When Life Gifts You Apricots....

Today a good friend of mine gave me a bag of apricots from her mum's tree.
I took the opportunity to try my hand at apricot jam. I've only ever made tried making jam once before, with mulberries. As jam, it was a disaster.... as mulberry toffee, it was delicious!

Since then I have purchased a preserving pan, one of my best op shop finds! It is a very very old cast iron and enamel one and I just love it.

I used a recipe from Thane Prince's "Jams and Chutneys: Preserving the Harvest".

Ingredients:
1 kg just ripe apricots
freshly squeezed juice of three lemons
1kg of white granulated sugar
125g liquid pectin (optional)

1. Cut apricots into quarters and remove the stones. Put the fruit, 400ml of water and lemon juice in a preserving pan and bring mixture to the boil. Simmer over a low heat, stirring occasionally, for about 15 minutes until the fruit is very soft.
2. Add the sugar, allowing it to dissolve into the fruit. Try not to stir the mixture too much, as this will break up the apricots - you want to retain some large chunks to give the jam texture.
3. Increase the heat and bring the mixture to a full rolling boil. Boil for 4-5 minutes, then stir in the pectin and boil for a further 2 minutes. If making the jam without pectin, it will need to be cooked at a full rolling boil for 15 minutes: this will produce a softish jam.
4. Remove from heat and test for a set.
5. When the jam has reached setting point, pot it into hot sterilized jars, seal and label.

It will keep us going for a while, and it is lovely and 'zing-y'.