Sweet Cherry Vanilla Jam

This year I added 20 lbs of sweet cherries to my fruit order and was thrilled at how fabulous they were.   Sweet cherries travel much better than sour cherries [which often arrive brown and running with juice, though delicious.]  Sweet cherries store well, stay firm and the extra few days gave us time to finish the peaches, which arrived first, and deal with the sour cherries and berries.   It was a very busy couple of weeks.   I washed the sweet cherries and put them in ziplocks stacked flat in the fridge.   It was easy to grab a bag in the morning, set it out and I confess we ate many many of those cherries fresh before I had a chance to make anything with them.

But I did make a couple of things with them and the first on the list was a batch or two [or three] of Sweet Cherry Vanilla Jam.  

It. Was. Heaven.   Like my favorite clafouti without the custard.    Soooo good.   Make some of this.  [Put it on chocolate cake.   Or just eat it with a spoon right out of the jar.]

Sweet Cherry Vanilla Jam
www.rurification.com

4 cups pitted sweet cherries, cut in half
1 cup water
1 vanilla bean, cut in half and then sliced open lengthwise
1/2 cup low sugar pectin [Dutch Gel All Natural Lite is my favorite]
1 cup sugar

Put the cherries, water, vanilla and pectin in a large pot.   Bring to a boil, stirring constantly.  When the jam reaches a hard boil [that bubbles like crazy even when you're stirring constantly], time it for 1 minute.    Add the sugar, stir constantly and return it to a hard boil.   Time it for one minute.   Turn off the heat, ladle into jars.   We process the jam in 1/2 pint jars for 15 minutes.   Yield:  2.5 - 3 pints.

For more recipes as easy as these, check out my ebook on the sidebar.  A Simple Jar of Jam: 180+ recipes & variations for jam using low sugar pectin.  Every purchase goes a long way toward supporting the blog.   Thank you!

Dormant Cherry Tree

Remember those cherry trees that Eric bought on sale last summer?    They're doing very well.    The Montmorency got sunburned and dropped its leaves fast this fall, but promptly went dormant and formed these beautiful buds.   

Buds are good. 

These buds hold all the promise of Spring.    We're hoping to get blooms next season. 

Cherry Trees

We bought three little cherry trees on sale when the summer heat was raging and the local garden centers were desperate to clear their inventories.  Eric found them and called me because he knew that I'd been wanting a cherry tree after we went and got some cherries from Murph this spring.  

So we got one of each kind of cherry they had.  Two sweets and one sour. 

On. Sale.   For $10 each.

Score!

Three 6' trees.  

Which had to be brought home and babied because they were Sad.    So I put them on the north side of the house and kept them in their pots and watered them every day until they weren't sad anymore.

And until the ground was soft enough to dig in again.

Because in southern Indiana, under the 1/2 inch of topsoil that we're lucky to have, there is a layer of clay that is about 10 miles deep.  Ten. Miles.  I'm pretty sure.

And when you take that clay, with no rain for three months and then bake it slowly at temperatures over 100 for a few weeks, guess what you get?

Oh.  Yes.

Brick.

Which is hard to dig in to make big holes for cherry trees.   Really, really hard to dig.   As in - Honey?  Why does my shovel just keep bouncing off the ground?   And didn't we used to have grass in the lawn?

It was a rough summer.

But my beautiful new trees did just fine on the north side of the house, until it started raining at the end of August.  And then Eric dug three ginormous holes and filled them with sand and chicken dirt, because sand and chicken dirt are magic.  And we waited a few more weeks until the weather had cooled off and we actually had a frost.

And then we planted my beautiful new cherry trees.  

And the one that was in the fullest sun promptly got sunburned and the leaves all sagged and it was Sad.   Again.

I forgot to make sure it was getting enough direct sunlight before we planted it there.   [Head hanging in shame.]

We're watering it a lot and it'll be fine.   Things are winding down for the season and we've had a few more frosts, so it'll go dormant and have a nice long nap and then in the Spring, it and the other ones will be beautiful and they'll give me a few cherries, which I will get before the blasted birds get.   And I will make cherry jam.   And clafouti.    And all will be right with the world. 

Cherry Clafouti

Annual Repost --

Since true clafoutis are always made with cherries, calling this a cherry clafouti is redundant.   Sorry about that.   I did it to differentiate between this clafouti and the one I made before with rhubarb.  Only that one was really a flaugnarde, not a clafouti, since it wasn't made with cherries.  

As we learned before, true clafoutis are made with unpitted cherries because the pit imparts a distinctive flavor.   I wanted to find out if that is true.  So I actually went out in search of black cherries.    And I found them.    They weren't fabulous, but they were the right kind.    And they were on sale.   Perfect!

Remember how clafouti is a glorified flan/pancake thing?    With the rhubarb one, I had to pour a layer of batter in the bottom and bake it first, but with the cherries, you don't have to do that.  And since we weren't even pitting the cherries, all I had to do was put the cherries in then pour the batter over them then bake it.   Too easy.

Seriously.    It was too easy.   So I did some looking around at variations and made it a teensy bit more complicated.    I added real vanilla from a vanilla bean.    I heart vanilla.   You knew that.

This is what I made.    It was fabulous.   Totally worth leaving the pits in.   I'll never do pitless clafouti again. 

Robin's Clafouti

• 10 inch tart dish
• butter to rub your dish with
• 1 to 1 1/2 lb black cherries, stems off, pits in.  Yes, in.  
• 3 T flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 4 eggs  [You can get by with 3 if you have to.]
• 2 cups milk
• 1 vanilla bean

Heat oven to 350.   Butter the tart dish well.  Arrange cherries in the bottom of the dish.   Don't pack them in, leave some spaces for the batter to get around them all.  In a small bowl, mix flour, salt and sugar.  Set aside.  In a bigger bowl, mix eggs and milk.  Cut vanilla bean longways and scrape out the insides into the egg mixture.  Gradually stir the flour mix into the egg mixture.   Pour batter over cherries.   Bake at 350 until set and golden.  About 60 minutes. 

Clafouti is traditionally served at room temp.     It's great that way.    It was also great cold, right out of the fridge for breakfast.

Cherry Jam, Three Ways

Thanks to Murphala, we were recently able to pick a whole bunch of Montmorency cherries.   It had been years since I'd had fresh sour cherries.

I love sour cherries.

We had enough to make three batches of jam, so I tried it three different ways.   Here's the basic recipe.



Batch #1
Basic Cherry Jam

• 4 cups pitted cherries
• 2/3 cup water or juice
• 3 Tablespoons Ball Low Sugar Pectin
• 2 cups sugar

Combine the cherries, water/juice and pectin.    Bring to hard boil.  [A hard boil is one you can't stir down.]   Stir constantly and boil hard for 1 minute.    Add sugar.   Stir well and return to hard boil.   Stir constantly and boil hard for 1 minute.    Ladle into jars.  Cap with clean lids and rings.  Process for canning 10 minutes in water bath or steam canner.  

***
Easy. 

To jazz it up, I decided to do a batch with vanilla. 

Here's the thing about vanilla jam recipes.   Inevitably, they call for a vanilla bean.   Which I have.   In the freezer.   And which I am more than happy to use in jam.   That's what they're for.  

You have to split the bean and scrape out the seeds.   Not a big deal.   Except the seeds get kind of gooey and then they clump and I hate that and if you've got a pale jam, then the seeds show up and look like pepper, which can be off putting to some people.   The jam is always delicious in the end, but .... you know.... maybe there's another way.

I tried 2 Tablespoons of my homemade vanilla extract instead of a vanilla bean. 

Worked like a charm.   Here's the recipe.  This one is K2's favorite.

Batch #2
Cherry Vanilla Jam

• 4 cups pitted cherries
• 2/3 cup water or juice
• 3 Tablespoons Ball Low Sugar Pectin
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 Tablespoons vanilla extract

Combine the cherries, water/juice and pectin.    Bring to hard boil.  [A hard boil is one you can't stir down.]   Stir constantly and boil hard for 1 minute.    Add sugar and vanilla.   Stir well and return to hard boil.   Stir constantly and boil hard for 1 minute.    Ladle into jars.  Cap with clean lids and rings.  Process for canning 10 minutes in water bath or steam canner. 

***

I've also been thinking about jazzing up the plain fruit jams with more spices like star anise and cardamom.    But I hate wasting fruit in crazy spice experiments so I did a little internet research first to see if such a beast as Sour Cherry Cardamom Jam existed.   It did!  Someone is selling it on Amazon.    And I found recipes for Cherry Cardamom Pie, so I figured the proportion of spice to cherries from those recipes.

I tried it and it was darn good!  Here's the recipe.   This one is Lily's favorite.

Batch #3

Cherry Vanilla Cardamom Jam

• 4 cups pitted cherries
• 2/3 cup water or juice
• 3 Tablespoons Ball Low Sugar Pectin
• 2 cups sugar
• 1/2 tsp ground cardamom
• 2 Tablespoons vanilla extract
  

Stir cardamom and sugar together.  Set aside.

Combine the cherries, water/juice and pectin.    Bring to hard boil.  [A hard boil is one you can't stir down.]   Stir constantly and boil hard for 1 minute.    Add sugar/cardamom mixture and vanilla.   Stir well and return to hard boil.   Stir constantly and boil hard for 1 minute.    Ladle into jars.  Cap with clean lids and rings.  Process for canning 10 minutes in water bath or steam canner.  


***

There you have it.  Cherry Jam three ways.

Next up, peach season is coming.    I'll be experimenting with peach jams, next.

Cherry Clafouti

Annual Repost --

Since true clafoutis are always made with cherries, calling this a cherry clafouti is redundant.   Sorry about that.   I did it to differentiate between this clafouti and the one I made last week with rhubarb.  Only that one was really a flaugnarde, not a clafouti, since it wasn't made with cherries.  

As we learned before, true clafoutis are made with unpitted cherries because the pit imparts a distinctive flavor.   I wanted to find out if that is true.  So I actually went out in search of black cherries.    And I found them.    They weren't fabulous, but they were the right kind.    And they were on sale.   Perfect!

Remember how clafouti is a glorified flan/pancake thing?    With the rhubarb one, I had to pour a layer of batter in the bottom and bake it first, but with the cherries, you don't have to do that.  And since we weren't even pitting the cherries, all I had to do was put the cherries in then pour the batter over them then bake it.   Too easy.

Seriously.    It was too easy.   So I did some looking around at variations and made it a teensy bit more complicated.    I added real vanilla from a vanilla bean.    I heart vanilla.   You knew that.

This is what I made.    It was fabulous.   Totally worth leaving the pits in.   I'll never do pitless clafouti again. 

Robin's Clafouti

• 10 inch tart dish
• butter to rub your dish with
• 1 to 1 1/2 lb black cherries, stems off, pits in.  Yes, in.  
• 3 T flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 4 eggs  [You can get by with 3 if you have to.]
• 2 cups milk
• 1 vanilla bean

Heat oven to 350.   Butter the tart dish well.  Arrange cherries in the bottom of the dish.   Don't pack them in, leave some spaces for the batter to get around them all.  In a small bowl, mix flour, salt and sugar.  Set aside.  In a bigger bowl, mix eggs and milk.  Cut vanilla bean longways and scrape out the insides into the egg mixture.  Gradually stir the flour mix into the egg mixture.   Pour batter over cherries.   Bake at 350 until set and golden.  About 60 minutes. 

Clafouti is traditionally served at room temp.     It's great that way.    It was also great cold, right out of the fridge for breakfast.