No Sugar Strawberry Jam

NO SUGAR STRAWBERRY FREEZER JAM

by ERIN, THE $5 DINNER MOM on JUNE 20, 2011

  shareshare

When you accidentally come home with 17 lbs. of strawberries from a morning at the pick your own berry patch, you have to do something. And you have to do it fast.

I started to can the strawberry jam, but quickly saw that if I continued on the canning path to use up all the strawberries that I’d be up all night. While I did can many jars of strawberry jam, I needed a “quicker” alternative to help us get through all the strawberries.

This no sugar freezer jam was the answer!

(More on the canning adventures tomorrow.)

The How To

Mash strawberries with potato masher…

…one layer at a time. Let sit while you prepare the juice/pectin.

Pour the apple juice into a small saucepan and stir in the pectin. A whisk would have worked better than the plastic spatula I was using    Bring to a hard boil and let boil for 1 minute.

Pour straight into the mushed strawberries while it’s still piping hot.

Stir, stir, stir for a minute. Ladle into containers.  Any old plastic container will work…just be sure to give 1/2 inch headspace, as the jam will expand after it sets and then freezes.

I made 2 batches (recipe below is for 1 batch) and got this 4 8 oz. containers. 1 6 oz. container, plus a little more that I’ll keep in the fridge. (I used these freezer jam containers.)

No Sugar Strawberry Freezer Jam

From the Ball No Sugar Pectin Package

Yield – 4 8 oz. containers-ish

Preparation Time – 20 minutes

Cooking Time – 0 minutes

Ingredients

• 3 lbs. strawberries, hulled and stems removed
• 1 3/4 cups apple juice
• 1 1/2 package no sugar, low sugar pectin (I find that using 1 1/2 package really gets the jam to set perfectly!)

Directions

• Mash the strawberries in a large bowl.
• In a small saucepan, bring the apple juice and pectin to a boil and boil for 1 minute.
• Pour straight into the mashed strawberries and stir hard for 1 minute.
• Ladle into the freezer containers and place in the refrigerator overnight to let it cool slowly and set.
• Then store in the freezer.
• Good in the freezer for up to 1 year, in the fridge for 3 weeks.

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Read more: http://www.5dollardinners.com/2011/06/no-sugar-strawberry-freezer-jam.html#ixzz20LK0Lmvk