Strawberry & apple jam

At the Summer preserves course we also learnt how to make strawberry & apple jam. As strawberries has a very low natural content of pectin, the addition of apples in the strawberry jam is used purely for gelling purpose together with the high level of sugar addition.

It is possible for make a strawberry jam on it´s own using gelling powder, and here you can also adjust the sugar addition to your preference. I really love this Midsummer jam made from strawberry with elder flowers.

Strawberry & apple jam: 8-10 glasses

• 1 kg small strawberries (just ripe) - washed and stem removed
• 1 large lemon - the juice
• 450 g cooking apples - peeled, cored and thinly sliced
• 100 ml water
• 1400 g sugar

1. Place the apple slices in a separate cooking pan together with the water part.
2. Cover the pan with a lid and cook the apple over low heat, until the apples is quiet soft and pulpy, should look like apple mash (approx 10 minutes).
3. Sieve the apple pulp, there should be around 340 g in total.
4. Add the strawberries and the lemon juice in a large jam. Bring the content to the boil, let the fruit simmer gently until tender, approx 15 minutes.
5. Mash the strawberries.
6. Prepare the jam glasses either by heating up in the oven or adding boiling water to them.
7. Add the apple purée into the mashed strawberries and mix together to combine the fruit.
8. Add the sugar into the fruit mass and stir until it is dissolved.
9. Bring the jam to a rolling boil and boil hard until the setting point is reached. Stir the jam frequently.
10. Test of set after 5 minutes using the flake test.
11. When the setting point is reached, remove the pan from the heat and leave it to stand for 10 minutes. As the jam settles, push any scums from the surface of the pan to the side and remove it with a metal spoon. The purpose for the waiting step is well to build viscosity in jam, so the fruit pieces will be trapped inside the jam inside of be going to the top of jam.
12. Gently stir the jam after the resting time and pour it into the prepared glasses, fill the glasses up to the brim. Remove any scum for the surface of the jam using a tea spoon. Close the glass with a lid.
13. Leave the glass upright and disturbed to cool and set.
14. Store at ambient temperature.