Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Banana Strawberry Freezer Jam

So, this is the jam I made the other day that y'all requested the results and recipe for. This recipe comes from the Ball Blue Book for canning and preserving.

Recipe:
3 large bananas
3 cups crushed strawberries(about 1 1/2 quarts)
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 pouch freezer jam pectin

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cover a baking sheet with aluminum foil. Place bananas on baking sheet; do not peel. Bake for 15 minutes at 400. Cool. Peel and crush bananas. Measure 1 cup crushed bananas. Combine bananas and strawberries in a medium bowl; set aside. Stir sugar and pectin together in a large bowl until well blended. Add fruit mixture to sugar mixture and stir 3 minutes. Ladle jam into plastic freezer jars, leaving 1/2 inch head space. Let jam stand 30 minutes to thicken. Lable and freeze.

Results: So, the jam TASTES great! The only thing that bothers me is that it froze solid. Most freezer jams maintain a semi liquid state so you can spoon out jam. With this jam I had to cut out a chunk from the freezer to defrost and try. If anyone has any suggestions they would be appreciated since I've never done freezer jam before! (The regular strawberry freezer jam recipe turned out fantastic!)

3 comments:

  1. Thanks for sharing this! I've really only made the strawberry freezer jam recipe that comes inside the Sure-Jell pectin package. That used to be a favorite young girls or young women's church activity. I will have to try this sometime soon!

    From what little I know about freezing food, you may want to experiment with adding a little more sugar or pectin. I think that the water in the fruit is what freezes solid and sugar or pectin is what prevents a full freeze. (just my guess). Have you ever heard of the radio show called "Splendid Table"? She answers listeners' questions and this would be a good one to ask!

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  2. I've never heard of the show but I might have to give it a try. I reread the recipe and it calls specifically for freezer jam pectin. I used regular pectin which says it can be used for freezer jam and then the other day at the store I discovered they have pectin specfically for freezer jams only so who knows...

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  3. I had no idea that there were different kinds of pectin. I've only used the regular kind, I guess.

    The radio show is nationally syndicated through NPR, but you can email or call in.

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