Summer Bonanza: Peach-Cherry Jam
Posted by Eva Q, 2 years ago
I bake all year long, but summer is when I feel like I've hit the jackpot. Strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, peaches, apricots surround me. And while I love baking with and eating all this glorious fresh fruit, it's all gone so soon and I dream of it in the cold winter months (which for most of Canada is...oh, 10 months of the year). Four seasons, my foot.
For those of you, like me, that want to remember and taste the flavours of summer beyond August, I highly recommend doing a small batch of preserves. You can really taste summer in every bite of homemade preserves. And having a batch of summer jam or jelly in your baker's pantry is like a secret weapon. I swirl it into sour cream streusel coffee cake, atop pancakes or french toast, ice cream or in muffins. And though I was initially intimidated by all the equipment and set-up involved, I found out about small batch quick-cooking or no-cooking preserves. So instead of a big canning pot and sterilizing jars and lids and a hot water bath, small batch quick-cooking or no-cooking preserves tend to be freezer jams. While there are some drawbacks to freezer jams, namely storage space in your freezer and a shorter lifespan (freezer jams are best eaten within a few months); the perks are considerable, no big clunky equipment or vats of boiling water.
But ultimately, the tipping point for me was the flavour and texture. Quick cooking jams (they're literally cooked for a minute or two after being brought to a boil) TASTE like fresh fruit. They capture that incredible flavour and intensity of summer. Somehow when the fruit is "cooked", the brightness of those flavours seem lost. But this is purely personal preference.
My small batch of Peach-Cherry Jam took 1 hr. start to finish. And really, the most difficult part was blanching and skinning the peaches. A bit of a pain, but oh so worth it when you taste summer peaches in a jam. And another big selling point for homemade jams is that you can control the amount of sugar or sweetner you use. I find pretty much all commercial jams way too sweet. I want to taste the fruit, not the sugar! So making my own jam allows me to let the flavours of the fruit shine...sugar should enhance the natural sweetness but never be cloying or heavy. However, one of the side effects with cutting down the sugar is that your jam may be a bit too liquidy or not set enough. I cut my sugar drastically (from 5 cups to 1 3/4) without any ill effects, but it may change with each fruit.
Peach-Cherry Jam
6 cups (roughly 4 lbs) of local peaches, blanched, destoned and roughly cut into big chunks
1/2 cup maraschino cherries, rinsed, drained and cut into quarters
1 lemon
2 boxes of certo light
1 3/4 cups sugar (the original certo light instructions state 5 cups!...but again let your own taste buds to guide you)
1/2 to 3/4 cup water
Blanch peaches. Once cool enough enough to handle (10-15 mins), destone and cut into big chunks. For me that means I cut each peach into eighths.
Place peaches into a big pot with sugar and certo. Mash everything for a minute or two until you're happy with your ratio of large and small fruit bits. Let mixture sit for 10 mins.
Bring mixture to boil. Add the juice of 1 lemon and 1/2 to 3/4 cup of water (depending if you want a thinner or thicker texture). Cook for another 1-2 mins. Take pot off heat.
Cool for 20-30 mins and ladle into clean freezer containers.
Makes about 7 cups of jam and keeps in the freezer for 2-3 months.
