Jammin'

Wow, we have a lot of apricots.  Most of them fall on the ground before we can get to them but we picked a ton off the tree last week and washed them up with the idea of making apricot preserves.  We ended up with a pretty large bowlful and just hoped it would be enough to fill the 12 little jars we had purchased.  I got a recipe off the internet and we tested it tonight.  Guess what?  We only used about 1/4 of the bowlful of apricots.  Oh my gosh!  What are we going to do with the rest?  This doesn't even take into account the hundreds that are still on the tree.

The recipe we used called only for diced apricots, sugar and lemon juice.  Pretty simple for our first time.  I opted for a pectin-free recipe since many that I found did not use it.  Apparently, pectin is used to thicken the jam but maybe it isn't absolutely necessary for a fruit like apricots.  There is nothing wrong with pectin; it's a plant derivative that appears naturally in our diets.  I just liked the idea of fewer ingredients.  Also, it wasn't easily found at the neighborhood grocery.

I had the bright idea of jazzing up the recipe with a little cinnamon and nutmeg.  By the time I added it, the apricot mixture was already boiling on the stove.  There were at least 12 cups worth of stuff in the pot at that point so I sprinkled in some cinnamon.  It looked like a lot sitting on top of the gooey mixture but I stirred it in and it just kind of blended away.  I added only a touch of nutmeg.

The mixture continued to boil and it was supposed to thicken but, since I have never done this before, I wasn't sure how thick it should be before pouring it into the jars.  Matthew's mom said that it always thickens up as it cools.  I guess we'll just see what happens.

When it's ready, you pour the mixture into jars that have been boiled for 10 minutes so they are sterilized.  Then you pop the tops on and screw on the ring before dropping the whole thing back into the boiling water for another 10 minutes.  This will help to seal them so they can be stored.  They were so cute because each little jar "popped" after being pulled from the boiling bath.  Matt took one out and set it on the counter then, a few seconds later, we hear this little "POP".  Some of them popped right away and some took a little longer.  There was one holdout that didn't pop until we were halfway through dinner.

We are waiting now for 12-24 hours and then we'll check the seals to make sure all is well.  We did have one jar worth of extra "jam" but we hadn't sterilized enough jars so we just put the mixture in that one and stuck it in the fridge.  That will be our test subject.  Unfortunately, we tested it already and I'm not sure it's thick enough AND I need to lay off the cinnamon next time.  The stuff tastes like pie filling.  I think we might label this as "Apricot Dessert Topping" because it will be delicious on ice cream or pound cake or even pancakes...or you can just eat it straight out of the jar like I did.  It was yummy but it didn't taste much like apricots.

So, the plan is to try again on Wednesday.  Hopefully, we'll end up with some delicious apricot preserves.  After that...apricot pie!