Apple Jam Recipe | A sweet post after six months!

Easy Apple Jam

Hello again! I am finally back with a recipe. *big grin* As I write this, baby R is sleeping (whilst wriggling at regular intervals, signs that he might wake up soon and I should hurry) and I still have tons of things to do. But who can resist doing a blog post as soon as you make something new? I can’t. 🙂

Now, why am I suddenly making apple jam? All thanks go to the new celebrity in the house- baby R. Folks come to see him, get him cute stuff and get me apples! Although I love the fruit, I can only have as many right? Hence, apple jam.

Jams are really easy to make. You just need to follow a simple rule- equal quantities of fruit pulp and sugar and you are set. After that all that you need is a wee bit citric acid to add that tang and to preserve the jam.

You will need:

3 apples- peeled, cored, chopped
1 cup sugar (go by the equal portions rule)
1/4 tsp citric acid
1 sterilized glass bottle to pour out the jam in

Method:
– Blanch the chopped apples in boiling water for a minute. Drain and grind it to a pulp. You might want to add two tablespoonful of water to make grinding easy. I like a jam to be a little chunky and rustic, so I did not grind the apples to a super fine pulp. You may choose to do otherwise.
– Measure the pulp. Three apples yielded one cup of pulp when I made this. You may get less or more, so do remember to measure it.
– Pour the pulp into a thick bottomed saucepan and put it on low heat. Keep stirring. When the pulp starts popping (kinda like boiling) add one cup sugar. Keep stirring continuously till the jam thickens. Then add the citric acid and stir. The proportion of citric acid (as taught to me by my mom) is 1/2 tsp citric acid to half a kg fruit.
– The done test for a jam is – when you drop a little jam on a cold plate, the jam should set and not have any liquid oozing out of it. Test your jam.
– Remove from heat when done. Let it cool and store it in a sterilized bottle.
– I like a hint of spice in my apple jam. Hence I added 1/8th tsp of cardamom powder when adding the sugar to the pulp. You may skip that if you like the pure, no spice version.

Grab a toast, spread your homemade jam on it and dig in!