Homemade Apricot Jam in June

All I needed was some apricot jam for a recipe.  I wanted it to be without high fructose corn syrup.  I guess wanting to afford it was too much to ask.  What to do?  Spend almost $5 on a measly cup of organic apricot jam on principle ?  I would love to, but hello, the economy…   I spent $2.53 on a bag of apricots instead. 

Making jam is easy, it takes very few ingredients, and if you make a small batch – one for the freezer and one for the refrigerator – you don’t need to haul out all of your canning equipment. 

So, there I was at 7:45 pm looking at the apricots.  I ate one for inspiration, then started checking out recipes.  Most recipes called for x number of pounds or x number of cups of fruit.  Well, I had 12, so I washed, pitted and chopped, and came up with 4 cups.  Why didn’t I just weigh them  you ask?  I have children, let’s leave it at that.   Next to be ruled out were all the recipes that required pectin (I don’t have any), and canning (it’s late and hot).  One recipe claimed to be able to be made completely in the microwave.  I must warn you, gentle readers, cooking in the microwave is certainly NOT an assurance that things will not burn.  Maybe later I will blog about the charred chex mix incident of Sunday.  Suffice it to say that even when cooking with the microwave, you have to pay attention…  ANYHOW, I combined the recipes I liked (wasn’t too lazy to do), and at 8:15 the ingredients were in the pot.  I cannot stress enough that a long handled wooden spoon is crucial.  This jam cooked for 20 minutes, or one phone call with a friend.  There are all sorts of “put a blob of jelly on the plate” type tests to see if it’s done.  I was bored and hot, it appeared thick, so it was done.   There are 3 cups of jam sitting on the windowsill.  This cost less than $4, and took maybe 45 minutes.

The recipe?

4 cups of apricots  - 12 of them, halved then quartered.
3 cups of sugar yeah – that seemed like a lot of sugar, but the extension people say that sugar prevents the growth of microorganisms (they are silent  about the growth of my waistline.)
2 tablespoons of water – which will seem like not nearly enough and then like way too much
1 tablespoon of lemon juice

Put everything in a pot and stir for about 5 minutes at a good boil.  Get out a potato masher and see if the fruit is soft enough to start to mash (this is solely dependent on the apricots).  Keep boiling and stirring and mashing.  Talk to your friend on the phone so that the standing and stirring and mashing is not tedious; 20 minutes.  Let it sit while you clean up.  Pour it into containers and let it cool, then cover loosely and refrigerate until it’s cold, THEN put on the real cover.  Condensation will destroy your gel.  Once the one for the freezer is cold, put it in the freezer.

Makes 3 cups. 

Next morning note:  YUM!