Homemade Pineapple Jam

This recipe was due to be uploaded. I had totally forgotten about it, and I apologise to you guys. I was looking through iPhoto yesterday to find what to post for Saturday and I saw pictures of making Pineapple Jam. It actually sparked my interest to bake my Agege style bread again (recipe HERE), just so I can finish what’s left of my Pineapple and Zobo Jam and also my homemade cream cheese. You want to be in my apartment this morning because the place smells gloriously of freshly baked bread and I am just about to chow down with jam and cream cheese, but before I get lost in all those flavours, I had to quickly come blog about home-made Pineapple Jam.

This was my favourite jam as a child, second to Apricot Jam. Many a time my mother caught me simply tucking in with a spoon and licking away. Oooooooh, Mama got angry, ooooooh, she was quite upset with me. At times, my gluttony got so bad, I could go through half of a recently opened jar. I got spanked a few times for it, hey, when you have a Nigerian mum, it is a rite of passage. Hehehehehehe. I can’t remember the brand of that Jam. I keep trying to remember, and each time the image flashes across my memory and when I try to focus on the picture, off it goes. Drives me crazy. Oooooh, that Jam was good. My siblings with the weird taste buds, (or maybe I was the one who had weird taste buds), loved orange jam (yuck), blueberry jam (double yuck), strawberry jam, shoot me now. My mother just used to shake her head at me and wonder why I was this strange child who stuck to pineapple and apricot and refused to let go. When the thought came over me to make Zobo Jam (recipe HERE), I knew by default, the next thing I was going to make would be Pineapple jam.

I haven’t had Pineapple jam in years, and that’s just because the ones I have been coming across don’t evoke any childhood memories at all. They are not as good as that brand (which still annoys me that I can’t remember). I have tasted so many and almost asked myself if I truly liked Pineapple jam so much or it is one of those mishmash memories your brain creates, and maybe, just maybe I liked something else and by brain transposed the memory to Pineapples. When in doubt, ask the woman who raised you and she said yup, you are not making it up, you could eat pineapple jam for breakfast, lunch and dinner if I let you. Lol.

Making Jam is so easy, I wonder why my mum never even tried it. Yes it can be a little time-consuming (all that stirring), but the results are better tried than imagined. Homemade jam trumps supermarket bands and that’s a fact. This Jam is soooooooooooooooo good, little wonder when you see the picture of the finished product it did not fill the jar completely. Errrrrrr, I apologise now in advance. That was me getting at it with a spoon. It made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside, dipping my spoon in and licking away with such relish. I can say with a whisper that this was better than the Jam I remember eating as a child. My love for jam has been reawakened and when summer comes I am going to go all fruit crazy and make different types of jam, you just wait and see. Jam, Ice cream, Jellos and Lollies are on my to-do list. For today, let me show you how to make Pineapple jam. You can substitute this process with any kind of fruit you enjoy.

You will need

1 – 2 pineapples

1/2 a lemon

1 cinnamon stick

1/2 – 3/4 cup of sugar

How To

1. Blend the pineapple to a rough pulp. Leave some behind, which you will chop roughly and add to the jam. This helps to create chewy chunks in the jam.

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2. Pour into a deep saucepan, squeeze in 1/2 a lemon, or less if you don’t have that much pineapple pulp and complete with the sugar. Start on medium heat. Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: the cinnamon and lemon play two roles. Flavour and anti bacterial. Flavour wise, oooooh, the aroma alone and the enhanced taste both of them provide to the pineapple is scrumptious. Cinnamon and lemon also have very good anti bacterial properties. They are natural preservatives. If you don’t have cinnamon, at least use the lemon. You start with medium heat, because you don’t want the sugar to burn. it should caramelise slowly with the pineapple, allowing the flavours to develop.

3. Keep stirring and you will notice the pulp getting thicker, with water easing out at the sides of the pan.

4. Keep stirring, and you will also notice the pulp also getting darker and syrupy like. This is what you want, it shows that the sugar is caramelising. I only added more sugar at this point because I felt it wasn’t sweet enough and that’s just because my pineapple wasn’t sweet to start with. About 2 tablespoons.

5. When the syrupy nature of the pulp gets really thick and almost slimy looking, add the chopped pineapple. Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: you want to add the chunks early enough so that they cook in time.

because of the water content of the freshly introduced pineapple chunks, it would dilute the jam a little, but not to worry, this is natural water and not from the tap, so it is all good. If you feel it is too thick though, you can add a little water.

6. Later, all that water will evaporate, and the pulp all really look like a thick mustard coloured glob.

7. Lower the heat, so as not to let it burn. At this point, all you have left is time to let the jam truly set. You can cheat a little by adding a little extra sugar, about a tablespoon or more just to hurry the process along. I did. You will notice that after a few minutes, the jam you could see in the picture above which was quite dry, has now started leaching out syrupy juice at the sides and it has a moist look to it. The colour has also darkened considerably to the characteristic store-bought pineapple jam colour.

this is what you want.

This is when you know your jam is set, when it feels slippery to touch

……….and that’s your Homemade Pineapple jam right there.

Pour into a sterilised jar and seal. To learn how to sterilise a glass jar for jam, click HERE. It is very very important to make sure you sterilise your glass jar before you pour in your jam to prevent food poisoning.

see the syrupy goodness on top, just like store-bought Jam?

See the pineapple chunks peeking out in the jam. One bite, and you’ll be hooked. Trust me

To make it all pretty, I covered with a yellow cloth Jam cover with a pretty bow to boot. As you can see the evidence of my spoon right there. I had eaten the jam half way before I remembered I was going to cover it and take pictures. Hehehehehehehe

If you have kids at home, they are so going to love this. Take the time out one weekend and make Jam with them. Those are memories that would last a lifetime, and they would probably pass it on to their own children.