No Pectin - Low Sugar Cherry Jam & Dried Cherries, Too

This week seems to be fruit and berry week. The strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and cherries are all coming along, ready for picking daily. 

This is a really good thing as our jam shelf in the pantry is totally bare and sorely needs restocking. We'll be making jam out of everything this year, every fruit and berry possible to fill it up again. 

The two cherry trees gave us two big bowls of cherries, even after the birds got many of them. We ate some, shared some, jammed some, and while we were wondering what to do with the rest of them, I noticed someone on fb said that they dry theirs to use in granola or baking. This sounded like a perfect idea to me! Cherry bran muffins coming up!  

To dehydrate your cherries... wash them, pit them, lay them out on the trays in the dehydrator.

I checked with The Spruce Eats for a temp and length of time to dry the cherries and they recommended to run the dehydrator for 3 to 4 hours on a high temp and then down to a medium high for 10 to 20 hours, depending on the size and juiciness of your cherries. 

My dehydrator goes to 155° so I ran it for 3.5 hours on high and then dropped it to 135° for 18 hours. 

You want them to be chewy not dried till they are like rocks. Think of dried fruit at the grocery store, like prunes, goji berries, cranberries, etc... chewy and yummy. 

They say you can store them in a bag or jar in a cool area but I am hesitant about that so threw mine into the freezer. Turns out that they are super delish frozen, we eat them like candy ; ) 

We are also dehydrating blueberries and raspberries for baking this winter as this has been a good year for all sorts of berries. The fruit trees are loaded, as well, so thinking of drying a bunch of it for baking, eating, stewing, etc... in winter. 

To make the cherry jam... 

We make no pectin jams as we find that the ones made according to the pectin box recipes are much too sweet, taste like sugar instead of fruit. This is a lovely recipe for a no pectin and low sugar jam from Melissa K Norris.  

If you prefer to use pectin, just follow the recipe in the box or go to Melissa's link as she gives you a recipe that uses pectin but is lower in sugar. 

Here is the one we like.. 

5 cups of sweet cherries

1/2 cup of water

2.5 cups of sugar

5 tablespoons of lime or lemon juice -  We used lemon as we had that on hand

1. Wash, dry, pit, and chop your cherries. 

2. Place the chopped cherries into a pot and add the water. 

3. Bring to a boil and then lower to a simmer. Simmer for 15 minutes, stirring now and then till the cherries break down. 

4. Add your sugar and lemon juice. Bring back to a full rolling boil, stir constantly to keep it from burning. Boil till thickened, about 25 minutes. 

5. Pour into hot, sterilised jars. If you are going to freeze them, allow to cool, put on the lids, store in freezer till needed. 

6. To process them for storing in the pantry... Fill jars, leaving them with a 1 centimetre air space. Wipe the tops of the jars to make sure they are clean and will seal well. Put on the sterilised lids and rings. Put into the water bath and process for 15 minutes. 

7. Take out of the water bath and place them on a tea towel to cool for 12 hours. Check the seals before putting them in the pantry. If the lid moved up and down when you push on it, it did not seal. Place into the fridge or freezer instead. 

This recipe makes 4 jars of lovely jam that is perfect for spreading on toast or drizzling on your ice cream. It is a wee bit runnier than your store bought types. 

 Happy jamming! 

&

Hope you are having a fruitful summer : ) 

Tanja