I took the children fruit picking and foraging this week and we had a fantastic haul, certainly more than we could eat, so I made beautiful fresh Strawberry and Elderflower jam. In the Thermomix it’s such a simple recipe too – no thermometer required. I love this recipe!
Strawberry Elderflower Jam Recipe
Recipe Type: Jam, Condiments
Cuisine: Foraged
Author: Luschka
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 400ml
If you’re not using jam sugar you need to cut a grannysmith apple in quarters and add it to the mixtures. I use jamming sugar for this recipe. If you don’t use Elderflower, add an extra 10g strawberries
Ingredients
250g jam sugar
440g strawberries
10g Elderflower
2 tbs lemon juice (or 1/2 fresh lemon juice)
Instructions
In the Thermomix
Put the jam sugar in the bowl and turbo two or three times to make it finer.
Add the strawberries and elderflowers, if using, and mix Speed 4/10 Seconds
Autumn bounty includes Damsons in the UK, and the trees are laden with them. People can’t get rid of them fast enough. The problem with damsons is that unlike, say, blackberries, you can’t eat them raw, so they often go unappreciated till they fall to the ground.
My daughter came home from a walk in the forest with her pockets bulging with damsons, so I decided to turn it into jam, something I’ve never done before.
Damson Jam / Damson Jelly Recipe
Author: Luschka
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 200ml
Use equal parts of fruit to jam sugar, boil and store. Easy peasy Damson Jam. You can of course buy your Damsons, but half the fun is in the foraging!
Ingredients
200g Damsons
250g (9oz) Sugar
1 orange, washed
Instructions
Wash damsons and drop them into your pot.
Squeeze the juice of the orange out over it.
Cook on medium heat for 20 minutes till the fruit is soft. (20 mins/100C/speed 2).
After 20 minutes, remove from the heat. It’s useful at this point to remove all the pips. If you keep the orange in at this point, you’ll have a slight marmalade undertone to the damson jam. I’m not a fan of marmalade, so I prefer to remove the orange before adding the jam sugar.
Boil for another 20 minutes at 100C/212F.
Remove from the heat and tip the pot slightly. If the jam looks like it is creating a wrinkle, remove from heat and pour into steriised jars to keep for later, or into a jam jar to start using straight away.
If it doesn’t seem to be wrinkly yet, cook for a further five minutes before dispensing into jars. Remember that damsons have a lot of pectin in them and will set as it cools.
It’s been a beautiful summer, and I’ve focused largely on my children, and very little on anything else, including these pages. I’ve often taken a photo of things, thinking I’d publish them when I have a moment, and that moment has just never come, and here we are, just in time for autumn.
Nature is a beautiful thing though, and knowing full well that the barren months of winter are coming, Autumn blesses us with a bountiful harvest of apples, blackberries, rosehips, damsons and more. My children and I have spent time foraging in our local area, trying to take advantage of the free fruit as much as we can. Over the next few days, I’ll share some of the results of our foraged free food with you.
Today’s recipe is a bit of a cheat: Blackberry Jam. It’s a cheat because I used Jam Sugar with added pectin rather than making my own. We were lucky, I think and got the berries at just the right time, as they were sweet, full of juice and just delicious.
I use a jam strainerto catch all the seeds and skins, leaving me with a beautiful clear jam.
Blackberry Jam
Recipe Type: Condiments
Author: Luschka
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 250ml
The flavour of this jam depends a lot on the blackberries you use. We picked plump, juicy, ripe blackberries to make a sweet, delicious jam for toast, home made doughnuts and more.
Ingredients
250g (9oz)fresh blackberries
250g (9oz) jam sugar
2tbs lemon juice (if from a bottle)/ juice from 1/2 lemon if using fresh lemon
Instructions
(If you’re using a stove to make jam, you’ll need a sugar thermometer to check when your mixture is at 100C/212F. If you’re using a breadmachine with a jam function, follow manufacturer instructions. For a Thermomix, cook at 100 degrees at speed 2. )
Place all ingredients in bowl and cook for 40 minutes at 100C or 212F.
To check whether your jam has set, tilt the bowl slightly, being careful not to spill boiled sugar! Check to see whether a slight gel forms on top. If not, return to heat for five minute intervals. Your external temperature will affect how long your jam has to boil.
It shouldn’t take over 50 minutes, but if it does, turn the heat up as high as possible (watching it doesn’t burn) for 3 minutes.
Pour jam into sterilised jars and leave overnight to cool.
I took the children fruit picking and foraging this week and we had a fantastic haul, certainly more than we could eat, so I made beautiful fresh Strawberry and Elderflower jam. In the Thermomix it’s such a simple recipe too – no thermometer required. I love this recipe!
