Strawberry & Passionfruit Conserve (No refined sugar)

softly, gently, dribly does it

Strawberry jam is a capricious affair and belies the inviting simplicity of the fruit. It is notoriously adverse to setting, is easily over boiled and loves to reward you with a growth of mould- yet somehow when those first strawberries appear it is just too hard to resist the urge!

This version creates a soft set high fruit conserve which captures the fresh tart tastes of the fruit and has passion fruit “pop” too. I like to dribble it over ice creams, yoghurt and museli combos or old school butter and croissants.

To create the recipe I took a leaf out of the jam-making doyenne Christine Ferber’s book “Mes Confitures” (her “Strawberry with Passionfruit”) for the strawberry/passion fruit balance and tinkered with fruit sugar and lemon boiling liquid for help with setting and general brightness.

As always with jams, make in small quantities to ensure a good clear bright jam and use top quality fruit – here these were Greek strawberries…almost “local” and I ate a few to check their texture and taste.

Ingredients and Preparation for 6 small jars of 200g

• 750g cleaned strawberries de-hulled and cut into roughly equal quarters
• 8 passion fruit – all pulp and pips scooped out
• 150ml liquid that lemons have boiled in or 75ml lemon juice and 75ml water
• 400g fruit sugar (fructose from fruit)
• 100ml grape juice concentrate
• Jars and lids and all equipment sterilised in boiling water with bicarbonate of soda

How To

Blend or mash half the strawberries

Make a syrup by gently dissolving the fructose in the lemon liquid and grape juice concentrate over a low heat. You can do this in the jam pan. When it has thickened a little bit let it cool down.

Place all the fruit in the syrup and let it macerate overnight. This is very Ms Ferber. She also advocates covering with parchment – I use food cloths/ tea towels.

The next day place the jars in the oven to 100C

Boil the jam on a high setting to “a rolling boil”. Test for a soft set on a frozen plate, by “dropping the jam” from a spoon or with a thermometer.

This jam I boiled until 102C only (classic setting point is 104C)

It is important NOT to overboil this jam as it contains delicate flavours

Let the jam sit some 10-15 minutes before jarring

Fill each hot jar. Place a dry lid on each one. Invert to sterilise the air gap and/or water bath for 15 minutes afterwards.