Strawberry & Date Jam

After making apple butter so many times, I decided I wanted to try some other fruit spreads. I wish I would have known how messy this jam was going to be… So be warned: this will splatter while cooking! Luckily the taste more than makes up for the mess… :D

The dates add a thickness to the jam that makes it taste quite rich, with a sweetness that isn’t too much to handle. The lemon zest and spices add a little “something else” that you won’t find in many other jams. I love fruit spreads, and find this to be pretty unique when compared to other ones I’ve had. I enjoyed some of this jam on some whole wheat bread with goat’s milk cheese, but you could really put it on anything!

This recipe filled one 310 ml jam jar. Enjoy!

Strawberry & Date Jam

Ingredients:

2 cups strawberries, cleaned with the tops cut off
1/2 cup pitted honey dates, finely chopped
Juice and finely grated zest of 1 lemon
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup sugar (you can add more if you like, but I found this to make the jam pretty sweet!)
2 tbsp liquid honey

Method:

In a deep pot (trust me, it splashes…), place all ingredients and stir over medium heat for about 5 minutes.
Using an immersion blender, puree the contents of the pot, and adjust the temperature to high heat.
It will come to a rolling boil pretty quickly, so you need to keep stirring or the bottom will burn. If you have a heavy bottom pot, use that.
Continue to stir the mixture for 20-25 minutes. I don’t use a thermometer, I judge it by eye. When the mixture is thick, it’s ready to come off the stove. A good way to judge the right thickness is to pull the spoon through the middle of the mixture. Once it’s at a perfect thickness, the mixture will fall back together quite slowly. Also, when you scoop some of it up on the spoon, and tip the spoon upside down, it will “glob” off of the spoon instead of pour off nicely. For me, with the quantities of ingredients I used, it was good to remove from the heat after 25 minutes exactly. Once it’s done, remove from heat and stir a few more times until it’s cooled slightly.
I didn’t make a recipe for preserving, and haven’t attempted to do so yet, however if stored in a sterile glass jar (old jam jars are great), or in a clean and sterile container, you can keep this in your fridge for up to 1 week. If you like, you can also freeze this for however long you’d keep jam in the freezer, but I’ve never really been a fan of freezer jam in the past. If you do preserve jams, you can preserve this and store for as long as you normally would any other jam.



Filed under: appetizers, breakfast, desserts, Recipes Tagged: culinary, dates, fruit, fruit spread, jam, recipe, strawberry, yummy