Homemade strawberry jam

Today I bring you my favourite jam recipe, the homemade strawberry jam recipe that I like the most and that drives my children crazy too. It is really simple to make, but the intention of today's post is precisely to encourage you to start making your own jam if you don't already, because it is so worth it.

When you start making your own jam at home, you can't stop. It's easy, it's fast , you make sure you know the ingredients you're adding well, and you know that, far from using flavourings, chemical preservatives and undesirable sweeteners, you're carefully choosing the fruit and ingredients you're adding. You can make 100% natural, homemade jam in an hour (and it tastes delicious!).

How do you start making jam? I recommend that you start with the flavours of jam that you enjoy the most, such as peach jam, strawberry jam, fig jam or red fruit jam. A safe bet in all cases!

That's why I'm bringing you the strawberry jam recipe that we always make at home. It's delicious and, in fact, apart from using it as jam on toast, you'll want to use it to accompany buns and scones , with ice cream, to eat with yogurt, with panna cotta... Or you'll eat it by the spoonful like I do when you're not looking!

Ingredients

• 450 gr of strawberries
• 50 gr of white sugar
• 125 gr brown sugar
• The juice of 1/2 squeezed lemon
• 1 cc of cinnamon powder or a cinnamon stick

Preparation

1. Remove the stems from the strawberries, wash them and cut them into small pieces. Bear in mind that they break down a lot during cooking, so if you don't like lumps in your jam, cut the strawberries into small pieces; if you don't mind lumps, you can cut them into quarters without thinking twice.
2. Place all the ingredients (strawberries, sugar, lemon juice and cinnamon) in a large saucepan or cocotte and turn on the heat. Set the heat to medium at first, then lower it as the cooking process progresses.
3. Mix all the ingredients well and let them cook, allowing the pectin in the lemon juice to react with the sugars, so that everything can bind together and end up forming a gelatinous texture (which will be noticeable when it cools). Keep stirring constantly.
4. After an hour, the jam will be ready. Remove it from the cocotte and put it in the airtight jars if you are going to vacuum seal it for your preserves, or put it in a container with a lid if you are going to consume it in the following days. In this case, let it cool, cover it and put it in the refrigerator.

Making jam in a bread maker

*If you have a bread maker, put the ingredients in the bowl and turn on the jam programme if it has one (program number 15 in the case of the Moulinex bread maker ). The programme will last for one hour and will take care of mixing for you. After the hour, remove the jam from the bowl and divide it into jars.

Grades

• I love using brown sugar, it goes fabulously well with strawberries and cinnamon. If you have the chance, use brown sugar with great woody and aromatic aromas - they make some delicious jams. Using panela is also a great idea!
• I use cinnamon sticks or ground cinnamon interchangeably, I love it. And if I use ground cinnamon, I don't skimp on it, I add a dessert spoon (it goes so well with the flavour of roasted strawberries). But you should adapt the recipe to your tastes and preferences - you can not use cinnamon if you don't like it, following the same recipe.
• When you take it out of the bread maker or the pot it will be very hot and liquid. Let it cool down and try it with a spoon - you will see how delicious it tastes and you will surely imagine, at that point, all the delicious desserts it can accompany. As it cools it will gain consistency.
• When you take it out of the pot, you can mix it vigorously to break up the strawberries a little more, if there are any chunks that are bigger than you want, but I don't recommend putting it through the blender - it would become extremely liquid, and you will see that when it cools, without blending it, it is fabulous.
• The jam will keep for about ten days, if sealed well and always in the refrigerator.
• The usual theory for making jam is to add half the weight of the fruit in sugar (400g of strawberries would mean 200g of sugar). You can see that I use a little less, and I also use cane sugar, which is less sweet. I love it this way, but you can adapt the recipe to your taste: use only white sugar, add more or less... With a few experiments you will have your favourite combination.
• You can replace the strawberries with figs, peaches, plums, cherries... The recipe you must follow is exactly the same to obtain a delicious jam.