cook an additional 5 minutes. Carefully remove the jars from the boiling water in the large pot, and set upright on a towel on your work surface. Keep the heat on under the pot. Ladle the preserves into the jars – the big funnel in the canning tools set helps keep the edges of the jars clean. Jams don’t need very much headspace above the surface of the jam itself – about ¼ inch between the top of the jam and the rim of the jar is enough room. Any more than that leaves too much chance for bacteria to grow, so fill them right up to that level. Wipe the edges of the jars clean with a damp cloth, and put on the lids and rings. Don’t screw the rings down super tight – just until they resist a bit is fine. If you have less than enough to fill the final jar, just put that one in the fridge to eat up first. Carefully place the covered jars back in the large pot of water – there are jar tongs in the set of tools, or use regular tongs to gently set the jars upright on the bottom. Once the water is back up to a full boil, set the timer for 10 minutes. When the time is up, carefully remove the jars to a wooden cutting board, or a dry towel on the counter – don’t use same towel as before since it might be damp and cooler and could break the hot jars. You will probably start to hear the centers of the lids popping down pretty quickly. Cool completely and check to make sure all of the centers of the lids have popped down. Refrigerate any jars with a dome still on the lid, and eat up first. When the jars are fully cool, you can remove the rings if you like, though I leave them on. Store in a fairly cool spot, and when opening the jars, inspect the contents, discarding any jars with mold or questionable appearance. Preserves will keep very well for up a year, or even longer, though the quality may suffer somewhat after a year.

4 C. peeled, chopped, and/or mashed peaches
1/4 C. lemon juice
1/2 C. honey
1 T. lemon thyme leaves, minced
4 1/2 T. pectin powder plus 3 T. calcium water (from a Pomona low-sugar pectin box)

To easily peel peaches: Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Slice an “X” just through the skin on the bottom of each peach. Using a slotted spoon, lower the peaches into the water. Boil for 1-2 minutes, remove with the slotted spoon, and immediately plunge into a bowl of ice water. The peels should slip off easily. Add the calcium water to a medium saucepan. Pour honey into a separate bowl. Mix the pectin powder into the honey. Add the peaches, lemon juice, and thyme to the calcium water. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Add pectin-honey mixture and stir vigorously for 1-2 minutes. Return to a boil and remove from heat. Fill jars or containers to 1/4 inch from top. Allow to cool to room temperature. Place jars in freezer without lids and freeze overnight or until firm. Place lids on jars. To use, thaw jam in refrigerator overnight. Should be used within 2 weeks once opened.

12 peaches, peeled and pitted (8 C. macerated)
12 apples, peeled and cored (8 C. macerated)
12 pears, peeled and cored (8 C. macerated)
24 C. sugar (1 C. sugar for each C. fruit)
Fresh ginger- a knob the size of your thumb, grated
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First, you will want to clean out your mason jars. There are several methods for doing this (I have added some helpful links above) but I like to take a short cut and run them through the dishwasher on the ultra-hot ‘sanitation’ setting, which also heat dries the jars. Do ensure your jars are dry before canning with them. To peel the peaches, bring a large pot of water to a boil. Slice a small ‘X’ into the skin on the bottom of each peach. Place the scored peaches into boiling water for 30-40 seconds then shock them in a bath of very cold or ice water. The skins should peel off quickly and easily. Quarter the fruits, remove the pits and whiz them through the food processor. You should have roughly 8 C. macerated fruit. Pour chopped peaches into your large jam pot. Peel apples and pears with a vegetable peeler. Quarter and core fruits and blitz through a food processor in batches, similar to how you cut the peaches- small chunks are okay but try and get any larger pieces broken up. You should have roughly 8 C. chopped pear and 8 C. chopped apple. Add both to the jam pot. Add 24 C. sugar (1 C. for each C. fruit) and grated ginger and stir well. On the stovetop, turn the heat on the jam pot up to high, stirring frequently to ensure the bottom doesn’t burn. Once the fruit has come to a boil, turn the heat down to med-low and simmer for 40 minutes or so. Using a spoon and a little bowl, skim the ‘foam’ that forms on the top of the jam as it is simmering. This ‘jam waste’ is cloudy but still delicious and is a great way to test for flavor and adjust the ginger to your palette! When the jam is ready, the color will have darkened slightly to a beautiful gold and the bubbles coming to the surface with ‘burp’ slowly, indicating a good thickness. Fill a small saucepan with water and bring the water to a boil. Place the center lids of your mason jars (with the rubber seal) in the boiling water to sanitize them. Using a ladle and a wide funnel, pour your jam into one of the sanitized mason jars. Using a moist cloth, wipe down the edge of the jar to ensure a tight seal. Using tongs, lift one of the mason jar lids out of the boiling water and place on top of the filled jar. Screw on the outer lid tightly and set aside. Repeat with the rest of the jars until all the jam has been canned. As you go through this process you will begin to hear a satisfying ‘popping’ noise as the hot jars seal themselves- that’s a good thing! A ‘pop’ means the jar is well sealed and the jam will keep well in a cool dark place for up to a year or two!