Raspberry Jam - A Homemade Story

One of our favorite weekend getaways from New York City was always New Paltz, NY. It was about an hour and a half from where we lived in the City, so it was a quick rental car away and a great relaxing breather! We typically went there just to climb and camp; but one weekend, Jenkins-Leuken Orchards caught our eyes!

"Let's pick some raspberries for fun!"

It was our first little fruit-picking excursion, so we had a rough time with our picking at first.

I know, I know what you're thinking, "How does anyone have a rough time picking berries? LOL."

Well, hey now! There didn’t seem to be many raspberries, so we were quite discouraged! But! Alas! As we moved down the patch, we quickly found ourselves with more raspberries than we could handle.

“What are we going to do with two pounds of very ripe red raspberries?” we asked ourselves.

After eating a ton, freezing 1/3, and adding some to our ice cream, I finally decided to make some jam. Again, very daunting. We have tried jam making in the past with strawberries, but it was a weird gooey, clumpy, sad mess each time. So when I found the simplest jam recipe I had ever seen, I decided to give it a shot. Of course, I was thinking, "Oh man. I'm going to ruin these raspberries so hard."

Reality: I need to be more positive!! Within 10 minutes I had the freshest most beautiful raspberry jam!

When I followed a recipe from Pam in B.C. on Food.com, I thought it was too good to be true, until I saw the end result. You can’t mess this up and there’s added NO PECTIN!

I had to Google this "No Pectin" situation. I was pretty sure Pam was a liar...Nope! Pam was right! Raspberries are one of those fruits that have their own pectin properties! Well, I'll be damned. I learn something new every day.

As her recipe plan was way larger than my supply, I adjusted the recipe; but I followed the main ratio of 1 CUP BERRIES to 1 CUP SUGAR.

In a normal sauce pan, I mashed 1 Cup of SUPER Ripe, Unfrozen Raspberries.
Side Note Confession! Recently, I tried to remake this recipe. My downfall? I didn't unfreeze the berries first. My result? Hilarious, yet beautiful, red raspberry paste! I think I could glue a house together with it. A quick fix for this has been to add a tablespoon of the raspberry paste to a microwaveable cup with 1 tsp water. Heat for about 10 seconds, stir, and serve! I recommend catching this mistake before you put it in the jar...mine is still chillin' in the fridge after a few months.

Now...back to the recipe!
I heated the mashed berries until they came to the suggested rolling boil.

1 Cup White Granulated Sugar was added directly to the boiling mixture. After the sugar was added, I stirred quite frequently (every 30-45 seconds) to keep the mixture from settling or burning to the bottom. This is always my nerve-wracking stage!

Once the mixture came to a full rolling boil, I set the kitchen timer for 4 minutes and anxiously ignored it. Talk about blood pressure! I was picturing a sticky stucky burny burned mess...but...VOILA!

After the timer stopped, I removed the mixture from the heat and placed it into my preferred jar. Nothing stuck to the bottom! Amazzzzzing! I take my victories as they come.

Once it was cooled, I stored it in the fridge. And that was that! Easy as ever!

In this case, 1 Cup Raspberries + 1 Cup Sugar = 13 ounces of Raspberry Jam.

We enjoy this jam on nearly everything made with flour: Pancakes, Waffles, French Toast, Cookies, Bread, etc.
It's also delicious in Oatmeal, Yogurt, and Smoothies as a sweetener.

I hope you enjoy our little trip to this New Paltz Orchard and I hope you try out this jam for yourselves!!!