I have posted homemade cherry jam recipe recently and that created interest on preparing jams with few other fruits. We bought a big box of strawberries from store so thought of preparing jam with it. I am not a big fan of strawberries but still I could not stop myself from eating this strawberry jam. Hope you too like it. Check other jam recipes in my blog:

• Homemade cherry jam

Ingredients:

Yields upto 1 cup of jam

• 1 1/2 cup – Strawberry (chopped finely)
• 1 cup – Sugar
• 1/2 tbsp – Lemon juice

Preparation method:

1. Wash strawberries thoroughly in running water, chop them finely ( chop as small as possible). Keep it aside.
2. Put 1 or 2 small silver plates into your freezer, we will be using these plates later to test whether the jam is ready.
3. Take a wide vessel, add chopped strawberries and lemon juice. Heat the strawberries on medium heat for 10 to 15 minutes until they are soft and well cooked. Using potato masher, mash strawberries nicely.
4. Now add sugar and stir well until the sugar melts. Increase the heat and bring the jam to the boil. It will bubble and then it will start to thicken up.
5. When you think it may be ready, place a teaspoon of the liquid on one of your chilled plates and put it back in the fridge for a minute or two. It should get thick and be like jam consistency. If it is still watery you can put it back on stove and cook for few more mins. Take the jam from the heat just in case it is ready - you don't want to overcook it.
6. The jam is ready when your chilled sample forms a skin on top that wrinkles when you push it with your finger. Cool them completely and fill your jam into sterilised jars. Enjoy strawberry jam with your favourite bread.

Notes:

• Do not over cook jam. Consistency of jam after it is cooked was little watery, but once cooled it became thick as our store bought jam.
• You may use food chopper to chop strawberries to make it very fine one.
• Lemons acts as a preservative and helps jam to have longer self life. Also i do not want to make a whole bunch of jam, so i have prepared a small batch of jam and kept it in refrigerator and used it for 2 to 3 weeks.
• Pectin is the magical ingredient that helps jam to set. Since I do not want any artificial ingredients in my jam, I have added lemon juice in place of pectin.