I made my first batch of jam more than 10 years ago. I remembered it well as it was a disaster! We bought a huge bag of plums, my friend and I kept stirring the concoction until it became really dark, gooey and stuck to the pan. Fast forward 10 years, I now have a collection of jam recipes that sit proudly in the pantry: reduced sugar, without pectin and using seasonal fruits that would last for the year thanks to pressure canning. So I decided to experiment a little bit on this Strawberry Vanilla Jam, by making it in the bread maker instead of traditional stove pot.
To make it easy the Kenwood BM450 already comes with a jam function. It takes just 1 hour and 30 minutes for the jam to thicken, and I used the little helping of chopped apples as natural pectin. It worked like charm, and I love the fact that there is no spluttering of hot jam and not much stirring is required. You still need to stir the ingredients every once in a while and I keep opening the lid to see the progress! Mind you this is not a sponsored post, and I am really happy with how the jam turned out.
This strawberry vanilla jam is not cloyingly sweet, so diabetics can enjoy this as a treat occasionally. ( I say occasionally as it still has sugar!). I have put together a short video, so you can see how easy it is to get jars of this delicious jam in less than 2 hours. This quantity makes 2 jars of 200g jam. Do increase the quantity as needed, and this is the perfect way to bottle up summer until next year!
Strawberry Vanilla Jam
Prep time
10 mins
Cook time
90 mins
Total time
1 hour 40 mins
Delicious Strawberry Vanilla Jam by The Cooking Doctor
Serves: 400g
Ingredients
- 500g strawberries, hulled and sliced
- 300g fine granulated sugar
- ½ tsp salt
- a few drops lemon juice ( from a quarter of lemon)
- 1 tsp vanilla bean paste
- ½ apple, chopped
Instructions
- Add all the ingredients into the bread maker and give it a quick stir.
- Set the bread maker into Jam function ( Programme 12 in Kenwood BM450).
- Stir the concoction every 20 minutes or so.
- Once the jam is thickened, ladle into sterilised jars.
- To keep the jam lasts longer, fill a big canning pan with water.
- Place the jars into the canner and boil for 20 minutes.
- Check that the jam lids are indented ( sealed properly).
- Store the jam at cool, dark place for up to a year.
- If you skip the canning, keep the jam in the refrigerator for up to 4 weeks.
