Jelly

One of my favorite things to make and can is jelly (or jam).  Most recipes can be finished in two hours or less, and they're easy gifts.  I had a bunch of frozen blueberries, and I know several people who really like it, so I figured I would free up freezer space and knock out some Christmas gifts at the same time.

Except I didn't have as many blueberries in the freezer as I thought, whoops!  The basic blueberry jam is 9 cups of crushed berries and 6 cups of sugar.  I had about six cups.  Rather than try to math a smaller recipes (not recommended! Bad for food safety!), I found a different recipe.  I've got the Ball Blue Book, but for this I pulled out Ball's Complete Book of Home Preserving.

The recipe I used was the jam with liquid pectin; it used 4 1/2 cups of crushed berries, 7 cups of sugar, 4 tablespoons of lemon juice, and 2 pouches of liquid pectin. The benefit of this recipe was I didn't have to figure out if it was gelled enough; I am not great at it because I mostly do liquid pectin recipes. 

Blueberry jam comes out super sweet with either method, while keeping a strong blueberry flavor.

If you haven't made a jam or jelly before, they are a very easy entry into canning.  They generally aren't much more plus fruit/juice plus sugar plus maybe some extra acid (usually lemon/lime juice or vinegar) plus some pectin, depending on the fruit.  You cook it, put it in hot jars, and process according to the recipe.  They're usually a water bath process, so if pressure intimidates you, you aren't dealing with that.  You don't even need a fancy canner - just a pot deep enough to cover the jars with water and some way to elevate the jars off the bottom to get good heat circulation around the whole jar.

This blueberry jelly recipe made me 8 jars plus a little extra; if you eat a lot of peanut butter and jelly, this can be a great way to get jelly flavors you can't find anywhere else.  I have done pina colada flavor, kiwi daiquiri, and (my hands-down favorite jelly) jalapeno.  If you're looking for a new cooking skill to pick up, I definitely recommend it.