The tastes of cherry and peach combine in this jam to give it a subtle, rich, complex taste. It’s really very, very good, as you can imagine.
Still, a tablespoon of brandy swirled into each jar just before placing the lid on for canning wouldn’t go amiss, either….
You might need to freeze the cherries for a few weeks in the freezer so that you have them when peaches starting coming in.
This recipe from Pomona calls for zero added sweetener. We like it better with a bit added, anyway: see Recipe Notes further below.
The recipe
Jar size choices: Either 125 ml (½ cup / 4 oz) or quarter-litre (½ US pint / 250 ml / 8 oz)
Processing method: Water bath or steam canning
Yield: 4 x quarter-litre (½ US pint) jars
Headspace: 1 cm (¼ inch)
Processing time: 10 minutes
Cherry Peach Jam
Ingredients
- 500 g peaches (very ripe. 1 lb)
- 500 g cherries (1 lb)
- 4 teaspoons calcium water
- 250 ml apple juice (unsweetened. 1 cup / 8 oz)
- 4 tablespoons lemon juice (bottled)
- 1 tablespoon Pomona pectin
Instructions
- Wash, pit, peel peaches. Mash. Add to large pot.
- Wash, stem, pit cherries. Chop either with a large French knife or in a food processor. Add to the large pot.
- Add the calcium water and the apple juice to the pot, stir.
- Add any sweetener, if using (optional. See Recipe Notes.)
- Put pot on stove burner, and turn burner on to start heating the mixture in the pot.
- Put the lemon juice in a bowl. Sprinkle the pectin powder over, all at once, and whisk till smooth (don't worry about very small lumps they will dissolve in the heat later.)
- When the pot mixture hits a boil, add the pectin mixture a dollop at a time, stirring all the while.
- When the pectin mixture is all in, let the mixture cook for 1 more minute.
- Remove from heat.
- Taste, and see if you want any sweetener in it; if so, add maybe ¼ teaspoon at a time of the liquid stevia or a tablespoon of honey at a time until it's right for your taste.
- Ladle into 125 ml (4 oz) or quarter-litre (½ US pint / 8 oz) jars.
- Leave 1 cm (¼ inch) headspace.
- Debubble, then adjust headspace.
- Wipe jar rims.
- Put lids on.
- Process in a water bath or steam canner.
- Process for either size jars 10 minutes; increase time as needed for your altitude.
Nutrition
Reference information
How to water bath process.
How to steam can.
When water-bath canning or steam canning, you must adjust the processing time for your altitude.
For stevia, Better Stevia liquid stevia was the stevia used.
Information about Pomona pectin.
More information about Sugar and Salt-Free Canning in general.
What is the shelf life of home canned goods?
Recipe notes
- This recipe has been designed by Pomona to be “all fruit”, with no added sugar or sweetener, relying simply on the sweetness of the fruit. That being said, it’s safe to add sweetener, and your crowd may prefer a bit. Frankly, it can taste a bit bland without some. You could try up to 1 cup of white sugar or Splenda, or 1 teaspoon liquid stevia, or a few tablespoons of honey. Add before you start to bring mixture to a boil.
- The peaches need to be very ripe so that they are mashable.
- Instead of the fresh peaches, you can use 250 ml (1 cup / 8 oz) of canned. You could also use frozen peaches. Thaw, keeping all liquid, then mash, mashing all liquid back in.
- For cherries, you can use frozen. If you are using frozen, chop them first before thawing. Include all juice from thawed fruit in recipe.
- Mash the fruit by hand for best results. Using a machine will damage the pectin.
- Pomona pectin comes with a small pouch of powdered calcium for you to mix with water to make calcium water.
- The pectin powder will clump if you just mix it straight in; that’s why you mix it with something first.
- The original recipe wanted the pectin powder mixed in a blender with the apple juice (heated), so if you wanted to try that, you could, though it’s a fair bit more cleanup.
Recipe source
All-Fruit Cherry-Peach Jam. In: Duffy, Allison Carroll. Preserving with Pomona’s Pectin. Beverly, MA: Fair Winds Press. 2013. Page 53.
Modifications made:
- Added additional sweetener option, in the form of liquid stevia or liquid honey
- Changed pectin process to avoid blender cleanup.
Nutrition information
Per 2 tablespoons:
- 29 calories, 11 mg sodium
- Weight Watchers PointsPlus®: 1 tablespoon, 0 points; 2 to 3 tablespoons, 1 point; 4 to 6 tablespoons, 2 points.
* Nutrition info provided by https://caloriecount.about.com
* PointsPlus™ calculated by healthycanning.com. Not endorsed by Weight Watchers® International, Inc, which is the owner of the PointsPlus® registered trademark.
* Better Stevia ® is a registered trademark of the NOW Foods Company.
David Z
Is it possible to use another type of juice, for example cherry juice?
Healthy Canning
Yes, you could, though your choice of juice would of course impact the colour and taste.