A very jammy Christmas

I think I have already mentioned my plans to bake for as many gifts as I can this year. With a week until Christmas, I really have to get moving.

We are doing a type of Secret Santa this year with my husband's family. This post is kinda breaking the surprise (if he or the family reads this post), but one of my people is my Grandfather-in-law. He's a vegetarian and quite hard to buy for (don't worry, was not planning on getting him a chunk of meat, just thought I'd throw that piece of trivia in there). Last year I made him some chocolate sauces and they were a winner. So this year I decided to try jam. At the markets yesterday there were boxes of delicious looking cherries. I hate maraschino cherries or anything cherry flavoured, but I love a juicy, fresh cherry. They are perfectly in season at Christmas, so by default, are the traditional Christmas fruit. So when deciding on a jam flavour, how could I pass up cherry?

I have never made jam before, so hopefully my first attempt as a Christmas gift won't backfire. I made a tomato chutney once, however simmered it for too long and it turned into more of a jam than a chutney. I found a fairly simple recipe for a cherry jam, but had no idea what a preservative sugar was. After a bit of googleing, most people said just use a granulated sugar. I popped to the shop and got some white sugar and also found a jam setter. I bought both and decided to do a mix of the two recipes.

And here it is, my Cherry Christmas Jam. I could not resist opening one of the jars for us to "sample" for breakfast this morning - sweet jam spread over buttery toast - YUM!

Cherry Christmas Jam

Makes 3 to 4 jars of jam

750g cherries

1/2 lemon

3 to 4 table spoons water  

600g sugar

40g Jamsetta (with pectin)

3 to 4 sterilised jars

Using a cherry pitter (or if you don't have one, like me, spend an hour deseeding the cherries with a knife), deseed the cherries and put them in a large heavy based saucepan. Squeeze the juice of half a lemon (make sure no seeds go into the saucepan) over the cherries and add the water. Over a low to medium temperature, heat the cherries until soft. While cherries are heating, pour 600g sugar into an oven proof bowl and put in the oven at 160 degrees celsius for about 10 minutes (you just want the sugar to be warm, not caramelise).  When cherries are ready, pour in the warm sugar and the Jamsetta and continuously stir until mixture comes to a boil (you might have to increase your temperature to medium if you had it on low). Allow to boil for about 10 minutes (I had the temperature a bit low, so was boiling for about 30 minutes). 

Put a small plate in the freezer. To test if the jam is ready, take the cold plate from the freezer and place a teaspoon size amount of jam on the plate. Allow to cool for 30 seconds then run your finger through it. If the mixture crinkles, it's ready, if not, continue to boil and try again in a few minutes.

When ready, let stand off heat for about 10 minutes, then pour mixture into sterilised jars. Put on the lid and allow jam to cool completely. Jam can be stored in the fridge or cool place for up to 3 months. Once opened, the jam will last for a month in the fridge.