No Cook Agave Sweetened Strawberry Freezer Jam

May 26, 2009 · Filed under Recipies -- Sauces & Dressings

Making jam is a great thing to do with fruit that is in the height of it’s season or is a bit overripe and damaged. That means, use it up while it’s cheap! Right now for us in South Texas, that means strawberries! I got enough strawberries for three batches of jam for about 7 dollars. That’s even cheaper than buying frozen fruit (but you can definately do that too). Save the expensive stuff like blackberries and blueberries for eating straigt or in cobblers and stuff, make jam with the fruit you have coming out of your ears in your neck of the woods!

Clean and hull your strawberries and throw them in the food processor. Blender is fine or just a potato masher and a big bowl will work too. You need four cups of processed fruit per package of pectin blend.

I used a no-cook mix that required you to mix the sweetner with the pectin mix. We did that, but it probably wasn’t necessary. In the next batches I just threw it all in the food processor and it was fine. However if you decide to use sugar or a sweetner like Splenda, mix in the pectin first, just in case.

We used a cup and a half of agave. This seems like a lot but works out to a little over a teaspoon of agave per 1 tablespoon serving of finished jam. You can definately use Splenda instead, according to the package directions. I prefer agave because it doesn’t raise my blood sugar and is a natural sweetner. It makes an AMAZING tasting jam. Mix the sweetner and pectin with the fruit, pour into clean jars or plastic containers with lids.

Let the closed jars sit on the counter and thicken for about 30 minutes and then whatever is going to be eaten immediately pop in the fridge. The ones you are saving for later can go in the freezer. You will use them up way before they get freezer burned, don’t worry!