Fancy strawberry jam with a twist? Try these yummy recipes for strawberry jam with mint, woodruff or kiwi. Four ingredients and about 30 minutes of your time are all you need to be sent to seventh jam heaven.
Strawberry Mint Jam
My first recipe is for strawberry mint jam. The sweetness of the strawberries in combination with the fresh mint leaves makes a refreshing spread for a summer breakfast!
Hint: The mint flavour will develop over time, so don’t use more than the recommended 3 – 4 stems. Otherwise, the jam could taste a bit like toothpaste…
Yield: 6 – 8 jars à 200 ml
Ingredients:
1 kg strawberries 500 g preserving sugar 3 – 4 stems of mint lemon juice
Instructions:
1. Sterilize your jars and lids by washing them with boiling water. Let them cool on a rack and dry them out.
2. Wash the strawberries, cut off the green leaves and let them dry in a colander.
3. Remove the mint leaves from the stems and cut them into very fine pieces.
4. Next, put the strawberries into a high pot and blend them with a hand blender.
5. Add the mint leaves, preserving sugar and lemon juice and bring it all to the boil under constant stirring.
6. Let it boil for 5 minutes while constantly stirring. If foam forms, you can remove it if you like. It’s a purely optical matter and doesn’t impact storage or flavour.
7. Test if the jam sets. When it’s ready, fill it into the jars and close the lid tightly. Place the jars upside down onto a towel for about 5 – 10 minutes. This will help to build a vacuum within the jars.
8. Let the jars cool down and store them in a cool, dark place. Or you just eat the jam up at once after cooling 😉.
Strawberry Woodruff Jam
Remember the woodruff syrup we made in spring? Besides adding it to your drinks, it’s also great in strawberry jam. The herbal and slightly earthy flavour of the woodruff matches very well with the sweetness of the strawberries.
Yield: 10 – 12 jars à 200 ml
Ingredients:
1 kg strawberries 500 ml woodruff syrup gelling agent 3:1 lemon juice
Instructions:
1. Sterilize your jars and lids by washing them with boiling water. Let them cool on a rack and dry them out.
2. Wash the strawberries, cut off the green leaves and let them dry in a colander.
3. Next, put the strawberries into a high pot and blend them with a hand blender.
4. Add the woodruff syrup, gelling agent and lemon juice and bring it all to the boil under constant stirring.
5. Let it boil for 5 minutes while constantly stirring. If foam forms, you can remove it if you like. It’s a purely optical matter and doesn’t impact storage or flavour.
6. Test if the jam sets. When it’s ready, fill it into the jars and close the lid tightly. Place the jars upside down onto a towel for about 5 – 10 minutes. This will help to build a vacuum within the jars.
7. Let the jars cool down and store them in a cool, dark place.
Strawberry Kiwi Jam
I would never have come across this recipe if I hadn’t been presented with a (very) large box of kiwis one day. The boys, of course, ate lots of them but there were still so many left that I had to find ways to preserve them. A day before the kiwis came into my life, I had been harvesting strawberries. So I decided it would be worth a try to combine these two fruits. I haven’t regretted it!
Yield: 6 – 8 jars á 200 ml
Ingredients:
500 g strawberries 500 g kiwis 500 g preserving sugar 2:1 lemon juice
Instructions:
1. Sterilize your jars and lids by washing them with boiling water. Let them cool on a rack and dry them out.
2. Wash the strawberries, cut off the green leaves and let them dry in a colander.
3. Peel the kiwis and chop them roughly.
4. Next, put the strawberries and kiwis into a high pot and blend them with a hand blender.
5. Add the preserving sugar and lemon juice and bring it all to the boil under constant stirring.
6. Let it boil for 5 minutes while constantly stirring. If foam forms, you can remove it if you like. It’s a purely optical matter and doesn’t impact storage or flavour.
7. Test if the jam sets. When it’s ready, fill it into the jars and close the lid tightly. Place the jars upside down onto a towel for about 5 – 10 minutes. This will help to build a vacuum within the jars.
8. Let the jars cool down and store them in a cool, dark place.
Strawberries! These sweet, bright red fruits are always a highlight in desserts and cakes. And above all in homemade classic strawberry jam! Enjoy it on freshly baked rolls and you have the ultimate indulgence for breakfast. You can easily capture the sweet taste of summer in a jar by making a classic strawberry jam. This easy recipe only requires three ingredients and about 30 minutes of your time. And when it has cooled down, you can use it for breakfast, in pancakes or even as a cake filling.
Why you should make your own classic strawberry jam
You’ll see: it’s so easy to cook your own strawberry jam and the result is a thousand times better than store-bought products.
Home-made strawberry jam is fresher and more flavourful, especially when you use fully ripe fruits from your own garden or a local market.
You can tailor the recipe precisely to your preferences. You can decide how sweet you want it – in this recipe, we’ll use preserving sugar 2:1 for less sweetness – and add other flavours like mint or woodruff.
You have full control over the sugar content and completely do without dubious additives.
Cooking jam makes you happy and you’ll always have a great gift for family and friends ready at hand.
Three ingredients for classic strawberry jam
Only three ingredients are necessary for a classic strawberry jam:
Only pick strawberries that are fully ripe and don’t show any white spots. They should be bright red and have a sweet smell. If they don’t smell at all, they most probably won’t taste at all either.
For sweet fruits like strawberries, I recommend using preserving sugar 2:1. That way, the jam won’t be too sweet and the characteristic flavour of the strawberries is more pronounced.
Lemon juice supports the gelation of fruits low in acid like strawberries. Furthermore, it helps to keep the red colour and adds a nice, fresh flavour to your jam.
My top tips for making strawberry jam
Sterilized jars will prolong the shelf life of your jam. Wash your jars and lids with boiling water and let them dry on a rack.
Cook the jam slowly. That way you make sure that it gelates evenly and doesn’t burn. Stir constantly to dissolve all the sugar.
Always test if the jam sets. Put a spoonful of jam onto a cold plate. If the jam runs it’ll need 1 – 2 minutes further boiling. If it sets on the plate, it’s ready to be filled in jars.
Fill the jam immediately into the sterilized jars and close the lid tightly. That way you prevent the formation of mould and prolong the shelf life of your jam.
Store the jars in a cool and dark place to keep the freshness and taste of your jam.
Classic strawberry jam
Yield: 6 – 8 jars à 200 ml
Ingredients:
1 kg strawberries 500g preserving sugar 2:1 1 tbsp lemon juice
Instructions:
Sterilize your jars and lids by washing them with boiling water. Let them cool on a rack and dry them out.
Wash the strawberries, cut off the green leaves and let them dry in a colander.
Next, put the strawberries into a high pot and blend them with a hand blender.
Add the preserving sugar and lemon juice and bring it all to the boil under constant stirring.
Let it boil for 5 minutes while constantly stirring. If foam forms, you can remove it if you like. It’s a purely optical matter and doesn’t impact storage or flavour.
Test if the jam sets. When it’s ready, fill it into the jars and close the lid tightly. Place the jars upside down onto a towel for about 5 – 10 minutes. This will help to build a vacuum within the jars.
Let the jars cool down and store them in a cool and dark place. Or you just eat the jam up at once after cooling.
For quite a long time, I only ate asparagus with sauce hollandaise and young potatoes, topped with some bacon if I felt adventurous. Not because I like asparagus best that way but because I didn’t know it in any other way. So, when a short while ago, I tasted raw white asparagus for the first time I was thrilled by its fresh taste of young shoots. These days, whenever I buy asparagus, I have to force my willpower not to eat the whole bunch just like that. Spruce tips have a lemony, slightly dry taste and go well with the crisp asparagus. You can forage the spruce tips in April and May. The younger they are, the more delicate they taste. Alas, nothing is forever, and the season for both, asparagus and spruce tips is very short. What would be more logical than preserving both for when they won’t be available? And what better way than fermenting to keep the asparagus crisp and all the nutrients alive. The best thing is: you won’t need many ingredients for this simple recipe for fermented asparagus with spruce tips.
Fermented asparagus with spruce tips
Ingredients
Shelf life: several months
500 g white asparagus
salt
water
1 handful of spruce tips
Instructions
1. Peel the white asparagus and cut it into pieces of 4 – 5 cm (about 2 inches).
2. Mix the asparagus and the spruce tips with 30 g salt in a bowl and let it rest for 30 minutes.
3. Put the asparagus and spruce tips into glasses and fill them up with a salt solution of 3 % (30 g salt on 1 litre of water). Put a weight on top of the asparagus to keep everything well under the brine.
4. Close the lid and let the vegetables ferment at a dark and warm place for about one week.
5. When the taste is to your liking, store the asparagus in the fridge.
Both, asparagus and spruce tips are such great foods to experiment with. For example, have you tried out this recipe for tarte flambée with asparagus and walnuts? It’s delicious. Or get over here and read how you can make a very easy homemade spruce tip honey and preserve the flavour of a spring forest. I’m not done with trying out new recipes either. Stay tuned!
Every spring, the firs and spruces grow new, light green tips. Spruce tips start growing in April and, depending on the weather, you can forage them until the end of May, just as long as they are still light green. Spruce tips contain essential oils, but not as much as the older needles and the wood. They taste slightly lemony but sweet, and you can eat them directly from the tree. But did you know that you can also make “honey” from those spruce tips? It’s not real honey (’cause that’s only made by bees) but a thick sugar syrup with a golden-rosy colour and an amazing taste that you can use just like bees’ honey. With this recipe for spruce tip honey, you can preserve the forest’s flavour.
It’s easy to make spruce tip honey, especially with this simple recipe.
Spruce tip honey
Ingredients
Yield: about 1,2 kg spruce tip honey
Shelf life: at least one year
200 g spruce tips
1 litre water
1 kg sugar
1 organic lemon (optional)
Instructions
1. Wash the spruce tips and put them into a pot. Pour the water over them and cover them with a plate so that they stay underwater. Let them rest there for about 12 hours (best overnight).
2. Cut the lemon into slices and add those and the sugar to the water and spruce tips.
3. Bring the mixture to the boil while constantly stirring. Make sure that the sugar has dissolved completely. Let it boil at a low flame for about 30 minutes.
4. Sieve off the spruce tips and let the syrup simmer at a low flame. Stir from time to time.
5. When the mixture starts to form a bubbly foam, it’s time to pour it into glasses. Securely close the twist-off lid and let the honey cool down.
Spruce tip honey, however, can not only be spread onto your buttered bread, or used in tea or marinades. It also contains lots of vitamin C and is a good remedy against colds.
Capture the essence of a spring forest with this delicate spruce tip honey that transforms young evergreen shoots into liquid gold with bright, citrusy notes.
Wash the spruce tips and put them into a pot. Pour the water over them and cover them with a plate so that they stay underwater. Let them rest there for about 12 hours (best overnight).
Cut the lemon into slices. Add the lemons and the sugar to the water and spruce tips.
Bring the mixture to the boil while constantly stirring. Make sure that the sugar has dissolved completely. Let it boil at a low flame for about 30 minutes.
Filter the spruce tips and let the syrup simmer at a low flame. Stir from time to time.
When the mixture starts to form a bubbly foam, it's time to pour it into glasses. Securely close the twist-off lid and let the honey cool down.
Note on foraging
Only take what you can classify without any doubts. Foraging and using plants at your own risk. Remember that some plants are toxic! Children, pregnant women, people under medication and those with chronic diseases should additionally consult with their medical practitioner before consuming foraged plants.
When I was a kid, woodruff sherbet powder was totally en vogue! Sometimes, when my friends and I were walking back from school, we went to the local store and bought some of it as a treat. There was also a “woodruff” jelly of a light green colour and overly sweet taste but my mum refused to buy “this purely chemical stuff” (she didn’t say “stuff”). So the only reference I had on woodruff taste For a long time, the only reference I had about how woodruff tasted were the sherbet powders.
One day, when taking a stroll through the woods with my boys, I found some lovely flowers growing there in the half shade. I picked some and brought them home where I wanted to put them into a vase. Which I forgot to do. When I remembered the plants, they had already wilted – and were spreading the most wonderful scent of hay and vanilla (nothing chemical about that). We had accidentally found woodruff! Today, I grow woodruff in my herb garden and every spring (the best time is from April to June) I make some woodruff syrup from it to preserve that extraordinary scent. No chemical taste, no green colour, just four simple ingredients for a wonderfully herbal-hay-vanilla-fragranted syrup.
Woodruff Syrup
Ingredients
Yield: about 8 bottles of 250 ml
8 – 10 stalks of woodruff
1 litre water
1 kg sugar
1 lemon (organic)
Instructions
1. Pick the woodruff and let it wilt for several hours up to one day until you can clearly smell its scent.
Woodruff left to dry
2. Mix the sugar and water and bring it to the boil while constantly stirring. Make sure that the sugar is completely dissolved.
3. Cut the lemon into slices and add them to the mixture.
4. Let the sugar syrup cool down. When it reaches room temperature add the woodruff and leave it there for 2 – 3 days.
5. After that time, remove the lemon slices and the woodruff, bring the syrup to the boil and fill it into glass bottles.
Woodruff syrup will keep stable for about one year.
How to use woodruff syrup
You can add woodruff syrup to sparkling water to make it a lemonade or to sparkling wine for a great aperitif. Mix it with curd and yoghurt, fold in whipped cream and layer it into a bowl with fresh strawberries and ladyfingers to make a quick and easy dessert.
You can even use it as a base for kombucha or sweeten your rice pudding with it.
Every year, I can’t wait for the lilac to bloom, and every year, I’m sad when it fades again a few weeks later. That’s why I try to preserve those beautiful flowers as best as I can and thus prolong their season. Contrary to popular opinion, lilac flowers are not toxic. In fact, any variety of lilacs (Syringa spp.) is edible. One of my favourite recipes is this homemade lilac syrup. Its colour is stunning, and lilac syrup in a lemonade or on top of ice cream adds an extravagant touch!
For the colour, however, we must use a trick, as it does not come from the lilac itself. Nevertheless, it’s totally natural and organic. I’ll show you how to do it.
Lilac syrup
Yield: 500 ml
Ingredients
a bowl full of lilac flowers: make sure to use unsprayed lilac; also, do not use lilac from a roadside where it gets polluted by exhaust fumes and dust
250 ml water
250 g sugar
3 – 4 blueberries for the colour
1 tbsp lemon juice
Instructions
1. Carefully pluck the flowers off the stems. Make sure that nothing green gets into the bowl, only the flowers. The green parts of the flowers would make the syrup bitter.
2. Carefully wash the flowers with cold water.
3. Put the water and sugar into a pot and boil the solution while constantly stirring it. The sugar must be dissolved completely.
4. Remove the pot from the heat and add the blueberries and lemon juice. Stir slightly until the liquid has the colour you like.
Blueberries give our lilac syrup that wonderfully light lavender hue.
5. Let the syrup cool down to room temperature. Now, add the lilac flowers and stir them slightly in.
Cover the pot and let it all rest for about 18 – 24 hours.
The lilac syrup is ready to rest for about 18 – 24 hours
6. Strain the mixture through a fine strainer into another pot. Gently press the last syrup out of the lilac flowers.
7. The mixture is ready for use now, but it will only last 2 – 3 days in the fridge.
If you want to preserve it for longer, bring the syrup to a short boil once more and pour the hot liquid into glass bottles. Close them immediately with lids. Preserved that way, lilac syrup can be stored up to 18 months. Once you open a bottle, consume the syrup within 2 – 3 days.
Alternatively, you can freeze the lilac syrup.
How to use lilac syrup
Beverages
Stir a tablespoon into a glass of iced tea for a floral afternoon refreshment
Swirl into plain yoghurt with fresh berries and granola
Blend into smoothie bowls
Stir into overnight oats with sliced almonds and blueberries
Brush onto warm scones fresh from the oven
Desserts
Brush onto cake layers before frosting for added moisture and flavour
Drizzle over vanilla ice cream
Mix into whipped cream for a floral topping on desserts
Use as a sweetener in homemade popsicles with berries
Angela Braun
Lilac Syrup
This elegant syrup adds a touch of botanical sophistication to cocktails, lemonades, and iced teas. Drizzle it over pancakes or waffles, stir into yoghurt, or use as a finishing touch for cakes and pastries.
Carefully plug the flowers off the stems. Make sure that nothing green gets into the bowl, only the flowers.
Wash the flowers with cold water.
Put the water and sugar into a pot and boil it while constantly stirring. The sugar must be dissolved completely.
Remove the pot from the heat and add the blueberries and lemon juice. Stir slightly until the liquid has the colour you like.
Let the syrup cool down to room temperature, add the lilac flowers, cover the pot and let it all rest for about 18 - 24 hours.
Pour the mixture through a fine sieve into another pot. Gently press the last syrup out of the lilac flowers.
The mixture is ready for use now but will only last 2 - 3 days in the fridge. If you want to preserve it for longer, bring the syrup to a boil once more and the boiling liquid into glass bottles. Alternatively, you can freeze the lilac syrup.
Notes
Add lilac syrup to cocktails, lemonades and iced teas. Mix it with sparkling wine and you have an extravagant aperitif. However, lilac syrup is not only for drinks. Get creative and drizzle it over pancakes or waffles, stir it into yoghurt, or use it as a finishing touch for cakes and pastries.
