- Makes approx. 300ml jam - Ready in 24 hours (including 23 hours cooling time time) -
* Uses up 250g of fresh raspberries *
N.B. This method does NOT work well for strawberries - they just dry out in the oven, bother!
Gather together…
300ml empty jar with a metal lid.
250g fresh raspberries, washed and drained.
250g white caster sugar (NOT granulated sugar as it makes the jam grainy) - you can whizz granulated sugar in a food processor until it is fine enough.
1 tsp freshly squeezed lemon juice - 'pectin' found naturally in lemon juice is the type of starch needed for the jam to set.
Get cooking…
1. Preheat the oven to 180 C (160 C fan) or Gas 4.
2. Prepare the jar (300ml size+) you'll use to put the 300ml of jam in. Choose a jar with a metal lid, so the lid is easy to sterilise too. Wash the jar and lid in hot soapy water. Dry the outside of the jar and shake the excess moisture out of the inside. Then stand the jar upside down in the oven, with the lid upside down next to it - leave the jar and lid there whilst the jam components are heating up.
3. Choose two large-ish rectangular baking trays which will sit side-by-side in your oven. Put the 250g fresh, washed and drained raspberries onto one (spread out) and the 250g of white caster sugar onto the other (spread out).
4. Heat the contents of the tins in the oven, side by side, for 30 minutes.
5. Meanwhile, squeeze a lemon (you'll need less than a quarter of the lemon's total juice) to obtain 1 tsp of fresh lemon juice.
6. After the 30 minutes of heating time, carefully remove the trays and the jar and lid from the oven.
7. Quickly tip the hot sugar into the hot strawberries, add the 1 tsp of freshly squeezed lemon juice and stir really well for 1 minute to melt the sugar into the raspberry juice.
8. Carefully spoon the hot jam into the hot heat-sterilised jar and put the lid on.
9. Leave the hot jar of jam to cool for 2 hours at room temperature, then put it in the fridge overnight to finish setting.
10. The jam will last for just a week or two in the fridge - this is why I make just a small batch. It is enough to fill (sandwich together) three cakes, or you can fill fewer cakes and eat the leftover jam on fresh bread or toast, or swirl it through yoghurt
11. This method of jam making results in a runnier jam which lasts only a week or two (even if kept in the fridge), but it is delicious, so easy to make and (unlike traditional jam making) the washing up is a breeze.
Adapted slightly from the Quick Oven-Cooked Raspberry Jam recipe in Delicious magazine