Homemade jam is one of my favorite things. It is simply amazing, however the time and effort it takes can be overwhelming, especially since I have two little ones to take care of these days.
Enter freezer jam, my new bestie.
Seriously I am in love. It's super quick and easy and I'm here today to convince you of the same. Here are my pros and cons of freezer vs. traditional jam so you can decide for yourself. :)
Traditional Jam
Pros:
Shelf stable not dependent on power
Makes a wonderful gift
Cons:
Full of sugar
Takes lots of effort and makes a huge mess of your kitchen
Doesn't always "set" right
Freezer Jam
Pros:
Quick and easy with almost no mess involved
Less sugar is used so it's healthier
Has a fresh fruit taste
I've never had any "setting" issues
Cons:
Dependant on power
Not as good of a gift as traditional jam
I'm still going to be making some traditional jam (mainly for gifts), but I foresee lots of freezer jam in my future!
Here is the freezer jam recipe from the Ball Instant Pectin Label:
Freezer Jam
For every 2 (8 oz) half pints of jam, you will need:
1 2/3 cups crushed fruit
2/3 cup sugar
2 tbsp instant pectin
Note: Do no exceed 6 jars per batch, set may not occur in larger batch sizes.
1. Stir sugar and pectin in a bowl.
2. Add fruit. Stir 3 minutes.
3. Ladle jam into clean freezer jars and let stand 30 minutes.
Enjoy!
Quick Tip:
Plastic freezer jars or glass jars with straight sides work best for freezing. When filling jars, leave 1/2 inch headspace to allow for food expansion during freezing.
Have you ever made/tried freezer jam?
Which one do you prefer?
I have made both in the past and have no preference. With the regular jam, I try to use lower-sugar recipes, so that doesnt come into play for me. Seeing as we are planning on full time RVing in the future, I would just as soon make regular batches of jam as I wont have much room in the freezer. But I agree, there is nothing like homemade jam! (My favorite: strawberry!)
ReplyDeleteWe make strawberry freezer jam and also freeze whole strawberries for smoothies. However, if we run out of freezer jam before the next strawberry season (we've been using it in homemade yogurt for the past year, and it tends to go fast), we use the whole strawberries for pectin-free, cooked jam. Two quart bags of whole berries will fit nicely into 2 one-quart mason jars as jam. We don't seal them but keep them in the fridge. So we do it both ways. My preference is the freezer jam since it tastes more like fresh strawberries, but with 4 active kids, we can't always get enough of it made before our strawberry harvest goes bad.
ReplyDeleteHere's another one I've found that doesn't call for so much sugar. It's not freezer jam, though.
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Use Pomona's Pectin so you can adjust the sugar in your jams at will without affecting the set. Works for both freezer jam or traditional jam. Super useful stuff. Read more about it here:
ReplyDeletehttp://wellroundedmama.blogspot.com/2012/09/canning-pecking-about-pectins.html
We love strawberry freezer jam, much more than regular strawberry jam. Fresher tasting because the strawberries aren't really cooked. Tastes like sunshine in a jar in the middle of winter. Add a little vanilla to it....so good!
However, I've tried some other fruits in freezer jam and don't like them nearly as well. Didn't care for blueberry or cherry freezer jam, for example. YMMV. As a result, we put up a lot of strawberry freezer jam, but for other jams we do more traditional cooked and canned jams. Either way, Pomona's Pectin is really useful so we can adjust the sugar level down to our personal taste.