Rhubarb and Apple Jam

Are you a fan of homemade jam? If you are, try this delicious Rhubarb and Apple Jam with a hint of cinnamon and ginger. You will make it every year.

I love canning fruits and vegetables when they’re in season, but I don’t do it very often because we’re just two adults in our house and I don’t really see the point in making 2 jars of jam only.

But I couldn’t miss the chance of making rhubarb jam because I love it. I eat it raw dipped in honey. Does anybody else eat it like this? My parents have rhubarb and I would eat it raw every year.

Unfortunately, I can’t find rhubarb where I live, so when we went to another country, I bought some to make jam and a cake.

Ingredients:

• 1,2 kg of rhubarb, peeled and chopped
• 500 g of apples, peeled and chopped
• 500 g of brown sugar (I used muscovado)
• 1 tablespoon of cinnamon
• 5 teaspoons of Amaretto soaked raisins
• 1 cm of ginger, chopped
• 1 teaspoon of Amaretto

Peel the rhubarb with a sharp knife, wash and slice it. When you slice it if you see any remaining skin that doesn’t let you slice the stalk, peel them away. Set them aside into a big bowl.

Add the prepared and washed apples to the rhubarb. Pour the sugar and cinnamon and stir.

Let them sit for 2 hours, or overnight. You will see that the sugar and the rhubarb and apples have made some kind of delicious liquid. You can skip this step if you want, but maybe you need to add some water when you’re cooking the jam.

Pour everything into a big pot and bring it to a boil. When it starts simmering, turn the heat to the lowest setting and stir every 2 minutes or so. Be careful not to burn yourself, because jam splatters a lot.

Cook it for 25-35 minutes, until it thickens. You can cook it longer if you want it to be thicker, but keep in mind that it thickens more as it cools down because apples contain a lot of pectin. Add the ginger, amaretto soaked raisins and cook for 10 more minutes. You can skip adding the raisins, but they give a great flavor to the jam.

In the meantime wash and dry some jars and their lids. (I needed 3 small jars of 300 g each one and 3 bigger ones of 400 g). Set them aside on a clean kitchen towel.

You don’t have to sterilize the jars beforehand. We sterilize them after we’ve added the jam.

Add one teaspoon of Amaretto into one jar, close the lid and shake it. Then, pour the remaining Amaretto into another jar and do the same thing with all of them.

I’ve learned this tip from my aunt. The alcohol sterilizes the jars and gives the jam a great flavor.

When the jam thickened, pour it into the prepared jars almost to the top, leaving 1 cm. Close the lids tight.

Now we have to sterilize the jam. I choose to do it on bain Marie.

Into a big pot add a kitchen towel and the jars. Pour water halfway through, being careful not to cover the lids and bring the water to a boil. When it starts boiling, turn the heat to low and let it simmer for 15 minutes.

The reason we put a kitchen towel into the water is to make sure the jars don’t break from the heat. The towel captures some of the heat.

After 15 minutes, turn the heat off and let the jars in the water until they’ve cooled off. You can leave them overnight. 

As you can see, it’s really easy to make jam, it’s only time-consuming, but it’s worth it.

Have you made any of my recipes? Please tag me on Instagram with the tag #booksandlavender because I would love to see your creations.

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