Spiced apple jam

Bread jam has always been a comfort food for me whether eaten as breakfast or as a snack in the evening. I can have it daily. Though i mostly go for mixed fruit jam but making an apple jam did had some reasons behind. I had a stock of apples lying in the refrigerator which no one was consuming and the other reason was that i wanted to experiment with them. Usually i prepare apple sauce for my kid or give him steamed apple so one day while i was preparing it, i thought to myself that its colour and smell is like a jam and if i further process it and add sugar it may turn into jam. Then i goggled through various pages and found that i was thinking right and it needed two-three ingredients more which are easily found in one's kitchen. I couldn't wait and early morning i took all the apples which were about 1 and 1/2 kg and made jam out of them. Though my husband does not even sniff at jams and my baby is too small to eat it so i think i have to finish the whole lot this time. I was really happy after making jam at home as its texture and smell were perfect as we usually get from the market and the best part was that it was without preservatives. This time my husband seemed interested in eating it and he appreciated that it looks great and confirmed have i prepared it at home?

Apple jam

Ingredients used are:-

1. Apples 1 1/2 kg
2. Sugar 800 gm
3. Salt 1/2 tsp
4. Cinnamon powder 1 tsp
5. Lemon juice of 1 lemon

First of all peel all the apples, dice them and make sure that there is no seed left inside. Then add little water about 1/2 cup and bring them to boil so that they become soft. They start becoming dark in colour as they boil. While they boil, mash them using a masher to form a paste like consistency. One can also grind it in the mixer before boiling it to reduce the manual effort of mashing.

When the water gets evaporated and its volume is reduced add sugar and in. It will again loose water and we have to keep stirring it regularly till all the water is evaporated.

Then add Cinnamon powder and salt at this stage and mix well.

Keep on stirring continuously till all the water is evaporated and the jam starts leaving the sides of pan. When its ready it will move together as a single mass also called as having ball like consistency, which confirms that our jam is ready.

Let it cool down completely and finally add lemon juice to it. Mix well and store the jam in a sterilised glass jar and enjoy every day with your home made fresh jam. The process is quite time consuming but when you are done with it, you will feel that its worth spending a little time!

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