Fragrant apple jam all winter reminds us of sunny summer and is a popular addition to the daily diet. It can be eaten for dessert with bread, and also used as a filling for a sweet cake, so many housewives prefer to harvest this product on their own. The basic rules for the selection and preparation of ingredients for jam, a step-by-step recipe for making a standard jam from apples and several of its options using other fruits, berries and vegetables, as well as storage rules for the workpiece, are described further in the article.
Selection and preparation of ingredients
To make the home-made version of apple jam tasty and thick, you need to choose high-quality ingredients for it. It is recommended to make jam with strict observance of the indicated proportions - a large amount of sugar will make the product too sugary, and a lack of sweetness will give the jam a sour taste.
Did you know? Apple bones cannot be eaten - they contain amygdalin glycoside, which secretes hydrocyanic acid when broken down in the stomach.
Here are some guidelines for choosing and preparing apple jam products:
- best for making jam pick a sweet apple variety - it is the most fragrant and has sufficient sugar content;
- jam can be made even from damaged and broken fruits - for this you only need remove all rotten and chipped areas on their pulp;
- the most delicious workpiece is obtained from ripe fruitwith soft and juicy pulp;
- before cooking peeling apples is recommendedso that its particles do not remain in the finished mass;
- if present in the recipe other fruits and vegetables, they must be ripe and soft - hard and unripe fruits are worse boiled and can spoil the taste of the finished product;
- all hard ingredients are recommended to be cut into small pieces - so they boil faster;
- to give the finished product a spicy and memorable taste, you can add a small amount of vanilla, cinnamon or a dried slice of ginger to it.
Step-by-step recipes for harvesting apple jam for the winter at home
Apple jam is one of the most popular sweet preserves for the winter, and every housewife has a favorite recipe for cooking this treat. The classic and simplest recipe involves making a five-minute apple jam only from apples and sugar, but there are many options, which, in addition to the main ingredient, can also include various fruits, vegetables, berries and spices.
Important! To give the prepared delicacy the consistency of mashed potatoes, you can skip the finished mass through a meat grinder.
This delicacy can be cooked not only on the stove, but also in a slow cooker, and the resulting product is good to use for tea with fresh bread. Some of the most delicious recipes for this sweet apple dessert are listed later in the article.
Classic jam recipe
4 cans of 1 l2 hours
Nutritional value per 100 g:
Wash the apples. Peel the fruits and remove damaged areas. Cut all the flesh from each fruit to the core.
Prepare a pot with a volume of 6.5-7 liters. Fold in it part of the cut apple pulp so that the container is filled at 3⁄4 depth. The rest of the fruit can be added after the fruit mass is respected and reduced in volume. Sprinkle the fruit on top with sugar and mix a little.
Put a bowl of apples on the stove. Boil them over low heat for 2 hours. So that the jam does not stick to the pan during the cooking process, it must be periodically stirred with a wooden spatula.
Remove the finished hot mass from the stove and kill with a blender. The jam should have the consistency of a smoothie, without whole apple slices.
Arrange the hot apple mass in sterilized jars, roll up the lids.
Wash the apples. Peel the fruits and remove damaged areas. Cut all the flesh from each fruit to the core.
Prepare a pot with a volume of 6.5-7 liters. Fold in it part of the cut apple pulp so that the container is filled at 3⁄4 depth. The rest of the fruit can be added after the fruit mass is respected and reduced in volume. Sprinkle the fruit on top with sugar and mix a little.
Put a bowl of apples on the stove. Boil them over low heat for 2 hours. So that the jam does not stick to the pan during the cooking process, it must be periodically stirred with a wooden spatula.
Remove the finished hot mass from the stove and kill with a blender. The jam should have the consistency of a smoothie, without whole apple slices.
Arrange the hot apple mass in sterilized jars, roll up the lids.Video recipe
Important! In order for apple jam to become thicker faster, you need to boil it in a wide container, which allows you to create the maximum area of evaporation of moisture.
From apples and pears
4 cans of 1 l2 hours
Nutritional value per 100 g:
- Rinse the fruit thoroughly under running water, and peel it. Remove the core with seeds and stalks.
- Cut the prepared fruits into small slices. Fold them in a small container, and then beat them with a blender to a homogeneous consistency. If there is no blender, then you can use a meat grinder.
- Transfer mashed potatoes to a pan of a suitable size, pour water into a container. Put the resulting mixture on a small fire, bring to a boil.
- Cook the jam on low heat for 40 minutes, until it doubles in volume. Stir the sweet fruit mass periodically with a wooden spatula.
- Add sugar to fruit jam, mix well until crystals are completely dissolved. Simmer for about 30 minutes.
- Put the finished jam in sterilized jars and tightly roll them with lids.
Did you know? On the territory of Manhattan in New York (USA), the longest-lived apple tree in the world grows - a tree was planted in 1647 by Peter Stuvesant.
With plums
3 cans of 1 l4 hours
Nutritional value per 100 g:
- Wash apples thoroughly, peel and cut into 4 parts. Remove seeds and stalks.
- Rinse the plums under running water and place them in a colander to drain the liquid. Then remove the seeds from each fruit and cut the flesh into small pieces.
- Place slices of apples and plums in a pan of a suitable size, placing them in layers. Sprinkle each layer with sugar. Leave the fruit for 1 hour to stand out the juice, and then mix the mass.
- Put a bowl of apples and plums on the stove and bring to a boil. Simmer the mass over low heat for 5–7 minutes, and then another 10 minutes with active boiling. Periodically stir the jam with a spatula.
- Remove the pan from the stove and leave the mass at room temperature until completely cooled.
- Cooled jam again put on a small fire and simmer for an hour, periodically stirring the mass. This process can also be carried out in the oven.
- Remove the container from the stove. To beat the hot jam until a homogeneous consistency with a blender.
- Return the pan with the resulting mass to a slow fire and bring to a boil, and then remove the container from the stove.
- Arrange the product in sterilized jars and roll up the lids.
With pumpkin
3 cans of 0.5 l1 hour
Nutritional value per 100 g:
- Wash and peel the pumpkin, remove the seeds. Cut the pulp of the vegetable into small pieces.
- Place the chopped pumpkin in a saucepan and add a little water to it. Put the container on the fire and cook the vegetable, allowing it to boil for 15 minutes until softened pieces of pulp.
- Wash and cut each apple into small pieces. Remove seeds and stalks on each lobule.
- Fold the fruit slices into a small stewpan and pour them with a small amount of water. Boil the mixture over low heat for 15 minutes. Apples should become soft.
- Rub the boiled apples and pumpkin through a sieve - you get apple and pumpkin puree. Mix them in a pan and add half the sugar.
- Put the fruit and vegetable mixture on low heat and cook it for 15-20 minutes. Stir the mass periodically so that it does not stick to the side walls and the bottom of the tank.
- 5 minutes before cooking, add the zest of orange and the remaining sugar to the apple-pumpkin mixture. Mix well.
- The finished jam is removed from the fire and put into sterilized jars, and then rolled up with lids.
Storage Features
Hermetically sealed jars with apple jam must be stored in compliance with certain requirements, since it depends on the environmental conditions how much the cooked treat will remain fresh.
Important! To preserve the jam well kept all winter, the amount of sugar in it should be at least 50% of the total number of fruits.
Sugar acts as a natural preservative, which does not allow the product to deteriorate quickly, but during storage of blanks, you must adhere to the following recommendations:
- jam can only be stored in hermetically sealed glass jars that have undergone preliminary sterilization;
- it is best to keep blanks in a dark, cool cellar - in such conditions they can easily be stored for one year;
- to increase the shelf life of the product, you can put open jars of jam in a preheated oven for several minutes, and then roll them up with lids - after this procedure, the jam can be stored for up to 4 years;
- you can’t freeze apple jam - it will be candied and will become watery after defrosting;
- in a city apartment, cans with jam can be stored in the corridor or under the bed, observing the main condition - the lack of sunlight;
- to prevent mold in the jar with the workpiece, you must avoid sudden changes in temperature in the room.
To make a delicious apple jam, as in the photo from the Internet, you do not need special skills. The recommendations listed in this article will help you choose the best ingredients for the preparation, and with the help of detailed recipes that allow you to step-by-step determine the procedure, you can prepare exactly the version of the apple treat that you like best.
