Wednesday 22 July 2009

Blackberry Jam




We have heaps of blackberries in the garden at the moment. The ones we have are an early, thornless variety, so they're nice and easy to pick!

I popped out into the garden the other day and came back with 4lbs, so I decided to make some blackberry jelly, using a recipe from my mother's Cookery Year cookbook, but then I couldn't let the left-over cooked/drained fruit go to waste so I passed it through a mouli to get rid of the seeds and then turned it into jam.

Ingredients:
4lbs blackberries
1 pint water
juice of 2 lemons
sugar

First, simmer the blackberries with the water and lemon juice until tender (about 45 min). Then pour into a sieve lined with muslin and allow to drip for about an hour.

To make the jelly:
Collect the juice and allow 1lb of sugar for each 1lb of juice. Heat in a copper pan, and boil rapidly until setting point is reached. I use Nigella's tip and place a saucer in the freezer beforehand and then just test little blobs of jelly/jam to see if it crinkles when it cools. Then pour into clean, sterilised jars.

To make the jam:
Pass the remaining fruit left in the sieve through a mouli to get rid of the seeds. This will make a nice puree. Then weigh equal quantities of the fruit puree and sugar, and proceed as above to make the jam.

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