Officially, it is the first week of Autumn which means celebrating the season with all your favorite fall flavors like apple, pumpkin, maple, and cinnamon!
It is time to start eating crisp fall apples, bake a pumpkin pie, preserve a bit of jam and enjoy some fresh pressed cider.
Wanting to capture some of the flavors of fall, myself, I set off for a visit to a local orchard last weekend.
Visiting the Orchard & Farm
After purchasing a few pounds of eating and preserving apples at the orchard, I went to a local you-pick farm to pick raspberries and flowers.
Wait, raspberries in the fall???
Yes, many people don’t realize there are several types of raspberries that are fall bearing raspberries. Frequently, in this region of the country, raspberries continue to produce in abundance into early October. I picked almost 10 pounds of berries to eat fresh, to turn into jam and to freeze for eating and baking throughout the rest of the year.
The Jam
Today, I’m going to share with you a recipe for Red Raspberry Apple Jam that I’ve made several times over the last month. I found the original recipe in the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving, but the recipe called for too much sugar. I want my family to enjoy the taste of fresh fruit and not just to taste sugar. By reducing the amount of sugar I had less jam, but the jam’s flavor intensified. Now, the Red Raspberry Apple Jam will remind you of eating fresh raspberries and apples in the height of the season for months to come.
The smell of the apples and raspberries cooking down is delectable.
And the color of the jam . . . Wow! The color of this jam is a very vibrant red, thanks to the red raspberries and McIntosh apple skins. McIntosh apples cook down into a slightly pink tinted sauce which helps add to the color of the jam.
This jam is simple to make. It will take about an hour from start to finish.
Let’s get started on making jam!
The Recipe: Red Raspberry Apple Jam
Yield: 7-8 half-pint jars
Ingredients:
- 5 Apples, mixture of McIntosh and Cortland apples, stem and blossom ends removed, washed
- 1 lemon, juiced
- 1 cup water
- 4 cups red raspberries, rinsed
- 3 cups cane sugar
Instructions:
- Fill a water bath canner 3/4 full of water. Turn on high and begin to heat water in the canner.
- Wash the apples. Remove the apple stems and blossom ends from the apples. You do not need to peel the apples or remove the core, but you should cut away any spots on the apple. The pectin from the apple cores will help to thicken the jam.
- Cut each apple into quarters and then cut each quarter in half again. Place the cut up apples in a non-reactive pot.
- Pour 1 cup of water in the pot. Make sure the water covers the bottom of the pot. Water helps to prevent the apples from sticking to the pot.
- Pour the juice of 1 lemon over the apples.
- Cook the apples over medium heat for about 10 minutes until the apples are soft and easily smashed.
- Process softened apples through a food mill to make applesauce. Make sure the pot doesn’t contain any remaining seeds.
- Pour all the applesauce back into the pot. You should have about 4 cups of sauce depending on the size of your apples.
- Add all 4 cups of raspberries and 3 cups of sugar to the pot.
- Using medium heat, bring mixture to a low boil and cook for 20 minutes until the jam thickens.
- Turn off the heat. Using hot, sterilized jars, funnel jam into half-pint jars leaving 1/4 inch headspace.
- Wipe rims of jars. Center lid on the jar and screw on the cap.
- Place jars in the canner. Replace the lid and process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes.
- Remove the lid and let the jars in the canner for 5 minutes. Remove the jars and set them on a tea-towel for a day. Finally, make sure all the jars sealed.
What is your favorite way to enjoy homemade jam?
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