Refrigerator Jam

Sheet-Pan Peach Jam with Thyme and Lemon A Sunday Morning in June – E.A.T. #52

~ Teresa Blackburn ~ 8 Comments

If I keep at it, I will find the absolute easiest way to do everything. It is not that I am lazy, but that I do not like to fuss. I want to start a task and take it through to the end as effortlessly as possible while ending up with something special…whether it be food, or art, or gardening. I am pretty sure my personality leads me in my approach…c’est la vie. Whipping up a batch of homemade jam and the time needed to do so can be at odds with one another…full of desire to do the first without the time usually needed, my recipe for oven roasted fresh peach jam makes the process of jam making doable and satisfying in all ways.

It seems a lot of friends and acquaintances are in traveling in France this Spring, which started me thinking about how much I love a simple French breakfast…why not partake of one here in Nashville this Sunday morning? So freshly baked croissants, just made peach jam and cafe au lait is close enough to please me and Wouter. C’etait tres bon. Oui? Oui.
Fresh Peach Truck peaches from the Downtown Nashville Farmer’s Market.
Nicely ripened, unpeeled and rough chopped, fresh thyme from my herb garden and the zest and juice from one lemon, along with a little brown and white sugar..that is all you need.
Sheet pan jam in the works.
Ready to mash…..
….voila! One hour from sheet pan to jars. It is as Easy-as-This to make your own petit dejeuner francais.

Sheet Pan Jam with Thyme and Lemon

Ingredients:

  • Around 3 lbs fresh, ripe peaches, not peeled, but pitted and stems removed, chopped
  • The zest and juice of one lemon
  • 1/4 cup raw sugar + 1/2 cup white granulated sugar
  • 1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves

Directions:

Toss all the ingredients together in a bowl. Let sit while oven pre-heats. (The peaches I used were clingstone, meaning the fruit’s flesh clings to the pit, so I cut the fruit away from the pit and then squeezed the juice around the pit into the bowl as well. More peach flavor and not waste.)

Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees. Scrape peach mixture out onto a baking sheet pan. Spread out evenly. Bake for about 25-30 minutes until fruit has softened and juices on pan start to thicken. Ovens may vary so keep an eye on the progress.

Remove baking sheet from the oven when fruit is quite soft and then mash with a potato masher or fork until it looks like jam.

Fill two pint jars, or more jars if using smaller ones, with the warm peach jam and allow to cool to room temperature. Add a lid and refrigerate or freeze until ready to eat.

Note: This basic method could be used for plums, cherries, apples, and berries. It’s a great way to keep the summer in the freezer for later.

Be well. Be kind and take care.

teresablackburnfoodstyling.com

Small Batch Blueberry-Lemon Refrigerator Jam

~ Teresa Blackburn ~ 31 Comments

Refrigerator jams are fast and simple to make. They will keep for a few weeks and is the best method for making small-batch jams. They don’t take a lot of time and can even be frozen to eat later in the year. I like this method as it is very rewarding and doesn’t take all day. I make a few jars at a time of different types of jams all summer. We eat some immediately and freeze a jar or two for later in the fall and winter.

 Tennessee blueberries are in season and they are abundant. Plump and juicy, full boxes looking so beautiful at the Downtown Nashville Farmer’s Market that I could not resist….. I over-bought as usual. We have been putting them on all our salads and eating just out of the box or in yogurt and on cereal every day.

Three ingredients….blueberries, lemon and sugar…and about an hour of your time is all it takes.

The color alone makes it worth it!

Spooned into my new Weck Clamped Bowls (jars) from Food 52 and ready for the refrigerator and freezer.

 The blueberries and the lemon peel combination resulted in one of my favorite ever small-batch homemade jams.

A taste of summer on toast. Enjoy.

Small-Batch Blueberry-Lemon Refrigerator Jam

Ingredients:

  • 2 pints of fresh ripe blueberries, rinsed and drained
  • 1 juicy lemon
  • 1/2 cup granulated sugar
  • 1/2 cup water

Directions:

  1. Carefully cut the peel from the lemon. Slice into thin strips.
  2. Juice the lemon.
  3. Place blueberries into a non-reactive pan. Add lemon peel strips, lemon juice, sugar and water.
  4. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Turn to low simmer, stir often, cooking for about 20  minutes until mixture is reduced and thickened. Jam will thicken more after it cools.
  5. Spoon jam into clean jars with tight-fitting lids. Refrigerate.
  6. If freezing remember to not fill jars all the way up. Leave a 1/2-1 inch space at the top to allow the jam to expand when frozen. This keeps the lid from popping off in the freezer. I learned this the hard way!

Teresa Blackburn   http://www.teresablackburnfoodstyling.com   http://www.foodonfifth.com

 

 

End-of-Summer (5 Ingredient) Refrigerator Plum Jam with Calvados

~ Teresa Blackburn ~ 21 Comments

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Plums have been plentiful this summer and when just ripe, but still firm, they make the best jam. Jam you will appreciate a few months from now when days are shorter, darker and summer flavors just a memory.

I love plums and have often shared recipes and plum stories with you here at Food on Fifth.  There have been Plum Clafoutis, Plum Yum Almond Cake and Stone Fruit Skillet Cake with Maple Drizzle among others.

The plums you see in the photo below were ones left unused after a photo shoot. They had time to sit out on the studio counter ripening all week and went home with me at week’s end.

DSC_6245Three simple ingredients and two special ones, Calvados and Cardamom! Calvados is a good flavor-pairing with fruits when making cakes, pies or jams, due to it apple origins. It is a French apple brandy, starting out as apples, fermenting into a cider, aged in oak casks to become Calvados. Cardamom…I cannot say enough good things about this spice… with its strong spicy sweet taste adding seductive aromatics with just a pinch!

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Four pounds of plums with peels left on…making this recipe even easier!

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Sugar, ground cardamom…plums cooking down….Calvados & lemon zest added at the end of cooking time…

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Spooned into clean glass canning jars, topped off..ready to give away or refrigerate until ready to use. By the way…very yummy spooned over sponge cake or ice cream while still warm! And how about serving this with your roasted hen or turkey instead of cranberry sauce for Thanksgiving? Nice!

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Beautifully messy.

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From my summer travels: “Plums in Budapest” # 1 and #2 iphone images

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Simple Summer (5 Ingredient) Refrigerator Plum Jam with Calvados

  • Servings: 8cups
  • Difficulty: easy-as-pie
  • Print

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Ingredients:

  • 4 lbs plums, pitted, unpeeled and chopped
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 2 tsp ground cardamom
  • 1/2 cup Calvados
  • 1 TBSP fresh lemon zest

Directions:

  1. Put chopped plums & sugar in a large non-reactive saucepan. Bring to a low boil over medium high heat. Reduce heat to low and simmer for about 25 minutes or until mixture begins to thicken and plums break down.
  2. Stir in cardamom and continue cooking for another 15 minutes. Stir often and skim any foam from the surface of the mixture.
  3. Add Calvados & lemon zest. Simmer another 10 minutes. Remove from heat. Place pan on a cooking rack so air can circulate around the pan to cool it down faster. Let cool for 10 minutes.
  4. Spoon plum jam into sterilized glass canning jars. Wipe rims of jars clean, top with lids and allow to cool completely.
  5. Jam will keep in refrigerator for up to 1 month.  If you do not give some of this fine jam away to your friends (they will be forever grateful I promise) then freeze for later.

Note on freezing: If you plan to freeze some of these jars of jam then fill jars leaving a 1″ head space to allow for jam to expand when frozen. I did not do this many years ago and upon opening my freezer I found jars of jam exploding out of the top of the glass jars! The lids had been pushed completely off! Now I allow for that!

 

Teresa Blackburn        www.foodonfifth        www.teresablackburnfoodstyling.com

Resources:

Red and White hand towel – http://www.ikea.com/

Canning jars – http://www.jarstore.com/Jelly-Mason-Salsa-Jars_c_41.html

Vintage glass canning funnel, silver spoons, Vintage Kobe Turquoise saucepan – my prop collection but check out Etsy or ebay for similar items

Blue enamel colander – World Market  http://www.worldmarket.com/category/dining-kitchen.do?nType=1

Travel Budapest – http://www.afar.com/travel-guides/hungary/budapest/guide