It’s one of the best times of the year…. It’s officially Strawberry season! British Strawberries, are one of the best strawberries ever. Fact.

There are so many ways to use strawberries and I have lots of recipes coming up to use them. A very easy way to use up an abundance of strawberries is to make jam! Jam is honestly so easy to make and you only need a couple punnets of berries and sugar. Thats it! I’ve added some raspberries to the jam to make it slightly more tart as strawberries are naturally extremely sweet!

To ensure the jam is the correct consistency, there are a couple of ways to check that your Jam has set:

1. Use a sugar thermometer and once the temperature of the fruit reaches 105C your ready to jar it.
2. Use the frozen plate method. Before you start making your jam, place a couple of small plates in your freezer. After 15-20 mins when you think the jam is ready then remove a plate from the freezer and dollop a small amount in the centre. Leave it for a minute and then run your finger through the centre of the dollop. If it wrinkles and when separated, doesn’t run together then it’s ready to bottle.
3. The drip method. After the 15-20 minutes of cooking you’ll notice that the jam has started to thicken. Dip your spoon into the jam and when lifting it out then turn it onto it’s side. If the jam takes a while to form a long slow drip then it has reached it’s setting point

If the jam isn’t ready, return back to the pan and continue to cook until it reaches the correct temperature. Then pour into jars and leave to cool. The jam will thicken once it cools.

When making jam, it is important to prepare the jars. They need to be completely sterile so that no bacteria will grow on the jam. I recommend you to check out ‘tin and thyme’ blog post about it. It is so so helpful! https://tinandthyme.uk/2019/10/how-to-sterilise-glass-jars/

You will need two jars

Ingredients:

250g British Strawberries

100g Raspberries

200g Caster Sugar

1 Lemon, Juiced

Method:

1. Prepare your jam jars following the instructions above.
2. Chop the strawberries into small pieces and place in a medium pan with the raspberries and sugar
3. Bring to the boil, on a medium heat and continue to cool for 5-10 minutes.
4. Make sure to keep stirring the jam so it doesn’t stick at the bottom of the pan, remove from the heat once it reaches 105 degrees celsius. You can use the various ways to check the temperature which I have listed above!
5. Once it is the correct temperature, carefully pour into the sterilised jars and leave to cool slightly. It will set once it is cold. Then place the lids on the jars and store in the fridge.