Summer always brings wonderful red ripe sweet strawberries. Ralph's had an awesome sale on strawberries. Just 88 cents a pound! This season the strawberries have been on sale at so many different markets I just had to take advantage of the great deals. I bought strawberries to freeze for smoothies, eat fresh, and make jam. Strawberry jam is so easy to make. I have tried a few different recipes, some calling for pectin, or lemons. I usually find that the recipes with lemon are too sour and some of the recipes add too much sugar. I like using white sugar, but brown sugar adds a depth of flavor that I like. I came up with a recipe that uses a mixture of brown sugar and white sugar and is less sweet than normal jams.
Recipe below images.
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| Wash and hull 3 lbs of strawberries. |
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| Cut strawberries into small pieces. About half inch by half inch by one inch. |
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| Place strawberries in large pot with 1/2 cup brown sugar and 1/2 cup of white sugar. |
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| Cook jam for about 20 to 30 minutes, until jam thickens. |
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| Remove from heat and follow canning instructions that come with your mason jars. If you are going to eat jam right away you do not need to heat seal the mason jars. |
Ingredients
1/2 cup of brown sugar*
1/2 cup of white sugar*
3 lbs of fresh strawberries, hulled cut into small chunks
Directions
Combine the sugar and strawberries in a large pot and cook over medium heat for 20 minutes. Cook until the strawberries reduce and thicken. Pour into canning jars and either seal or keep refrigerated. Use immediately, or follow canning instructions from your mason jar.
*The usual ratio of sugar to strawberries is 1lb of strawberries to 1 cup of sugar. So for this recipe you could use 3 cups of sugar. I only used one cup total because I didn't want my jam too sweet.
