Mildly Spicy Strawberry Jalapeño Freezer Jam
After buying some expensive little bottles of jalapeño/fruit jelly from the farmer’s market, I decided to try my own and save some money. I love eating berry jalapeño jelly on crackers, with cream cheese or just with corn chips. So I gave it a first shot with strawberry jalapeno freezer jam and the results were fantastic!
The whole process is so quick because you don’t have to cook the fruit or process the jars after filling them. You don’t have to worry about everything being sterile. It’s much easier to do in a short time. This takes about 30 minute total!
- Total Time: 30 mins.
Ingredients
- 10 jalapeño peppers, core removed (you may want to wear gloves)
- 6 cups strawberries, cleaned and cored or frozen, semi-thawed
- 1/4 cup lemon juice
- 7 cups sugar, I prefer evaporated cane juice crystals
- If you’d like it to have more spice, add 1 to 2 drops of black pepper essential oil
Then over the stove mix:
- 2 packages original fruit pectin (I used ball brand, but just ordered)
- 1 1/2 cups water
Instructions
If you are crushing the berries by hand, then chop your
peppers finely. If you are using a blender or food processor, just coarsely cut them up. Throw the peppers in a pan and saute for 5 minutes over medium heat.
Either crush the strawberries one layer at a time with a potato masher and mix in juice and sugar, or put all into a food processor and blend up to a puree. I have a Cuisinart, which barely held this amount but worked perfectly.
Stir well with a whisk on med-high heat until mixture comes to a rolling boil. Stir constantly for 1 minute, remove from heat and pour into strawberry/pepper mixture. Stir or blend for 3 minutes. This makes a puree type jam that sets up very well. If you want it to be more loose, you can try using only one package of pectin.
Ladle freezer jam into clean jars leaving 1/2-1 inch of space at the top. Put on lids (they don’t have to be new, just clean-I put them in a little pot with some hot water).
Then refrigerate the jam for 24 hours and be sure to try some fresh! I licked the bowl clean! Nathan, my 15 year old, was extra excited because he loves hot stuff!
Notes
Then keep in fridge up to 3 weeks or freeze. Should last a good year in the freezer.
When I made this, I did 2 batches of plain strawberry jam for the kid’s lunches and one batch jalapeño, so 3 batches total. It took exactly half a box of frozen berries from Azure Standard, which is 5 pounds. I even threw a star fruit from Bountiful Baskets in one batch and it came out delicious with a slight citrus tang.