Yo, yo, yo! I am VERY proud to say that I canned strawberry peach jam all by myself last week. And believe me, if I can do it, I PROMISE you can do it. My Mom has made this kind of jam for as long as I can remember and my husband is a huge fan. Let me be completely honest though, this recipe does not actually have strawberries in it nor is it healthy for you. BUT, one thing I can promise you is that it is delicious. My kids are already scarfing this stuff down like it’s going out of style.
Ingredients needed:
10 cups of Mashed-up Peaches. {about 25 medium sized peaches}
7 cups of White Sugar
1 big box of Strawberry Jello
Tip 1: Before you start peeling your peaches, blanch them {submerge them} in a pot of boiling water for about 40-60 seconds. This will save you oodles of time and the skins will peel right off after you blanch them. Next, submerge them in a bowl of ice water to cool off.
Tip 2: Cut an “X” in the bottom of your peaches with a paring knife. The “X” will help expedite the peeling process because you will have four edges to hold onto while you peel. As you can see in the photo below, the skin of the peaches will come right off and the “x” will help speed up the process.
Tip 3: Use a blender to mash up your peaches. I use my Ninja and I LOVE it! You can puree the peaches if you want, but we like our jam a little chunky, so we just pulsed the Ninja until we reached a chunky-yet-smooth consistency. Make sure you have 10 cups of mashed peaches when you finish blending.
Tip 5: Place your flat canning lids in a separate sauce pan of water and boil. This step will help the bottles to seal easily!
Pour your jam into your now hot jars, put on the flat lid from the boiling water and tighten the ring firmly.
Tip #7: Put the jars upside down. I am a firm believer that this is the reason why my lids seal so well. The heat from the jam helps the sealing process.
It’s super good and the recipe doesn’t take all day. I made two batches before noon when I made it. Canning can be an all day process and I like that this recipe isn’t that way. BUT, I guess it depends how many batches you are making.
That looks so yummy! Thankfully, I’m going to the store today anyway! 😉
Just a thought:
While this jam may not need any processing in the traditional way (it’s not a traditional jam because the jelling agent is gelatin and not pectin), most cooked jams are put in their jars and then placed in a canner – a large pot of boiling water and left in that pot for approximately 10 minutes. That’s what seals the lids in other jams. If you aren’t processing your jam then of course you would need to put the jars upside down so that the heat seals them. Otherwise they don’t seal. Of course, you can always use a paraffin seal. It would be interesting to know if this jam would tolerate processing in a canner in order to ensure a good seal.
I mention this only because I’m a jam maker – this year I made 8 or 9 different varieties of jam, including Blackberry-Peach-Basil and Peach-Habanero-Basil, Raspberry-Vanilla, and Apricot-Rainier Cherry.
would you care to share your recipe for Blackberry-peach-Basil
I agree with the heat processing in a hot water bath….. 10 minutes in boiling water….kills any little bacteria that could be there and adds length to the life of your jam….. I too am a jam maker and I would never go without the jam canning process….. this looks great…..I use this recipe for strawberry fig….yum
Wow! I wish I’d read this post a couple of weeks ago. I had oodles of peaches from our trees – more than I could deal with. I made two batches of preserves, a batch of pie filling, and just cut, sugared, and froze the rest. Your recipe sounds yummy. I’m going to print it out for future reference.
Love this! I’m new at making jam and hope mine turns out as yummy looking as your’s!
So once you process in canner or water bath can you store in pantry or refrigerate it. Never made jam before a first timer.
You can store it in the pantry until opened. Once it is open, you will want to refrigerate. I hope this helps! xo