There was a crispness in the air this morning at my place in Pozieres, QLD, and it got me thinking about home preserving, particularly jam-making. Jam reminds me of my childhood, when my mom and I used to make jam together. But unlike then, I now make jam without all that added sugar.

Here is the recipe for my sugar-free strawberry jam.    

Ingredients:

• One Kilogram of Strawberries, hulled, halved, or quartered, depending on their size
• 300 to 400 grams of xylitol
• Two teaspoons of Low Methylester Pectin
• Two teaspoons of calcium water (included with teh pectin, see instructions)
• Two tablespoons of lemon juice

Directions: 

• Prepare your 250ml jars and lids by sterilising them in boiling water for ten minutes. The sterilisation step can be skipped, and you can use washed, rinsed, hot jars if you are processing for 10 minutes or more in the boiling water bath at the end of the recipe.
• Wash and hull your strawberries. Place them into your preserving pan and mash them with a potato masher to release some of the juice and natural pectin.
• In the meantime, mix your Low-Methylester Pectin with 100 grams of xylitol or sugar.
• Slowly add your xylitol-pectin or sugar-pectin mixture, stirring constantly to ensure that it is evenly distributed throughout your fruit mixture.
• Add your lemon juice, calcium water, and your remaining xylitol or sugar, and mix well.
• Using high heat and stirring occasionally, bring your jam mixture to a full rolling boil. Boil for one minute. Remove from the heat. 
• Place your jam into the hot, 250ml jars using a ladle and a jar funnel, leaving a 1.5 cm headspace. Clean the rims of the jar to ensure a good seal and cap with your new lids, finger-tight.
• Process your filled jars in a boiling water bath for five minutes.
• If you did not pre-sterilise your jars and lids, process them in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes.  
• Once processed, remove the jars from the boiling water bath using a jar lifter and allow the jars to cool on the kitchen counter.

Special note: Low-methyl-ester pectin is a special type of pectin that does not require sugar to set. Instead, it requires calcium. This calcium comes with low-methyl ester pectin, along with full and easy instructions on how to mix the calcium water needed for this recipe.

As always, live well.

Valerie