Dreid Apricot Jam

We have 12 birthdays of close friends and family in the first 3 months of the year.

With Christmas just gone we try not to spend too much in the beginning of the year. So how do we not spend too much on gifts but still show our friends and family we love them?

Simple! Make jam! Did you know you can make jam from dried or frozen fruit. You can use up all the preserved fruit lying around in your house. Fresh fruit isn’t in season at the moment so it does cost more.

I used the BBC Good Food Dried Apricot Jam recipe.

Utensils:

  1. A large pot (you don’t need a jam pot just a large enough one so the jam doesn’t spill when you stir it)

  2. A good plastic spoon to stir the jam with

  3. A jam thermometer or put a metal spoon in the fridge.

If you have more or less than 500g of dried apricot then simply multiply your dried apricots by 3. This will tell you how many litres of water you need.

For instance: If you have 200g of dried apricots then 200 x 3 = 600, so you would need 0.60 Litres of water.

Additionally for every 170g of dried apricots add half a lemon. Lemons lower the pH of the jam and help it set.

Use the same number of grams as litres of water for your jam sugar.

For instance: I have 1500ml of water so I need 1500g of jam sugar.

Hope you enjoy this!

Makes: 6 Prep: 0 hrs 10 mins + soaking Cook: 0 hrs 50 mins

Ingredients

  • 500g of Dried Apricots (you can also substitute apricots for dried prunes or figs)
  • 1.5 Litres of water
  • Juice of 3 large lemons
  • 1.5kg Jam sugar

Method

  1. If you don’t have a food thermometer then put a metal spoon into the fridge. The recipe says to chop the apricots before you soak them. I personally like to chop them after soaking, they are a lot softer so easier and quicker to chop.
  2. Put your apricots and water into a bowl. Put them into the fridge, cover with a tea towel and leave for 12-24 hours.
  3. After they have soaked put the water and apricots into a pan. If you haven’t chopped your apricots do this first. Don’t throw the water away, we want all the apricot flavour.
  4. Add your lemon juice.
  5. Put the pan on the hob and turn the heat up. When the water starts to boil turn the heat to medium and let it simmer continuously for 30 minutes. This is so the apricots start to break up.
  6. Towards the end of the 30 minutes I use a potato masher to ensure there are no large apricots left.
  7. After the 30 minutes turn the heat off and add the jam sugar.
  8. Stir until all the sugar has dissolved (this should only take a minute or 2).
  9. Once the sugar has dissolved put the heat back on and let it boil for 20 minutes.
  10. This is a great time to get your jars ready. I personally re-use all my jars, they are free and work just as good as new ones. Remember whether your jars are new or not we still need to disinfect them.
  11. The cheapest way to disinfect them is to wash them in soapy water, put the jars onto a tray. Turn the oven (fan or not fan) to 160 degrees Celsius. Put the jars in. When the oven gets up to 160 and the jars are dry then they are disinfected.
  12. Back to the jam. Once it gets to 18 minutes after boiling it will be a good time to start testing if the jam is ready.
  13. If you have a jam thermometer and you like runny jam then 104 degrees Celsius is perfect. If you like ‘just right’ jam then 105. If you like thick jam then 106. Anything higher and the jam will be too set.
  14. If you don’t have a jam thermometer then take the metal spoon out the fridge. Put a dollop of jam on and put it back in the fridge for 1 minute.
  15. If you are like me and forget to put the spoon in the fridge at the beginning, don’t worry. Just take out a spoon, put a dollop of jam on and put it in the fridge for 2-3 minutes.
  16. I forgot to take a picture of the crinkle effect so I will try and explain it. When you take your spoon out of the fridge, point it to the ground. If the jam slips off it is not ready. If when it starts to slide off it crinkles a.k.a it starts to create layers that overtake each other then it is ready.
  17. After it is ready turn the heat off and let it set for 10 minutes. This is really important, if you put your jam in the jars before then all the fruit will sink to the bottom, it won’t set properly.
  18. After the jam has set for 10 minutes your jam jars should be ready. Take them out of the oven. Keep the jars on the tray so any jam spilled goes onto the tray and not your worktops.
  19. I ladle the jam into a jug and pour the jam into the jars. I find this the safest and least messy way.
  20. Pour into your jars, leave about half a centimetre from the jam to the top of the jar. We still want some air in there to create the suction.
  21. Put the lids on, I use washing up gloves to tighten the lids. Be careful though the jars are still very hot.
  22. It can take up to 24 hours for the jam to set. If like me it hasn’t quite set then pour all the jam into the pan and rapidly boil until you get to the correct temperature or the crinkle effect.
  23. You can buy wax paper to go over the lids. I much prefer to use material lying around with string. A lot cheaper and still looks good!
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