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| Simple Pineapple Apricot Jam-- Very Small Batch |
Is it even appropriate to use the word "batch," even if prefaced with the adjective "small," when the result is but a single jar of jam? Who cares about semantics if it tastes so good?
I bought a little tub of organic apricots at TJs and in the heat of my kitchen, they were already getting soft after just two days. Coincidentally, I was down to my very last jar of homemade jam from summers past-- the last of the Hopland grape and apple jam. Seeing as there was no way that I'd stoop to supermarket jam after so many years of homemade freshness, I geared up to turn these quickly ripening fruits to jam. Though a consequence of making jam is knowing exactly how much sugar it takes to make jam---it still pains me to pour in so much sugar (I try not to think about it).
My mom left town in a last minute sort of thing and piled me high with a whole refrigerator of food that was either about to spoil, or starting to spoil. (thanks mom... I think?). In a random yogurt container I found chunks of very ripe pineapple and honeydew. So, obviously the next step was to make jam: Pineapple + Apricots + Sugar= jam!
I'm a new fan of the blog Food in Jars (where I got my pickle recipe), and followed her guidance to make this small batch.
First, I removed the apricot pits (I didn't throw them out-- Nooo way. I am saving them to make almond extract. Read about it on my friend Samin's blog, Ciao Samin. She is a fantastic food writer and teacher!), then I chopped up the apricots. I weighed the apricots and pineapple and then added half as much sugar (it ended up being about 400g of fruit and I added 200g sugar).
I plopped it all into a lidded Pyrex bowl and let it marinate in the fridge for a few hours until the sugar was dissolved.
Next, I poured the macerated fruit into a ceramic pan and cooked it for about 15 minutes start to finish, stirring often. I cooked it until it was thickened and I could pull my spoon through the mix and it wouldn't immediately come back together. I put a bit on a chilled plate when I thought it was done and looked to see if it resembled jam.
Last, I turned off the heat, and plopped it all into a clean jar (disinfected jar and new lid if you want to make it shelf stable-- I actually just microwaved a damp jar for a minute. I'm not certain if that is a good way to disinfect but because I was refrigerating the mix I wasn't worried). I applied the lid, let it cool and then it went into the fridge. It made a pint (this pic looks like a half pint jar, but the picture is deceiving).
Bring on the fresh scones!
