Endless Summer..Jam

     A few years ago I stumbled upon a fantastic food blog called Kiss My Spatula- equal parts pretty pictures, fantastic music pairings and great recipes- this blog had me at Hurricane Ridge Banana Bread!  I would have to say one of my favourite recipes to date has been the Endless Summer Jam- I mean the name alone says it all plus it is one of my favourite movies. At any rate I had never made jam before so I thought I would give it a whirl - I was impressed with the simple ingredients as well as the approachable instructions.

      I always make a batch in the late summer and then a few more batches through out the year- this jam doesn't have any preservatives and so it is best used with in a month or so of making. I usually freeze enough berries to take us through the winter and so always have enough on hand when ever we need more Endless Summer Jam!

 Ingredients:

3 cups blackberries
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 small apple, peeled and finely diced
1/4 cup blueberries
juice and zest of 1/2 lime

Method:

Place blackberries, sugar, lime zest and juice is a nice deep pot. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring often. Add the diced apple and blueberries, continue to keep mixture at a rolling boil for about 25 min or until thickened- which you can test by dipping a clean spoon in- if the jam coats the spoon and stays then the jam is pretty much ready. Gently mash with a potato masher- or if you like a finer jam use a hand blender- carefully! Spoon into jars and allow to cool- store in the fridge for several weeks.

Alternatively:

The above recipe is as copied from Kiss My Spatula- since making my first batch, closely following the recipe, I have experimented a bit with different berry combinations- I figured as long as you have about 3 and a 1/4 cups of berries it would still work out- we like a jam that is equal parts black berry, strawberry and blueberry with lemon instead of lime. I also use the hand blender to give our jam a nice smooth texture.

     Dress up your freshly jarred jam with a handmade label- note the contents, place over the lid and screw on the ring. In a celebration of the season passed these cute labels will remind you of your Endless Summer whenever you open your refrigerator.

P.s. for cute printable canning labels head over to Taproot magazine and download their free PDF- I cant lie this is where I got the idea to make my own labels!