Two Easy Winter Jam Recipes

Jam making is something usually associated with the warmer months of the year (such as our fruit & herb jams), but it’s just as easy to make jam even in the midst of winter, and it just tastes better than shop bought too. These two recipes are really quick to make, and don’t involve peeling, coring, de-stoning or chopping ingredients for ages.

Cranberry, Orange & Apple Jam

Ingredients

• 400g cranberries, fresh or from a jar
• 500ml cloudy apple juice
• 100ml freshly pressed orange juice (about 2-3 oranges)
• jam sugar – either 1kg of 1:1 sugar or 500g of 2:1 sugar*
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice

*Jam sugar, also known as gelling sugar or jelly sugar, is a sugar that already contains pectin as a gelling agent. In the UK I’ve only seen the 1:1 variety, but in Germany it was available in three different varieties – 1:1 (same amount/weight of fruit and sugar), 2:1 (twice as much fruit as sugar), and 3:1 (three times as much fruit).

Directions

• Sterilise 3 to 4 jam jars, depending on size. We used three jars that had previously held 340g of shop bought jam. If you have different sizes of jars at home, just sterilise a couple extra so you don’t get caught out. We washed them with soap and hot water to make sure they were clean, then rinsed them in boiling water fresh from the kettle (careful not to burn yourself!) and turned them upside down on a clean tea towel until needed. The lids we boiled for 10 minutes in a saucepan.
• If you are using fresh cranberries, you need to mix the cranberries and juices and boil them for a little while in a large pot until the cranberries start to break down and go mushy, THEN add the sugar.
• If you are using cranberries from a jar, you can mix the cranberries, juices and sugar straight away.
• Either way, once the sugar is adde, bring to the boil, then stir for 3-4 minutes whilst boiling, according to what it says on your sugar (ours said 4 minutes), adding the spices one minute before the end.
• Decant the jam in to the glasses, screw the lids on tightly and turn upside down for 5 minutes, then turn the right way up again and leave to cool.

Orange & Ginger Jam

When we bought the oranges to make the cranberry, orange and apple, they only came in jumbo sized bags, so I decided to make a quick orange and ginger jam with some of the remaining oranges. Basically, all you need is to mix freshly pressed orange juice, some freshly grated ginger, and jam sugar according to type and amount of orange juice – e.g. 300ml orange juice + 300g 1:1 sugar or 150g 1:2 sugar (see notes on jam sugar above) – and follow the same directions as for the other jam.

For 300ml juice I used about a thumb sized piece of ginger. Tip: if you are planning your jam making in advance and not doing it on the spur of the moment, peel the ginger and stick it in the freezer beforehand, then it will be much easier to grate!

Happy winter jam making!