Spiced Kiwi and Apple Jam

My jam and preserve making tends to follow a slightly erratic randomness with no fixed rules other than the sugar to fruit ratio and this batch of Spiced Kiwi jam made no exception! My late and beloved Nanny J was a fabulous jam maker and queen of the marmalade and I take pride in keeping her memory alive with my somewhat experimental jam making and hope I can do her memory justice! I sadly have none of her actual jam or marmalade recipes other than a couple of random cookery books with notes and clippings but I hope she is looking down with happiness at my feeble attempts with some pride!

What triggered this particular batch of jam mostly was that I had bought the preserving sugar on a whim, reduced to 50p a bag (how could really I not resist!) and whilst I had offered some to my aunt, she politely declined and it left me with my 4kg of preserving sugar to play with! It was something quite new to me – I am lazy and have always got away with using regular sugar with the odd apple for luck but as the kiwi fruit were packing their bags and about to make their final bid for bin bag freedom, it was time to see if they could make a harmonious match….so other than a brief amount of stirring the pan into the night I really didn’t have much to lose..

It was quite a frugal jam – as well as the sugar being reduced the kiwi also were purchased yellow stickered, weirdly I have found I can’t tolerate kiwi eaten raw anymore – my mouth goes painfully fuzzy but fortunately the jam is edible and doesn’t affect me and I was glad not to have thrown the poor little kiwi away!

Fortunately despite the jam initially smelling slightly overwhelming spicing wise and had me slightly doubting if my brain was wired correctly it was in fact the perfect amount when finished – its fragrant, a little punchy and makes for excellent hot buttered toast or muffins, or crumpets ..or whatever you want to toast or bake really!

 

Here it is adorning my recent batch of Banana Pancakes:

 

Makes 2 standard sized jars

Ingredients

5 kiwi fruit, ripe, peeled and cut into chunks
3 small eating apples, peeled and cored, cut into small chunks
420g preserving sugar
1 tbsp ground cardamom
1 tbsp ground ginger root

Method:

Place everything in a large heavy based saucepan and gently bring to the boil.

 

Then gently simmer for an hour or so, or until the mixture has broken down and thickened nicely. Use a hand blender to reduced to a more smoother jam if preferred.

Pour into the prepared sterilised jars, put the lid on and allow to cool. Store in the fridge once opened and it will keep for a while - mine is still going strong!

 

Easy as that!

 

As my jam used up the sad, neglected Kiwi I am sending this recipe over to Elizabeth's Ktichen Diary No Waste Food Challenge

 

 

 

If you fancy even more jam do check out these fabulous jam recipes:

 

Plum and ginger Jam from Emily's Recipes and Reviews

Prize winning One Punnet Strawberry Jam from FabFood4All

Secret Raspberry Jam from The Crafty Larder

Rhubarb and Ginger Jam from Farmersgirl Kitchen

Blueberry and Chia Jam from Rough Measures

Blackberry Jam from Citrus Spice and all Things Nice
Chilli Jam from Happiness is Homemade
Apricot and Vanilla Jam from Chocolate Log Blog
Speedy 10 minute Strawberry Jam from Little Sunny Kitchen