Vanilla Berry Jam

 

One of the things that I most enjoy making from scratch is a good jam.  The berries are always different, you can control how much sugar goes into it, and, best of all, you can eat it straight from the pan while it's still warm.  Yum!  Jams were clumped in with pasta and ice cream; all things I had no idea how easy (and rewarding) they were to make yourself.  Eventually I will get around to posting recipes for the other two, but today... Let's Jam.  ...ha.

This particular jam initially started off as just a blackberry jam, but I had other berries that hit the point of "use or dispose", so those got thrown in there too.  Please know that, regardless of what I used, you can use any and all types of berries that you can get your hands on.  This makes a pretty small portion of jam, so feel free to add more berries (and likewise sugar) to yours if you need to.

Vanilla Berry Jam

Ingredients:

About three cups of fresh berries (mine were blackberries, strawberries and blueberries)

1/4 cup sugar

1 Tbsp lemon zest

Juice of half a lemon (about 1-2 Tbsp)

Half of a vanilla bean

Directions:

Clean your fruit and cut up if needed.  Small berries you can leave whole, but give strawberries a chop or two before throwing them in the mix.  Put the berries and the sugar in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat.  While that warms up, zest your lemon and throw your zest and juice in with the berries.  De-seed half of a vanilla bean (see below) and throw both the seeds and the bean in with the berries; mix well.  Cook for anywhere between 30-60 minutes, keeping a close eye on it and stirring occasionally to prevent sticking.  Pull off of the heat when it reaches your desired consistency.  The longer you leave on the heat, the fewer chunks of fruit you'll have.  Before serving/putting away, retrieve both parts of the vanilla bean and discard.

If you have the chance, serve this warm over vanilla ice cream.  Drool.

De-seeding a Vanilla Bean:

Vanilla beans are one of those things that should be used more often, but are neglected because of the convenience of vanilla extract.  Plus, they are expensive.  The flavor they provide is wonderful, and in this jam it adds a lot of sweetness so you can cut out some of the sugar.  Since they are so rarely used, I had no idea how to 'prepare' one.  So here is a step by step to getting at those lovely little seeds.

Slice a vanilla bean in half and store the unused portion back in its container.

Slice the half bean down the length of it and pull the two halves apart.  With the back of your knife, flatten each part by running your knife down the inside.  The seeds will collect on your knife as you go. Yum! 

Source: Me!