Confiture de Framboise Rouge

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It has been a good year for raspberries.  When dabbling-about in the yard or the garden it has been a simple pleasure to snack on a handful of fresh berries picked directly from the cane.  Berries on ice cream, berries on yogurt, berries in crepes and raspberry pastries.  At long last we made homemade jam from the homegrown red raspberries Jill has been cultivating.  It started with a bumper crop of berries that she has been hoarding in the beer fridge and I augmented it with frozen ones picked earlier.  
     
Ingredients

6 – Cups of fresh or frozen red raspberries

1 – Package of SURE-JELL Premium Fruit Pectin

7 – Cups of cane sugar

A bunch of sterilized half-pint jars with matching lids and bands

Begin by soaking your berries in cold tap water to rinse-off any debris or bugs.  Drain on a large cookie sheet lined with paper towels in the fridge.  Thaw any frozen berries.  In all we had slightly less than six packed cups of fresh and frozen berries.  Put your berries in a pot and using a potato masher pulverize and smash them into a soupy mixture.

Stir in one package of SURE-JELL Premium Fruit Pectin and bring to a rolling boil (a boil that doesn’t stop bubbling when stirred) on high heat, stirring constantly.  Add the sugar to the fruit mixture and return to a rolling boil over high heat.  Boil exactly one minute while stirring constantly.  Remove from heat and skim-off any foam with a spoon.  





Ladle immediately into the prepared jars leaving about a quarter inch of headspace.  Wipe the jar rims and threads and add the lids and bands finger tight.  Process for 10-15 minutes in a boiling water bath in your canner. 

Remove to cool and when the lids ‘pop’ your jars of jam are properly sealed.  If a lid springs-back refrigerate and use immediately.

Properly sealed jars can be stored in a cool dark place for up to a year or more.  Although that would be a low probability event around here.   This jam is pretty darn good stuff.  Remarkably, it is pleasingly tart considering all of the sugar in the recipe.  It’s also easy-enough for a kitchen novice to perform admirably.  Yield is 10 half-pint jars.

*A word about the jars and lids.  Cleanliness is next to Godliness.  Sterilize your jars by immersing them in boiling water or running them through the dishwasher on the 'sanitize' cycle.  Lids are easy - heat a Pyrex measuring cup of water to a boil in the microwave and drop the lids in the hot water to sanitize them.  Fish them out with a tongs.