HOW TO MAKE PRICKLY PEAR FREEZER JELLY

I never had any intentions of taking on this project.  For this reason, I am a huge advocate for Bountiful Baskets.  Because of this CO-OP I now love figs, persimmons, indian squash and so many other fun fruits and veggies that we so often walk right past at the supermarket!  The weekend before this jam project our baskets included prickly pears!  And lots of them!  I had never had a prickly pear before and they are so interesting.  I love the sweet and subtle flavor and it just seemed like it would make a delicious jelly. 

Finding a recipe for an easy prickly pear freezer jelly was surprisingly difficult.  I found a few ideas here and there and finally one website suggested using Sure-Jell's recipe for sour cherry replacing the cherry juice with prickly pear juice.

Then there was figuring out how to juice a prickly pear!  This was by far the most helpful on how to juice them.  Luckily mine were already de-thorned so I didn't have to deal with pricklys!  I cut off the ends of the fruit, cut them in half...

And used a spoon to scoop out the flesh.  They are FULL of seeds and there doesn't seem to be an easy way to remove them.  A few sites recommended throwing them in a juicer-but the downside is the seeds often are juiced as well and taint the flavor.

I took the prickly pear flesh and added all of it to a saucepan.

And mushed it a little.

And then covered it will a bit of water-just enough to barely cover the fruit.

I brought that to a boil and tried to skim a bit of the foam off the top.

I got a cheesecloth ready to go in a glass bowl.

And dumped the whole thing in.  If I owned a strainer with fine little holes in it I would have done that...but I don't so cheesecloth it was!!

Now, if you are a patient person you let it cool and then wring it out.  I am not.  I burn my hands every time wringing and then end up squishing the remaining juice out with a wooden spoon.

After all of that effort, I am left with a cup of juice!!

Unfortunately the recipe calls for 3 1/2 cups of juice (which I do not have) so I improvised and cut the recipe down a third.  This is about a third of a box of the pectin, 1 cup of sugar and 1/3 C water. (Be sure to whisk the pectin and sugar together before adding the water or else this can happen).

I pulled that off the heat after it had boiled for a minute or so and added my prickly pear juice.  I had enough to fill 2 1/2 jars!

It is delicious and sweet!  I absolutely love the unique flavor-and it goes so great on homemade bread with butter!

PRICKLY PEAR FREEZER JELLY

3 1/2 cups prickly pear juice
1 cup water
1 package sure-jell low sugar pectin
3 cups sugar

TO MAKE JUICE:

WASH prickly pears and remove prickles.  Cut off ends of fruit, cut in half and scoop flesh into saucepan.  Add enough water to cover fruit.  Bring to a boil over high heat.  Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes.

STRAIN juice through a jelly bag or cheesecloth.

TO MAKE JELLY:

RINSE clean plastic containers and lids with boiling water. Dry thoroughly.

WHISK sugar and pectin in small saucepan. Add water and bring to boil on high heat, stirring constantly. Boil and stir 1 minute. Remove from heat and add fruit to mixture.

FILL all containers immediately to within 1/2 inch of tops. Wipe off top edges of containers; immediately cover with lids. Let stand at room temperature 24 hours. Jelly is now ready to use. Store in refrigerator up to 3 weeks or freeze extra containers up to 1 year. Thaw in refrigerator before using.

DELICIOUS PEACH-STRAWBERRY JAM

I have a thing for peaches.

Years ago I wrote the following blog post.  Peaches are a big deal.

I blog today of home and peaches.

Growing up we would come to St. George, UT every Labor Day for our Annual Gubler Reunion. This was a particularly exciting trip for my siblings and I because we were never allowed to have sleep-overs growing up, so the opportunity to stay up all night and party with our cousins was overwhelmingly exciting. We would load up in the van and take the SUPER long drive from IF to StG, gradually getting hotter and hotter as we went. We would often stop in Salt Lake and visit cousins who would then join us on the continuing drive down south. Usually on that stop we would also pick up a box of peaches.

Some years we picked up 2 boxes of peaches, but usually it was just the one.

The reunion was always so much fun. Friday night the adults would leave all of us and go out for a fancy adult dinner. I always looked forward to getting old enough to go to that. Unfortunately, I never got to that point (I'm on the younger end of the cousins). We would gorge ourselves on pizza and stay up all night playing video games and watching movies. Saturday morning was always the service project and adult meeting. We would clean up my Grandparents house, yard, garage, orchard and the like. I always found at least one lizard to chase after! After that we'd eat, play softball, kickball or get into a huge water fight. And that night we would do skits and eat fried chicken. This was also significant because this was the one time a year that I got to eat fried chicken!! SOOO good. We would try and play Saturday night too, but usually we ended up going to bed-knowing that there would be another long drive in the morning. Our favorite card game was Rook-something I remember my parents staying up all night playing with my grandparents...and playing blind Rook with my Great-Uncle Merl was the best! He would let us set the points up to infinity.

Sunday morning we would pack up the van, with our peaches and head home. I think the peaches hold a lot of significance in the story because they were our souvenir from StG. We would eat them one by one and then the box would be gone-and summer with it. We loved eating them cut up with a little sugar and nutmeg and milk poured over the top. It was sad to see them go-knowing that the empty box meant school and homework and fall.

If you haven't caught on already, we're doing peach-strawberry freezer jam.  The strawberries are delightful.  The key to a flavorful strawberry (especially for jam) is the size and ripeness.  You want to look for SMALL strawberries that are at their reddest point before they turn bad.  Those are the perfect ones.

I don't measure how much I have until after they are mushed.  The recipe calls for 2 1/4 c mashed strawberries.

And 2 cups of peaches.  They don't actually recommend mashing the peaches...

But I like to just a bit.  I feel like it gives the jam a more consistent consistency (too wordy?) if all the fruit is mashed, even if it is just a little.

Such lovely colors.  I add the 2 Tbsp lemon juice at this point just to be sure no browness happens!

This is important!  Be sure to whisk your sugar and pectin together BEFORE adding water.

Or else this can happen to you!!

3 cups sugar, 1 box pectin.

Bring to a boil until it's bubbling nicely.  Boil for 1 minute and then pull off the heat to add the fruit.

Quickly stir in fruit and add to jars.

And then go feed your scraps to your chickens!!  Initially they turned their noses up at it...but they came around.  I think they'd like the jam more (they are too spoiled).

So pretty.  And I love digging out all of the random jars I acquire to use for this.  Freezer jam is my favorite too because you don't have to worry as much about lids (because you don't have to can it) so really you can store it in anything that will hold up well in a freezer.

So yummy!  Favorite bread recipe coming soon!!

DELICIOUS PEACH-STRAWBERRY JAM

4-1/2 cups prepared fruit (buy about 2 lb. fully ripe peaches and 1 larger package of strawberries)
2 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice
3 cups sugar
1 box low-sugar fruit pectin

RINSE clean plastic containers and lids with boiling water. Dry thoroughly.

CRUSH strawberries thoroughly, one layer at a time.  Measure exactly 2 1/4 cups prepared strawberries into large bowl. Peel and pit peaches; finely chop and slightly mash the fruit. Measure exactly 2 cups prepared peaches into bowl with the strawberries. 

WHISK sugar and pectin in small saucepan. Add water and bring to boil on high heat, stirring constantly. Boil and stir 1 minute. Remove from heat and add fruit to mixture.

FILL all containers immediately to within 1/2 inch of tops. Wipe off top edges of containers; immediately cover with lids. Let stand at room temperature 24 hours. Jam is now ready to use. Store in refrigerator up to 3 weeks or freeze extra containers up to 1 year. Thaw in refrigerator before using.

FREAKING DELICIOUS RASPBERRY JAM

Growing up, we made freezer jam.  Every single year we made strawberry jam.  It was my absolute favorite until one year we went to Bear Lake for Raspberry Days, purchased SO many raspberries and made raspberry jam.  My love for strawberry jam was quickly pushed aside.  Raspberries stole my heart.

Time to get out all of those random jars you have.

Raspberry Jam in particular is just so much better when you use the lower sugar pectin.  It does not need the additional sugar AND the raspberry flavor just shines when left alone.  I love it so much.

We are following the recipe here under the "Quick and Easy" freezer jam recipes.  I tend to like my homemade endeavors to be quick and easy so this just fits.

Oooooo...raspberries.

It's recommended to mush your berries around a cup at a time.  I don't measure yet-I just grab a handful and go to town.

This is the children's most favorite part to assist with because it is the most likely to cause permanent staining to their face and clothes.  And when do we ever let them mush things?

From here we measure out 4 cups of berries.  I have a separate bowl standing by to add berries to as I mush them.

I didn't show this, but it is important to whisk the sugar and the pectin together BEFORE you add the water.  The sugar's course texture breaks up the pectin, distributing it evenly and preventing clumps when you add 1 C water to the box of pectin and 3 1/2 C sugar.

Add water to your whisked pectin/sugar mixture on high heat.

Bring to a boil.

While bringing to a boil scoot over and "thumbs up" that sweet Ray LaMontagne song on Pandora.  I love Ray-his sweet voice is necessary when taking on cooking projects.

It will quickly start bubbling and boiling.  Once it reaches this point let it boil for a minute or two.  You want it to be in that very early caramelizing state.

Pull it off the heat and add the berries.

Gently stir the mixture together until incorporated, about 1 minute.

Make a huge mess adding to jars.  One day I am going to purchase a funnel.  And it's going to be awesome.  Until then...I just wipe my jars.

Let sit for a day or so and then freeze!!

My most favorite bread recipe is coming soon!!  Stay tuned for more jam recipes too ♥

FREAKING DELICIOUS RASPBERRY JAM

4 cups prepared fruit (about 3 pints ripe red raspberries)
3-1/2 cups sugar
1 box low-sugar pectin
1 cup water

RINSE clean plastic containers and lids with boiling water. Dry thoroughly.

CRUSH raspberries thoroughly, one layer at a time. (Press 1/2 of the pulp through sieve to remove some of the seeds, if desired.) Measure exactly 4 cups crushed raspberries into large bowl.

MIX sugar and pectin in large saucepan. Stir in water. Bring to boil on medium-high heat, stirring constantly. Continue boiling and stirring 1 minute. Remove from heat. Add raspberries; stir 1 minute or until well blended.

FILL all containers immediately to within 1/2 inch of tops. Wipe off top edges of containers; immediately cover with lids. Let stand at room temperature 24 hours. Jam is now ready to use. Store in refrigerator up to 3 weeks or freeze extra containers up to 1 year. Thaw in refrigerator before using.

You can see more information about the recipe, other jam recipes and nutritional information here.