Saturday 5 August 2017

A Very Proud Epicurean Moment

You may remember that before Darrell and Nigel went off on their X Factor Adventures they had been blackberry picking, well, I was a little bit vexed as they just left them on the side, leaving, as per usual, something for someone else to take care of, that someone namely being me!
IMG_3807I know I could have simply frozen them, but after all our bravado about taking up jam making, I decided that I had better take the bull by the horns, throw caution to the wind and get on with it. I found the simplest recipe I could on the tinternet, with the least number of ingredients …….. blackberries, sugar, and lemon juice ………
IMG_3808…….. and sterilised my jars!
IMG_3809Ever cautious though, I halved said ingredients as I didn’t want to rush into things too gun ho, risking a burnt pan bottom and an end result reminiscent of sticky black tar.
IMG_3812I followed the instructions to the absolute letter and stirred constantly until I thought the time was right to do the wrinkle test ……..
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……. but putting a small dollop of jam on a dish in the fridge for a couple of minutes and then pushing my finger through it to see if it wrinkled ……. it wrinkled, it wrinkled like a “gud‘un” I was sooooooooooooooooo proud.
IMG_3816I then got bold, and decided to sieve the confection to make a seedless jam, as none of us are that keen on an overtly seedy jam.
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I may have only made enough for half a jar of jam, but my mood was so buoyant I was almost floating on air. I think this has now given me the confidence to perhaps venture into making  larger quantities of “Towers Premium Blackberry Jelly”, subject to Darrell and Nigel’s expert opinion naturally.  I feel a review coming on!

4 comments:

Mr.D said...

I am impressed! Great clothes for the activity too.

If mum was put in a cold place for a few minutes, would she have wrinkles too, without pushing a finger into her?

PharmacyMichele said...

Well done on your first jam making session. Looking forward to hearing how the "Jelly" tastes.

Michele

Dianne said...

Much to be proud of with this foray into the homemade jam world....should taste twice as good being homemade plus your local personally picked berries ......congratulations!..Love, Dianne

PS where does Mr.D get his fanciful ideas?!

Anonymous said...

Oh yummy, I have my scone and clotted cream ready at the double - let me know when the taster panel is convened and I'll be there before you can say - blackberry jelly. JantheFan x