Tutorial Tuesday-Strawberry Freezer Jam

Yea!  I’m excited for today’s tutorial!  I’m going to take you through the process of making freezer jam.  It’s the easiest jam to make and doesn’t involve hot water baths to seal and preserve it!  My husband and I make 2 batches every spring and that barely gets us until the next spring…it’s SO good and tastes so fresh even after months of being in the freezer!  I had one neighbor in Texas that was more than willing to watch our cats while we were away on vacation, as long as his payment was at least one container of Strawberry Jam.  (His wife told me later he ate the whole thing in one sitting with crackers and she never got any….hehe!)

Gather the following supplies and ingredients:

2 pints strawberries

4 cups white sugar

1 box Sure Jell Fruit Pectin

4-5 Plastic storage containers (washed and dried)  This can be Gladware or a similar product

1 potato masher

You’re Sure Jell will look like this, it’s about the size of a Jello Box:

Make sure you get the regular and not the low sugar or no sugar variety.  While those ones are good, I’ll be using the recipe from the standard Sure Jell.

Start by washing and cutting your strawberries.  **Be sure they are room temperature!  If they are chilled you might wind up with gritty jam…yuck!

Use your potato masher to mash them up.  If you have children that would love to help this would be a great job for them!  Be sure to wear an apron so the strawberry juice doesn’t squirt you!

It will look like this when it’s done.  I usually do batches of squishing and mashing….it’s easier to do a little at a time instead of all at once.  (Even though the recipe says 2 pints, sometimes it’s a little more or a little less so doing a few at a time makes sure that you don’t squish more berries than you have to!)  Empty into a measuring cup until you get to EXACTLY 2 cups of strawberry mash.  It’s very important in this recipe for everything to be exact or the pectin might not set and make your jam!

Pour this into a large bowl and add in the 4 cups of sugar.  (Yep a whole 4 cups to your 2 cups strawberries…I never claimed this was a healthy recipe, but it IS delicious!)

You’ll let the bowl sit for 10 minutes and stir occasionally.  This is helping to break up some of the sugar granules.  When you’ve got about 2-3 minutes left on the timer start your pectin mixture.

Your pectin will be mixed with 3/4 cup water in a small pot on the stove.  I usually add in the pectin a little at a time with a wire whisk.  It clumps really easily so if I’m adding and whisking at the same time I get less lumps I have to work on. Bring it to a boil on high heat and stir constantly.  Boil for 1 minute, continuing to stir the whole time.

Remove from heat and immediately add it to your strawberry mixture.

Now, hope that your arm muscles will hold out!  You’ll mix the pectin and strawberry mixture together until all sugar crystals are dissolved.  It usually takes about 3 minutes.  Doesn’t sound like a lot, but when you’re vigorously stirring for the entire time it goes by super slow!  I usually call in a helper to take turns with the stirring so your arm doesn’t fall off.

Isn’t it looking good?  After the granules have dissolved, pour into your containers, being sure you leave enough space at the top for them to expand when they freeze.  Let stand on your counter without touching them for 24 hours to set.  Put in your freezer and take out as needed!

See, that wasn’t too bad, was it?  If you don’t have this recipe handy when it’s time to make your jam, don’t worry.  Every box of Sure Jell has a recipe inside of it, and it also has variations for both jam and jelly with different types of fruit like peach, mango (which I haven’t tried yet, but really want to), apple jelly, etc.  Make sure you follow the recipe for the Freezer Jam, not cooked jam.

Enjoy!