Easy Jam

Three years ago I planted some baby raspberry bushes in the garden - they were tiny but settled in well. Every year, they produce more and more fruit and as we have both summer and autumn raspberries, we have a constant small but steady supply over about a 5 month period.  They seem to like the cooler summer weather and the warm rain so, after last summer, they did particularly well!  Apart from serving them with yogurt or ice cream, in fruit salads, meringues and muffins (raspberry and white chocolate), there are always plenty left over so I just store them in the freezer.

I wanted to make them into jam but having never made jam before, I was daunted by the thought of boiling up the fruit in a special pan, having to use a jam thermometer, doing the test with a cold saucer and seeing if the test dollop jam went "wrinkly" and other such scary instructions.  And then... I discovered that I could make jam in my breadmaker.  Only 4 ingredients involved - just add them all to the pan, close the lid, push the button and just over an hour and a quarter later ... jam!!

Here is how I made it:-

Just 4 ingredients: (makes 2 jars)

Raspberries - frozen, measured before defrosting     - 2 cups
Baking apple (peeled, cored and chopped)               - 1 cup
Preserving sugar                                                  - 1 cup
Lemon Juice                                                        - 3 tbsp

• Add all ingredients to the bread pan and use the "Jam" setting
• Do not be tempted to open the lid during mixing
• Sterilise the jam jars in the dishwasher or by washing in hot soapy water and drying in a low oven for 10mins 
• Use tongs to remove paddle before pouring the jam into the warm jars
• Add lid while jam still hot and twist lid to seal

homemade raspberry and apple jam