Vickys Canned Cherry Jam, Gluten, Dairy, Egg, Soy & Nut-Free

Introduce

Chef :

Vicky@Jacks Free-From Cookbook

Vickys Canned Cherry Jam, Gluten, Dairy, Egg, Soy & Nut-Free

A lot of people in my community give me jars and cans of things they think I might be able to use. They know it's difficult for me to find convenience items to suit Jacks allergies and I've had this jar of cherries for a while now, not really knowing what to use it for. Today I decided to make chocolate cupcakes and thought they would be delicious filled with cherries and cream like a black forest type of cake. Finally a use for the jar!

Ingredient

Cooking time :

40 mins

1 (680 g)

jar pitted Morello cherries in syrup

360 g

pitted cherries in syrup, drained (2 cups)

360 ml

syrup from canned cherries (1.5 cups)

300 g

granulated sugar (1.5 cups)

1 tsp

vanilla extract or almond extract

Cooking instructions

* Step 1

Put the syrup, sugar and vanilla / almond extract in a heavy bottomed pan and cook for 10 minutes on a medium-low heat

* Step 2

Add the cherries (I like to leave them whole but you can halve them if you like) and cook for a further 20 minutes until broken down and thickened. The liquid needs to reduce by a 3rd

* Step 3

Add the lemon juice, stir in and take the pan off the heat

* Step 4

Take a small spoonful of the jam and put it on a cold saucer. Let it cool a minute then push it with your finger. If the jam wrinkles as it slides across the plate, it's done. If not, put the pan back on the heat and check again in 5 minutes

* Step 5

Pour into a hot, sterilized jar and let cool before keeping in a dark place

* Step 6

Using fresh Morello or sour cherries, use twice the weight of the pitted cherries in sugar, mix together in a pan and let sit overnight. In the morning heat on medium-low until thickened as before, adding the lemon juice at the end

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