Strawberry & Peach Jam – the taste of summer!

As a passionate jam maker I love the summer months as they offer up a so many glorious fruits.

I’m usually lucky to find cheap gluts of fruit or they to find me via family and friends. The other night I came across some reduced strawberries and I immediately thought of jam but as I already have my One Punnet Strawberry Jam I knew I needed to come up with something different.

When I got home I saw the peaches in my fruit bowl and thought “Bingo, Strawberry & Peach Jam”.

There seems to be an abundance of peaches this year, I’ve been buying punnets for as little as 49p in my local supermarket. Strawberries seem to be a bit hit and miss in supply at the moment though.

After seeing 3 crates of reduced strawberries earlier in the week I went out yesterday to buy some more and the 2 supermarkets I went to had either had very few delivered and sold out or hadn’t had any for a couple of days. So for the purpose of shooting this jam I had no alternative but to buy a fruit medley which had about 6 strawberries in it.

It’s ironic when you spend more money on the props for a photo than the actual ingredients:-)

Anyway, back to the jam making. I bought 4 punnets of strawberries and had to throw away about half of them as it’s very important to have perfect fruit, you don’t want any in there that you wouldn’t want to eat.

Ideally you want to make jam from just ripe fruit and certainly no over-ripe fruit or the pectin levels will be at their lowest and the flavour will suffer. Strawberries and peaches are low in pectin so I use lemon juice and the rind of half a lemon to make up for this.

I have to say that I have never had Strawberry & Peach Jam before but these 2 fruits make perfect bed fellows for a delicious summery jam. On one of the hottest days of the year we were enjoying tasting my jam on scones yesterday and everyone here loved it.

So if you have a couple of punnets of strawberries and a punnet of peaches going spare you know what to make with them now. This jam would also be great in my Victoria Sponge with clotted cream for a special summery afternoon tea!

More Summer Jam Recipes

• One Punnet Strawberry Jam (1st Prize Winning) – Fab Food 4 All
• Peach & Apricot Jam (1st Prize Winning) – Fab Food 4 All
• Cherry Jam – Fab Food 4 All
• Gooseberry Jam with Juniper & Citrus – Family Friends Food
• Quick Yellow Plum Jam – Simply Food
• Blackberry Jam – Tina’s Cookings
• French Set Apricot & Lavender Jam – Lavender & Lovage
• Blackcurrant Jam – Farmersgirl Kitchen

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Strawberry & Peach Jam

Strawberry & Peach Jam make perfect bed fellows for this luscious summery preserve!

Course Snack, teatime

Cuisine British

Keyword no pectin, Peach, strawberry

Prep Time 12 minutes

Cook Time 23 minutes

Total Time 35 minutes

Servings 1 Litre

Author Camilla Hawkins

Ingredients

• 500 g about 4 peaches
• 700 g strawberries
• 7 tsp lemon juice + rind of half an unwaxed lemon
• 900 g granulated sugar

Instructions

1. Wash and dry the strawberries, then hull and cut in half.
2. Wash and dry the peaches, stone and quarter then slice each quarter into about 4 and chop the other way into small pieces.
3. Place the fruit into a preserving pan (or similar) along with the sugar, lemon juice and lemon rind.
4. Heat the pan gently and stir the contents of the pan until all the sugar crystals have dissolved (do not simmer).
5. Then bring the pan to a rolling boil and time for 14 minutes stirring constantly.
6. Test a few drops on a chilled saucer and put in fridge for a minute.
7. Push you finger through the jam and if it crinkles and is jel like you have reached setting point.
8. If not bring to the boil again and time for another 2 minutes repeating the process until setting point is reached. (Mine took 16 minutes but will depend on ripeness of your fruit).

9. Remove the half lemon rind and pot the jam up into hot jars and place the lids on immediately. (A ladle and jam funnel are useful here).

10. Allow jars to cool.
11. Store in a cool dark place and once opened keep in the fridge and consume within 3 months.
12. Makes about 1 ltr (2 large & 1 small jar).

Recipe Notes

Before you start:
Put 2 - 3 saucers in the freezer.
Sterilise jars by washing in hot soapy water (or take straight from dishwasher), fill with boiling water, empty and then place in oven for 20 minutes at 140°C where you leave them until the jam is ready. Washed lids should be sterilised with boiling water and then left to drain.