Welcome to #MadeItMonday, where I post something I’ve made in the previous week, and where you can join in and post something you made too! The rules are easy: post a pic somewhere of something you’ve made in the last week (ish; let’s say in the last month as the hard-and-fast) and tag it. Sit back and enjoy scrolling through all the beautiful things we’ve collectively created, and celebrate the fact that humans can be awesome!
I was going to say that this is a slightly lazy option this week, but LET’S BE HONEST a) it took me three hours to make and b) why is creativity and making things any less valuable if it’s something practical instead of something Art? Hmm?!?! HA.
Right. So. Today we have marmalade, made from a shopping bag full of ridiculously juicy grapefruit from a friend’s tree.
Jam is a really satisfying thing to make, y’all. It looks and feels SO IMPRESSIVE, but it’s actually so dang easy.
Need proof?
Okay, here’s my jam recipe that has literally not failed me yet.
Ingredients:
- Fruit of your choice. Weigh it. Whatever its weight is, that weight is now X.
- Sugar. White is good, whatever is fine, as long as it’s granular cane sugar of some type. You need half the weight of X. (Except sour fruit like the grapefruit – I threw in a bunch more sugar halfway through, so it was probably 3/4 of X instead of half.)
- Unless your fruit already includes citrus or apples, you also need to add EITHER one green apple (yes skin, no core) OR the juice of one large lemon for every 400g / 14oz. of fruit.
Prep your fruit by peeling, coring, chopping out bad bits, etc whatever. For the marmalade, I just deseeded the grapefuit and kept half the skin and as much juice as I could.
Put a clean small plate in the freezer. Stick all the ingredients in a pot. Bring it to the boil. Simmer it away, stirring periodically, until it starts to catch on the bottom of the pan (regardless of how much fruit I’ve used, this has almost always taken 45 mins), then stir constantly until a small drop dabbed on the frozen plate wrinkles (usually at or just before the one-hour mark for me) –> dab some jam onto the cold plate, let it cool for 10 seconds or so so it won’t burn you to death, then poke it gently from one side. If the surface wrinkles, you’re good and the jam will set. The longer you boil it, the firmer it will set, so don’t overboil unless I guess you want a fruit paste consistency instead of jam. Take it off the heat, bottle in sterilised jars, and store in the fridge if you just used regular lids or in the pantry if you used canning lids.
Yay jam!
And now, what have you made this week? Don’t forget to tag your contribution, or even better, leave a link in the comments!! I love seeing what inspiring things other people have made 🙂 🙂 🙂
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