It’s not for nothing that apples are considered the best seasonal fruit available to everyone. They are remarkable in that they are consumed both raw and after heat treatment. Jam made at home from apple slices is a honey-colored dessert that the whole family will be delighted with. The fruits go well with other fruits: plums, oranges, apricots, cherries. This allows the housewife to improvise with the flavors of homemade preparations.
Features of preparing amber jam from apple slices
To properly prepare apple delicacy, it is important to remember the signs of readiness:
- a drop of syrup on a saucer does not spread when cooled, maintaining its shape;
- fruits, cut into pieces, are evenly distributed throughout the liquid and do not float at the surface;
- The jam is transparent, of uniform consistency.
To slightly change the taste of the finished product, zest, orange or lemon juice, vanilla, cardamom or cinnamon are added to the recipe, if desired.
Required Ingredients
To prepare apple dessert, it is better to choose the following varieties: Renet Simirenko, Borovinka, Antonovka, Anise, Saffron, Pepin and the like. To give the jam an unusual taste, different varieties of apples are used.
Before purchasing fruits for harvesting, you need to make sure that the apples are ripe, with firm, juicy, sweet-tasting pulp. Overripe products and those with wormholes are not suitable.
Those who like delicacies with a sour note will enjoy green fruits.
Food preparation
Once the apples have been purchased and are ready for further processing, they are washed very well using a soft brush or cloth, laid out on a towel and wiped with a paper napkin.
Washed and dried fruits should be cut correctly. To do this, the fruit is cut into 4 slices and the seed pod is removed. Then each piece is divided into 3-4 parts. You should not cut the slices too thin, as during heat treatment such apples can boil down significantly and harden. In this regard, the workpiece is cut into medium thickness.
To prevent the slices from darkening, they are blanched in boiling water for about three minutes or kept in salted water for about an hour (10-20 grams of salt per 1 liter of water).
How to prepare the container?
To prepare jam according to the rules, it is important not to miss a single detail. The technology suggests that even kitchen utensils can affect the final result, and if you do not follow the recommendations, the delicacy will not last long and will explode, leaving the family without sweet supplies during the cold season. This is because the fruit is cooked in the wrong container and the liquid has reacted with the metal and oxidized.
The container for preparing apple dessert must be made exclusively of stainless steel or enameled, without chips. It is better to use a large diameter bowl so that the jam undergoes heat treatment evenly and does not burn.
To increase the shelf life of the product, take 750-gram glass jars, wash them with a soda solution, fill them with 100 milligrams of water, put them in the microwave and sterilize them for three minutes at maximum power.
Step-by-step preparation of a recipe for the winter
You can cook jam quickly, but repeated cooking of such food is preferable, since it allows you to better retain the shape of the slices and obtain a clear syrup. The quick method involves cooking for five minutes - this is a common and uniform recipe for heat treatment of fruits and berries that do not need to be cooked for too long.
A quick method for making apple jam:
- Step 1. To prevent the prepared slices from darkening, place them in a bowl with acidified cold water (1 teaspoon of lemon juice per 2 liters of liquid).
- Step 2. Granulated sugar (in the same volume as the fruit before slicing) is poured into a pan and filled with water at the rate of 1 full glass per 1 kilogram of bulk component. Bring the syrup to a boil and cook for 1-2 minutes to dissolve the particles. The finished liquid is removed from the heat.
- Step 3. Drain the apples in a colander for a couple of minutes to drain the water, and place them in hot syrup.
- Step 4. The workpiece is placed on the stove, brought to a boil, and with constant stirring, cook over low heat for 5 to 7 minutes. Immediately pour into hot jars, roll up, turn over and wrap for 20 hours.
Method for preparing jam with apple slices in several steps:
- Step 1. The slices are placed in a cooking pan and covered with fine sugar at the rate of 750-800 grams (depending on the taste characteristics of the fruit) per kilogram of apples.
- Step 2. The mixture is covered and left for 10-12 hours. After the allotted time, put it on the fire, bring it to a boil and cook for about 10 minutes. After which the dishes are removed from the stove. Cooking is repeated 2-3 more times, at time intervals of 10-12 hours. At the last stage, the mixture is allowed to reduce until the color turns light brown-amber. Dessert prepared in this way becomes a little thicker than in the previous recipe, and storage reliability is higher.
- Step 3. The hot mass is placed in a glass container, rolled up, turned upside down and left under a blanket until it cools.
How to properly store workpieces?
You can save the jam until next season by placing the filled jars in the cellar, refrigerator or any other cool room.
A long time interval does not spoil the twists, preserving the beneficial properties, taste and smell of apples. But if this is not possible, then the jars are placed in a dark cabinet, and the shelf life will be reduced to six months.
