We have our own blueberry bushes, and every year we get a lot of berries from them. I make pies, crisps, cobblers, coffee cakes. I add berries to yogurt, make Blueberry Fool. All kinds of things. I saw this recipe in Simple & Delicious, so I thought I would try it. Freezer jam is easier than regular jam, I think. I had to buy jars. And sterilize them. And in the recipe it says to use plastic jars, but Hannaford only had glass jars that said "Freezer Safe." So I called my mom, who was eating lunch with my sister at Red Robin in Augusta. It was very noisy. She said it was fine, and she always made her freezer jam in glass jars. So I proceeded. I made a big mistake though, at the beginning. Where it says "blueberries, crushed" I forgot to crush them, but didn't realize my mistake til the last step. This resulted in another call to my mom, who did not have much hope for this jam. But I give you the recipe anyway, in case you're better at this than I am...just for extra fun, I decided at the outset to double this recipe since we have such an abundance of blueberries. So, double the fail...
Orange Blueberry Freezer Jam
2 1/2 cups sugar
1 medium orange
1 1/2 cups fresh blueberries, crushed
1 pouch (3 oz) liquid fruit pectin
Rinse four clean 1-cup plastic containers with lids with boiling water. Dry thoroughly.
Preheat oven to 250. Place sugar in a shallow baking dish; bake 15 minutes. Meanwhile, finely grate 1 tbsp peel from orange. Peel and chop orange.
In a large bowl, combine the blueberries (which should be crushed by now), warm sugar, grated peel, and chopped orange. Let stand for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the pectin; stir constantly for 3 minutes to distribute pectin (by the end of the 3 minutes I realized my mistake...).
Immediately fill all containers to within 1/2-inch of tops. Wipe container rims; immediately cover with lids. Let stand at room temperature until set, up to 24 hours. Jam is now ready to use.
Refrigerate for up to 3 weeks or freeze up to 12 months. Thaw frozen jam in refrigerator before serving.
Okay, here's what I did at the end of the 3 minutes, when I realized this just looks like blueberries floating in white syrup. #1: Panic. #2: grab the potato masher and go crazy smooshing berries #3: enlist the husband's help smooshing berries; he's stronger than I am. #4, after realizing mashing them wasn't working: Pour mixture, in two batches, into awesome Cuisinart blender and hit "puree." Mixture looks more promising at this point, although still not like the picture in the magazine. Proceeded to fill jars and hope for the best.
Right now it is 7 hours post-pour and the jam has still not "set." I think when I tip a jar the "jam" inside shouldn't move. Mine still does. Besides not crushing the berries and not getting the sugar all blue, I also did not do either thing "immediately" that I was supposed to. My mom says the worst case scenario is that this becomes ice cream topping instead of jam. But I don't want 8 jars of that. Maybe by morning it will look right...
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