It's strawberry season. I'd love to find a big strawberry patch and pick a couple flats, but it's also baseball season, so this year we had to purchase strawberries. We were completely out of strawberry jam, so that was a must-do this spring!
This project started after the kids went to bed the goal was to keep it simple! Dave helped clean the berries when I worked on getting the kids ready for bed when we got home from the ball game. Can you tell in the picture it is still daylight out after 9 pm, and it is so hard to get the kids to bed in the summer time!?! And it's hard to convince them they won't want to get up early the next day. Constant cycle.
We have always had good luck with Sure-Gel. It has been the most consistent product to use. We had really good luck with it again this year. Now it is up to you on what type of consistency you want your strawberries to be in your jam. I would usually use a berry masher, and we would have larger chunks of berries in the jam. This year I decided I would use the ninja. It normally sits out all the time now because I like to make strawberry smoothies every evening. I was very happy with the consistency of the jam. It was easier than the normal berry smasher (is that even the correct name?) I used.
One batch equals one box of Sure-Gel. I bought four for this project, don't forget to buy a larger bag of sugar. I measured out 2 cups of purred strawberries.
I poured the two cups of strawberries into a larger bowl and added four cups of sugar. Sugar totally out-scales strawberries in this recipe. Let that sit for awhile. Make sure you follow directions that are in the box because mixing the pectin in the boiling water is very important. This is what sets the jam. Stir the boiling water into the berry and sugar mixture. Pour into the jars, and leave set for 24 hours. Place in the freezer until you are ready to use.
