Easy to Make Homemade Apricot Jam

APRICOTS GALORE!! All these gorgeous apricots came from a tree in Carol’s backyard! It’s crazy how expensive they are in the stores, here in Northern California. This apricot tree produced all these beauties -Jackpot!! Apricot season here ends in late July so making a big batch of easy to make homemade apricot jam is the perfect way to enjoy them for months to come.

Keeping in mind, we only like easy to make recipes, would it surprise you to know that making apricot jam is actually easy? Maybe not as easy as buying it off the store shelf LOL. But store bought can’t compare to homemade.

There are many different apricot jam recipes online. Each vary in ingredients and cooking times so we created our own version. We made 2 batches. One using real sugar and the other using the sugar substitute Xyla (for those in our families that need or prefer a lower sugar jam).

Ingredients & Supplies Needed:

• Apricots
• Sugar (or Xyla Sugar Substitute)*
• Lemon Juice (1-2 large Lemons)
• Pectin (optional, for thickening)
• Canning Jars

*Please note that it is too difficult to give actual measurements. It depends on how many apricots and how sweet you want the jam. One great way to think about it was something a food blogger said “looking at your apricots in the pot, use 1/3 the amount in sugar. This might sounds like a lot but it still saves a lot because store bought jams have lots more sugar”.

There is an abundance of tools and supplies like pressure cookers and canning kits for those who want to make the investment. We are using our every day kitchen supplies and making due with what we already own. And it all worked perfectly well. We did need to buy a case of new jars. You can reuse old jars but only if you plan to use the jam right away. “Canning” so it will have a longer shelf life can use old jars, but will need replacement tops/lids.

First we begin by washing our apricots, splitting them open with our fingers, and then removing pit.

Cut apricots into quarters (first cut in half, and then cut the halves in half) and place into large cooking pot. *Add lemon juice and sugar or sugar substitute and cook on medium-high heat until a light boil begins. Reduce heat to low and simmer for about 2 – 2-1/2 hours, stirring often. As it cooks, a yellowish “foam” will develop across the top. Using a large spoon, skim across the top and remove the foam.

The real difficult part about this recipe is the time and attention. You can make the jam in a shorter amount of time. It can vary per your preferences. As our batch cooked, we watched to see the jam gain a thickness. A good test was to put a teaspoon of warm jam onto a plate. See if it is too runny or not will tell you. When we saw the jam firmer, we knew it was done.

While the jam is cooking, boil a large pot of water and heat all the jars a couple at a time. We picked out a pretty quilted mason jar by Ball. After each jar heats for a bit, remove onto towel to air dry. Lids too.

Fill each jar when your jam is settled. You can use a wide funnel but since we didn’t have one, we used a large spoon.

As the jam jars sit with the covers tightly closed, and they each start to cool, they make a “POP” sound once each. It’s super cool how we would hear Pop.. Pop.. Pop. This means they are sealed and ready to safely store until ready to use.

Both batches of Jam came out delicious. Of course we had to celebrate right away with some on a scoop of vanilla ice cream. OUTRAGEOUS! The next few days we served the apricot jam on muffins and oat flour pancakes.. and the our families loved it all.

*Some comparisons and optional tidbits found in many recipes:

1. We came across a few recipes that peal the apricots. We left the skin on. If you are in a rush and want to cook the mixture quickly, its probably a good idea to peal them.
2. Some recipes use Pectin. It’s used for thickening. But the acidity of the lemon juice works with the sugar of the fruit to gel with the natural pectin in the apricots. Apricots have less pectin than some other fruits, but enough with the lemon juice for our batch of apricot jam to come out thick, chunky and delicious.
3. Pectin, thickens. As it cooks, the jam is thinner. It thickens more when it cools. We used a small amount of Pectin (2 tsp) in our jam made with sugar and none in the lower sugar batch. No obvious differences in taste or looking at the thickness. Again, probably a better idea to use it for quick cooking versions.
4. If wanting to cook faster, other shortcuts can be to cut the apricots into smaller pieces. Or mash or use a food processor. It will be less chunky but will easier to cook in a shorter time.
5. Adding more sugar. Making homemade jam uses a heck of a lot less sugar from store bought jams. But we did try to keep the sugar lower in general because we love the natural flavor of apricots. We opted for a chunkier more natural flavor of the fruit to come through.
6. Adding another fruit, flavorings or juices.
7. We prepped our jars and lids by putting them in boiling water. We saw an online recipe where they baked them in the oven.

In addition to all the jars of jam, we also made 4 apricot pies! We each served one to serve to our families and the others we froze for another time. We’ll share the recipe post asap. You won’t want to miss it cause the crust is omg fabulous. Love living a FrugElegance lifestyle, don’t miss a post.. subscribe to FrugElegance and you will receive an email when a new post goes live!