I must admit that I was not very fond of jams while growing up… I would always choose crème patissière or chocolate over jam filled sweets. It was way too sweet for me. That was until I went to Normady with my parents and some friends. We were staying at a farm and the lady who owned it used to make the most amazing jams EVER. I literally fell in love with her strawberry jam as it was not overly sweet and it had huge pieces of strawberries inside. From that time on, I have been making my own jam. I don’t make it often and when I do, I make it in small quantities as we do not consume much of it, but it tastes so much better than any jam you can buy at the store!!! I made this cherry jam around Christmas time (when cherries were at their peak down here) and totally forgot about posting it! I need to really sort out my archive!!! Anyhow… as it is cherry season in the Northern Hemisphere, I guess now is a good time as ever to share it! So, here you have it… there are no real quantities for this recipe: you will need to measure your cooked cherries to know how much sugar to add. Other than that, it is really easy to make… and it tastes amazing! Enjoy!
Cherry Jam
How to make Cherry Jam, the easy way!
Ingredients
- Cherries pitted
- Sugar
- 1 lemon
- 1 tbsp Maraschino liqueur optional
Instructions
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Put 2/3 of the cherries in a pot and roughly blend them with a hand mixer. Make sure not to make them into a purée, you just want to make them into smaller pieces without having to cut them by hand (this will save you a lot of time!).
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Add the remaining 1/3 of the cherries and the zest and juice of 1 lemon to the pot.
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Cook the cherries, stirring occasionally, until they are completely soft (this will take about 20 minutes).
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When cooked, measure out how many cherries you have (juice included) and add 3/4 of that amount in sugar to the pot (e.g. if you have 4 cups of cooked cherries, add 3 cups of sugar).
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Stir well and cook over moderate to high heat, stirring often so it does not stick to the bottom of the pan.
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While it’s cooking, put a small plate in the freezer.
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Once the bubbles subside and the jam appears like it is beginning to gel, put the fire off.
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Put a small amount of jam on the frozen plate and return it to the freezer for a few minutes. If it wrinkles when you nudge it, it’s ready.
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If not, cook it some more and test it again.
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Store the jam in sterilized jars.
sounds yummy! i love cherry jam.
hi dear
can u pls tell me how much cherry & sugar to be used?
Hi there. You can use any amount of cherries you like. After you cook the cherries for the first 20 minutes, weigh them (and their juices) and add 3/4 of that amount in sugar (so if you have 4 cups of cooked cherries, then add 3 cups of sugar – or 1 kg of cherries add 750 gms of sugar) and keep cooking.
Do you use normal granulated sugar?
Yes, I use granulated sugar. 🙂
oh ok thanks a ton dear 🙂
Wishing I had this to spread on my breakfast toast!
How long will the jam keep? Thxs!
Hi Nicole. It depends, if you sterilise the jars and make sure they are hermetically sealed, then they last for a few months. If you don’t sterilise the jars, you can keep them in the fridge for a couple of months (that’s what I do, but they never last longer than that as we finish them before!).
Thanks! I’ve been wanting to make some cherry jam for a while but I’ve been hestiant with the fact that it would spoil far too quickly. I’m definantly given this recipe a go!! 🙂
Two tips with jam that my Mum taught me and I have used for 40+ years (winning competitions along the way)
A) warm your sugar in the oven before putting into cooked fruit it speeds up the gelling process
B) I can store jam in the pantry for over a year by washing jars and rinsing well in hot water. Then about 20-30 minutes before the jam is due to be set put them in a oven at 110-120 C this sterilizes them and makes them hot ready to put the hot jam in reducing the possibility of breaking the glass. Within a few minutes of filing screw on the lids and leave to cool overnight. The buttons always pull down and the jams ready for storage.
thank you for recipe.I loved this jam especially the lemon zest. Yum.Gave away some to friends as christmas gifts..reluctantly I might add
..many requests for more this christmas..this time I will make extra for all year through
This jam worked perfectly, followed directions. I did use jam setting sugar which claims to have pectin in it.
Very happy with results..