Quick Homemade Strawberry Jam – toddler approved

One of my daughter’s favorite food is bread with jam. Since she stopped drinking formula and we started solid foods she went through a stages where she refused to eat this or that for a months. First it was milk. She didn’t want to have nothing to do with milk. Any kind: almond, coconut, soy, cow. NON. Yogurt followed. Now she eats only one brand, vanilla flavored, and she is back to drinking cow milk. The only thing she likes from the start (and it has never changed for a minute) is bread with jam. Once or twice she got picky about the jam, though. From the start she’s liked strawberry and she’d had times when she didn’t want to eat apricot or raspberry jams, but those passed and now she is happy with whatever jam I give her.

She’s been meat eater since she had her first bite of meat and she never turns away from a slice of ham 🙂 or a hot-dog (yeah, I know, how bad!!!).

Anyway,

Last week we run out of jam. Again I didn’t see any point to go back to the store just for that one thing. I looked in my fridge and my freezer and discovered a frozen strawberries and peaches. I thought those would be perfect to fix some homemade jam. I had never done that before and now I wonder why. It’s really easy and fast and hundred times healthier.

Actually there is no recipe for the jam I made.

I just throw about 15 frozen strawberries and 6 slices of frozen peaches to the pot and cooked them on a very low heat until they were soft and the juices started to appear. I stir them a few times and cook a little bit longer. When all the fruits got soft I mashed them with a fork.

And the mixture looke like that:

I added juice from a half of lemon and cooked it for about 10 to 15 minutes. At the and I added a tablespoon of arrowroot to make it more thick.

After the mixture cooled down I added a few tablespoons of honey ( I think, it was 2) and mixed it very well. No, I didn’t cook it together. Honey is the best raw. What I mean by raw is RAW honey and a honey that is not cooked or mixed in hot mixtures. For a months I hadn’t been eating RAW honey because I though (or because somebody told me) that it’s not safe for pregnant women to consume it. Instead I was feeding myself that garbage that is called honey but it’s actually a pure sugar with no other values that just being sugar. Here is an interesting article called “Tests show Most Store Honey Isn’t Honey”. I highly recommend reading it.

Back to my jam. After I made it, it tasted a little bit too tart (because of the lemon juice) but I fought the urge to add more honey knowing that in a few hours or the next day it will get to the right sweetness, and I was right. I pour it to jar after my old jam and store in a fridge. The next day it tasted just right! Not too sweet like those store-bought and with a little freshness that the lemon juice added to it. It was delicious and those pictures prove it:

btw,

Happy Valentine’s Day my friends!!!

or if some of your prefer this version (which actually used to be mine for years), there you go:

Anyway, have a great evening, everybody!

 Hearth and Soul blog hop at Zesty South Indian KitchenPhotobucketTempt my Tummy TuesdaysPhotobucket

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8 thoughts on “Quick Homemade Strawberry Jam – toddler approved

  1. nadinesellers

    i am so glad you decided to write in this blog—i needed company and confirmation that scratch cooks can write recipes…since i never measure–it makes it difficult to transcribe a pinch of this, a squeeze of that and a handful of whatever…so many cookbooks and not so many cooks–but now that is all changing..more people eat homemade food..so thanks for the recipe..i’ll have to hunt for arrowroot here..the plants grow in the ditches and swamps here but i’d rather have the ready made as i only eat roadside roots where it is safe..
    and i have corn, potato and rice starch for sauce or puddings…which i seldom use.
    i’ll try this one on my defrosted pears today..

    Reply
    1. Polish Mom Photographer Post author

      I cook withouth any recipes a lot. I think, because I grew up in a hausehold where my parents would use a recipe only for cakes and cookies (even though my mom has a good library of cookbooks).

      When cooking from recipes already created I believe that where something might work for one person the same recipe might not work for another. That’s why before I cook something I always talk to my husband about all the ingredients and the amount of it… and there is almost always something that he wants me to skip. I would always encourage people to go with their taste buds. Taste, taste, taste!

      In this jam recipe you could use a cornstarch, but I find it much more tasteless (the arrowroot) than the cornstarch which is good if you don’t want to taste that starchy flavour in you dishes.
      I actually found about it by accident – I saw it in a homemade deodorant recipe and when I read that it’s actually a great thickener for foods I was double happy and excited to try it. Now I’m addicted to cooking with it. I barely use cornstarch these days. The arrowroot is more expensive though so I try to use it only when necessary.

      Reply
  2. April @ The 21st Century Housewife

    I like the idea of the strawberries and peaches combined – they sound delicious. Your photographs are wonderful too! By the way, there’s a lovely picture book called Bread and Jam for Frances by Russell Hoban that your daughter might enjoy, about a baby bear who only likes one thing…bread and jam 🙂

    Reply
    1. Polish Mom Photographer Post author

      I would always watch my mom making jams and preserves and all that stuff that she would mix in it, like that much sugar, that much gelatin that much water… and I had always thought: “OMG, that is a black magic”. Now I know that it doesn’t have to be that complicated 🙂
      If you want I could mail you my daughter (you know, to practice parenting). She is very easy going! Just don’t eat her… 🙂

      Reply

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