Cherry Jam

Cherries are in season and so I decided to make some indulgent Cherry Jam.  It turned out to be a bit runny but with a lovely flavour.

Thanks to Mr Google I found a new way to pip the cherries.  It worked perfectly and didn't even result in cherry stained fingers.  I used a plastic straw.  You just push it down onto the part of the cherry that the stalk attaches to – and, the pip just pops out the other side!

Ingredients:

Kilo of cherries

Kilo of jam setting sugar

Squeeze of lemon juice

Cherry brandy

Method:

Put your pipped cherries into the pot and give them a mash with a potato masher.  (I didn't mash it quite enough)  Add the sugar and stir.  Let it sit in the pot for 20 minutes or so.  Add your lemon juice.

Boil until the jam reaches setting point.  This is the bit I didn't get quite right.  I put a saucer into the freezer and then put a bit of the jam onto the cold dish and waited a moment and looked to see if it would set.  I thought it was ok so I took the jam off the heat and added a spoonful of cherry brandy. 

I poured the jam into clean jars and turned them over a bit to try to distribute the cherries evenly through the jam.  The next morning I found the jam was still too runny so I reboiled it – and what do you know the same thing happened so I decided to leave it runny.  This is a much better option than letting the jam boil for too long with inedible results.

PS: The flower in the pic is bougainvillea from my garden – it's so lovely this year.