Strawberry Conserve
As I promised, I continue to post what I’ve made out of my successful PYO trip harvest. This is a relatively easy to make strawberry conserve. If you don’t like it sweet you can always use pectin instead of jam sugar.
Ingredients
- 2kg Strawberry
- 1kg Caster Sugar
- 300g Jam Sugar(with Pectin)
- 10g Citric Acid
Day 1
Warm up the caster sugar in the oven, so it dissolves easier. Layer the whole hulled strawberries and caster sugar in a big dish, cover with cling film and rest it in the fridge or a cool place for a day.
Day 2
Pour the strawberries and sugar with all the liquid it has released into a big pan. Heat up slowly and stir in the jam sugar or pectin.
Mash the strawberries up with a potato masher roughly. But do leave some whole fruits in there too. Mix the citric acid with a couple of tablespoon of water and add it to the conserve. Keep stirring frequently. Don’t worry about the “scum” on the top.
Boil it to 105°C where it should set.
Remove the pan from the heat. Do a set test.
Chill a plate in your fridge or freezer. Spoon a bit of jam on the plate and leave it to cool. If it wrinkles or form a skin like texture it has set properly, if not then bring it back to boil for another 5 minute.
If you have left with some “scum” on the top stir a bit of butter in to get rid off it.
Leave it to rest for few minutes before transferring to your sterilised jam jars.
If you would like to try strawberry jam with twist, replace 500g of the strawberry with rhubarb. I also highly recommend this recipe from Bitter-Sweet Bakery.