We ran out of jam and jelly this week. I made a ton with fresh fruit this past summer and canned it all. After going through a lot of it ourselves and giving some away as Christmas gifts, we finally ran out. So, I whipped up a batch of strawberry jam using a large bag of frozen strawberries. It's not quite as good as the fresh-made jam, but still turned out delicious. I'm also thinking I will use this jam in my Valentine's Day pancakes. I'll do a trial this weekend and let you know how they turn out.
I don't have a recipe that I use for this, I tend to wing it. And here's what I do.
First, put the frozen strawberries in a large pot. I had a big bag from Costco and my pot was almost not big enough.
Once the strawberries start to defrost a bit, then sprinkle on the sugar. I started with 1 cup of sugar (which was not enough) and ended up adding about 3 1/2 cups total. I suggest you start with the minimum amount of sugar and after the next step, taste your concoction and add more sugar as needed until its to your liking.
Also, at this point, I cut and scraped 3 vanilla beans and added the scrapings to the pot. Then I tied the beans into a bundle and stuck them in as well. You could also choose to add a hint of citrus instead of the vanilla and add lemon zest and a little lemon juice.
As the strawberries cook, you will see some foam start to form on top...scrape off what you can (I didn't scrape off too much because that's where a lot of my little vanilla beans were floating).
Once the strawberries are cooked and mushy, I used a hand blender to blend them together with the juices. Be sure if you put vanilla beans in the pot to fish them out before blending. You could also just mash them with a potato masher or transfer them to a regular blender or food processor. Mashed with the potato masher leaves a bit more texture to the jam.
Now, taste the jam and see if it needs more sugar. Mine tasted watery, even after I added sugar to the right sweetness. Don't worry about this, because once it is cooled and refrigerated that watery taste will go away and the jam will thicken.
Cool the jam and put it in jars. I didn't can this batch, I used jars I'd been saving....like peanut butter jars and old jam jars. Then, I stuck my jars in the freezer. And the container I used for my fridge? A recycled ketchup bottle.....cause squeezy jam is fun. :)
