Raspberry-Lime Jam

Hello All! So I was a slacker last week and didn't get a post up during the week - I was trying to recover from my blog anniversary party. But, today, as promised, I am going to share my first "canning" adventure with you -- raspberry lime jam!

My brother and sister-in-law have an awesome garden. Lucky for us, it's the end of the season and my sister-in-law is beyond tired of canning all their produce, so when we were there a few weekends ago they loaded us up with tons of remaining produce and sent us on our way.

Among the spoils was a big bag of raspberries. Since there was no way we could eat them all before they went bad, I decided to try making jam...for the first time in my life. I looked up a basic old fashioned jam recipe and it seemed pretty simple, equal parts sugar and fruit with special heating directions, so I went to it.

Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups fresh raspberries
2 1/4 cups sugar (I wanted it a little more tart)

For fun, and because I love lime, I added the juice and zest of one lime.

Instructions:

1. Place sugar in an ovenproof shallow pan and warm in a 250°F (120°C) oven for 15 minutes. (Warm sugar dissolves better.)

2. Place berries in a large saucepan. Bring to a full boil over high heat, mashing berries with a potato masher as they heat. Boil hard for 1 minute, stirring constantly.

3. Add warm sugar, return to a boil, and boil until mixture will form a gel, about 5 minutes.

This made one pint jar and a little more. I followed my sister-in-law's directions for sealing the jar (she's a rockstar, at everything), which was way less complicated than I expected. I put the lid of the mason jar in boiling water, poured the hot jam into the jar, put the lid on and then submerged the jar in a sink full of hot water from the faucet for about 20 minutes. The jar didn't seal until it had been sitting out of the water for about 20 more minutes.

I love this jam, it's a little tart and there's just a hint of lime in it. So good! And jam was way less scary to make than I expected it to be!

What have you been up to this week? Leave me a comment and I'll stop by!

Have a good week!