July 3, 2010 - 1:27pm
to go on tomorrows WW bread.
have just made 4 pound apricot jam with the apricots from the garden as I have planned to make WW bread tomorrow the two will go nice together.... qahtan
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have just made 4 pound apricot jam with the apricots from the garden as I have planned to make WW bread tomorrow the two will go nice together.... qahtan
Though I have to buy the apricots and I need jars; still, I could do with making a jam that isn't red.
hah. I'm doing sour cherry preserves because I couldn't get a pitter on short notice and the cherries I'm using are about to go. Need to get the pectin, though...and the jars. At least I have the pot.
Winter here. I'm making marmalade using citrus from the garden.
Just out of curiosity, is there a substitute for sugar if I was to make jam that is suitable for diabetics? In Hong Kong we have a slimmer's sugar, the texture similar to caster sugar containing Xylitol and its supposed to be the same sweetness as sugar but would be very expensive to use in jams since this would entail at least half - one pound of sugar, depending on the amt of fruit used. I was told by a friend from Canada that she can get pectin that does not require the use of sugar but she didn't tell me the brand. Thanks. Judy
Judy, I really like this one:
Click here: Pomona's Universal Pectin
I have used xylitol with it, and it works great. Pomona's doesn't require sugar in order to gel, so you can use much less/no sugar (or any sweetener you like), making for a much brighter fruit flavor. It's usually available at my local health food store. -dw
Thanks Debra so much for your very quick feedback. I've printed the pdf files to get a better understanding of how it works and hopfully I can get my friend to get me some from Vancouver the next time she visits. My one concern is how much xylitol to use. If the recipes calls for 400 grms of sugar, would it work if I used half the xylitol with the pectin? I understand of course it would also depend on the fruit that I'm using, whether they were sour like kumquats or high in sugars such as mangoes or peaches.
The pectin will work with whatever amount of xylitol you want to use, so just sweeten to your liking. It doesn't need to be as sugary as regular recipes. The one I usually make is Blackberry Jelly, under the low sugar, cooked recipes. But I found 1/4 cup lemon juice to be way too strong, and once I cut that in half, it was much better. I don't know how much sugar a traditional blackberry jelly recipe calls for, but for 4 cups of juice (from 3 qts berries) and 2 tablespoons of lemon juice, I like 2 cups xylitol or sugar (depends who I'm making it for). The recipe says 3/4 - 2 cups. I believe that is 150-400 grms of sugar, and I think Xylitol weighs about the same. So I'm at the high end, but I use wild berries that maybe aren't as sweet to begin with.
This is most helpful for me who's only ever made jam three times before. I've been working with 500 grms/equiv. to 1 pound+ of mixed berries (frozen as fresh berries are imported and way too expensive to use for jam.) This is a only small qty. as it is a recipe from my cooking class and yields two medium sized jars. The recipes uses 400 grms (a lot for 500 grms of fruit - 2 cup according to my conversion table) and juice of 1 lemon. I've used this same recipe for making kumquat jam, but adding juice of 1 orange mixed with water to make up the 400 ml liquid needed to cook the fruit in the original recipe plus 1 tsp of pectin. I was quite please with the outcome but it took a long time to thicken. With the Pomona pectin, I could start with 1 cup of xylitol and adjust to taste after the pectin has dissolved.
I checked with my friend from Vancouver and she uses the Bernardin brand. I did a search on Google and their pectin comes with calcium ascorbate which eliminaetes the need to prepare a calcium solution. According to the description , it uses less sugar to sweeten home canned, shelf-stable fruit spreadsm perfect for those who enjoy the bold, fruity taste of light and sugar-free fruit spreads. The pectin gels fruit with little or no sugar added, and makes cooked shelf-stable home canned jams or jellies using no sugar, artificial sweeteners, or up to 3 cups of sugar.
49 gram box
Ingredients: Dextrose, fruit pectin, citric acid, and calcium ascorbate
Has anyone from TFL ever used this brand before?