Peach Amaretto Jam

A couple of months ago Ball Canning sent me a sample pack of their Small Batch Pectin, I knew right off what I would be making with it. I figured I would make a small batch in case it was just nasty...I know, how could peaches and Amaretto not be good, right? Of course, this is delish and what I now think of as Summer in a jar! Enjoy it on your toast, homemade biscuits (or store bought), thumbprint cookies, or really just from the spoon!

Peach Amaretto Jam

2 cups peaches, peeled, pitted and chopped--I like mine a little chunky
1 1/3 cups sugar
1 package Small Batch Pectin
1/4 cup Amaretto

Mix the peaches and pectin together in a large pot on medium high heat and bring to a full rolling boil. Once to a boil add your sugar and amaretto and bring back to a rolling boil and boil for 1 minute. Ladle into your jars, wipe the rims, put on the lids and rings and process in a water bath for 10 minutes. Remember to start timing with the water returns to a boil in the water bath.

Thumbprint Cookies-Week 10

One of my favorite cookies...I know, I say that alot, is thumbprint cookies. I am not sure what it is about them that I will choose first off of a goodie tray. I have shown you the Butter Meltaways that were filled with that sweet cream cheese filling, this week I am going with a butter cookie filled with your choice of jam. I have used raspberry, strawberry and apricot and all of them went well together, although my preference would be the tanginess of raspberry.

So here we are at week 10, only 2 more to go. I hope everyone is enjoying the holiday season so far!

Giant's Thumbprint Cookies
from: Gale Gand

8 oz. (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 vanilla bean, halved lengthwise, soft insides scraped out
1/8 tsp salt
2 cups plus 2 Tbsp all purpose flour
1/4 cup jam of your choice

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter 3 sheep pans or use 1 pan and bake the cookies in 3 batches.

Cream the butter and sugar in a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment (or using a hand mixer) until fluffy. Add the vanilla scrapings and salt and mix until incorporated. Add the flour and mix at low speed until incorporated.

Using your hands, roll the dough into golf ball size balls and arrange them 2 inches apart on the cookie sheet flattening them out a bit as you go. Using your thumb, press the top of each cookie to make a shallow well. Roll your thumb back and forth to widen the well. Using a small spoon, fill the wells with jam.

Bake until very lightly browned around the edges, 25 to 30 minutes. Let cool slightly on the pan, then transfer to a rack to finish cooling. Store in an air tight container.

Week 10 Twelve Weeks of Christmas:

Jam Exchange

A few weeks ago Steph from Steph Chows announced that she was having a jam exchange. I have participated in exchanges like this before and loved it. What's not to love? You get to be in the kitchen making some concoction, mail it off and you get some back in return.

Today my package came from my secret partner...Diana from A little bit of Spain Iowa. I didn't even know of her until now! If you haven't visited her, you should! And now, here is what she sent me!!

Look how cute the labels are!! Let's take a closer look, shall we?

Diana sent me 2 jars of this! Strawberry Honey Jam with a hint of chamomile!! I cannot wait until she perfects this recipe and shares it with us! Not that I am not just completely impressed with this jam, but she also sent me a jar of this.....

Did you see what this is???? Homemade Apple Pectin!!! I didn't even know there was such a thing! I am now ready to get to making some more jam using it!

Thank you Diana for a great package! And thanks to Steph Chows for putting this together!

Jam Day

Saturday was Jam Making Day for myself and 2 of my friends, Mary Jo and Shawntel. We all go to church together and are in the same bible study group, and love it when I get to have girl time. This was no different, we had a blast and a couple of burnt tongues and fingers, but it was all worth it in the end. I say that, but I am not the one with the blistered finger! :)

We made strawberry, peach and pear honey. We also attempted grape, but we burnt it and ended up with grape brittle, this is where the burns came from. However, the grape will be tried again.

So, I have told you about my tip on sealing the jars? Just flip them on the lids and let them cool. Works every time! On the left is the strawberry, pear honey in the middle, and peach on the right. I should have taken a picture of the grape, but not so pretty.

The pear honey is the most interesting to me. I have finely chopped and grated the pears and think that I like the grated version better. For some reason, although you don't add any honey to it, the jam ends up with a honey flavor.

Pear Honey:

6 cups grated pears

8 oz crushed pineapple, do not drain

4 cups sugar

1 Tbsp vinegar

Add all the ingredients and bring to a boil. Boil stirring constantly until the thermometer reaches 220 degrees, about 15-20 minutes. Pour into your jars and seal.

Blackberry Jam

I am told that my great grandmother was very domesticated. She always made fried pies, or a cake from scratch. Every day there was something sweet that she had made. She quilted, embroidered, made jams. I guess that is where I get it from. My mom and nanny and mamaw do not like to do any of the above. But me, I want to make stuff everyday. I can't get enough of it. Right now, the thing that I am just can't get enough of is jam making. I have made peach, apple pie, pear honey and now blackberry jam. I am going pear picking tonight, so next will be pear honey and hopefully sugar free pear butter. I love the feel of accomplishment when I have cooked the fruit, poured into the jars, topped with a lid and left to cool, and when they have completely cooled, flip the jars over and the lids are sealed. It is almost as if my great grandmother is right there beside me giving me tips on how to do this stuff, although I have never met her.

So, here is a WELCOME FALL treat, blackberry jam! Do you have a favorite that you make? Let me know! Also, Molly at Batter Spattered is hosting her 2nd Jam/Jelly Exchange and last years was alot of fun, so if you want to swap a jar of homemade jam check her out and sign up! Also, if you have any tips on canning, well anything, send them my way. I would appreciate it!!

Blackberry Jam

2 lbs of blackberries

4 cups sugar

pinch of salt

2 Tbsp vinegar

Put all ingredients in large pot and bring to a boil. Boil for 15-20 minutes or until your thermometer reads 220 degrees. Pour into your jars and top with lids. Flip jars on top of lids and let cool. When completely cool, flip them over and the jars should be sealed.

Starting off the school year....

Yesterday was the first day of school for my kids. Shane went on to 7th, Blake 5th and Abby in the 3rd. When I really stop to think about how fast time is going, it depresses me a little. To think that this past year flew by, and it seems like the kids just got out of school and now, they are a year older and starting back to school.

To me, when school starts back I think fall, even though it is still near 90 degrees here. Buying schools supplies, high school football, then labor day. The leaves start changing and the darkness of night comes earlier. So one of the first things that I think of when I think of fall is apples. I love going apple picking, making apple butter or whatever...but that is what I think of.

A coworker brought me these little green apples from her apple tree in her yard. Luckily, there were no worms! I had a ton of things that I wanted to make with them, so I halved them and made half apple butter and the other half jam.


The recipe that I used called it Caramel Apple Jam, but really I think that I will call it Apple Pie Jam. I really don't taste any caramel, but it does taste like a great fried apple pie filling. The hardest part of this was peeling and slicing those tiny little apples, but it was well worth it!

Apple Pie Jam

6 cups peeled and diced apples
1/2 cup water
1/2 tsp butter
3 cups sugar
2 cups brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg

Mix all of the ingredients into a large pot. Stir them until all combined. Bring to a boil on medium heat. Cook the jam until it reached 220 degrees. (see my note at the bottom) Pour into jars and top with lid. Flip the jars on their lids to cool. The jars should be sealed when completely cooled.

Some of my jams have been really thick when I cook to this degree, so with this jam I cooked for 20 minutes then I used the frozen plate method. You freeze a plate, then put a little bit on the plate, stick it back in the freezer for a few seconds then check the consistency of it. If it is not as thick as you want continue to cook the jam in 5 minute increments until you get it the consistency you want. I cooked this jam for 20-25 minutes.

Peaches from the Farmer's Market

We have a new Farmer's Market here in Knoxville on Thursday evenings. So, I loaded up the kids and went this past Thursday. The only thing that I bought were these peaches, so what do you do when you have a bag full of peaches? Make jam of course! I love to make jam, there is just something about the fact that you use fresh fruit, sugar and a couple of other ingredients, cook it down for about 20 minutes, put it into some jars and let it cool. When you open up the jar, you have thick jam. The only addition to my normal go to recipe was that I added half of a scraped vanilla bean, so you have those lovely little specks throughout the jam. I also have a little trick to get my jars to seal, when you fill the jars with your jam, put the lids on tight and flip them up side down on their lids to cool. Once cooled, flip them back over and the lids should be sealed. This is easier to me than sticking the whole jar down into boiling water.

Peach-Vanilla Bean Jam

2 pounds peaches, peeled, and cubed

5 cups sugar

2 Tbsp vinegar

1 pinch of salt

1/2 vanilla bean, scraped

Combine all ingredients into a large pot and bring to a rolling boil. Stirring frequently, continue boiling for about 15-20 minutes or until your candy thermometer reaches 220 degrees F. Transfer to your canning jars and cool. This recipe made 10 of the small jars that I used.

Chocolate Covered Strawberry Jam

I ran across the jam/jelly exchange hosted by Molly at Batter-splattered and thought that this would be so much fun to participate in. I have only made jam a few times, but this has to be my favorite so far. It is a little thicker than normal jam, but still tastes great. Who doesn't like chocolate covered strawberries? Now I can enjoy them on a biscuit! White chocolate raspberry is next on my list of jams to create.

Chocolate Covered Strawberry Jam

2 lbs strawberries, sliced
4 1/2 Cups sugar
2 Tbsp vinegar
pinch of salt
3 oz. of bittersweet chocolate, chopped

Combine all of the ingredients, EXCEPT the chocolate in a large pot. Bring to a rolling boil on medium-high heat, stirring frequently for about 15-20 minutes, or until you reach 220 F on a candy thermometer. Once you reach this temp, remove from heat and add the chocolate. Stir until all the chocolate has melted and is combined. Transfer to jelly jars and top with the lids. The heat from the jam should make the tops seal. Also, you don't need to skim off the foam, once you add the chocolate and get that all mixed in, the foam dissolves back into the jam.