The most delicious jam in the whole world !!

Yes you read the title right !

I am only ruddy proclaiming to have made the most delicious jam in the whole world.

Open your minds to this - it tastes a darn sight better than it sounds.

Rhubarb and Vanilla. You heard right.

I swear this is the most delicious jam in the world.

I am a new convert into jam making, I never made a pot before a month ago, and now I am pretty famous for it amongst my neighbours. I am sure that there are plenty of recipes that you can use to make this jam, but this is what I did to make 4 large pots. (I dont like making massive batches as I like a few pots of lots of different flavours).

I used :

750 g of rhubarb cut into 2 inch segments
water to cover
750 g normal white granulated sugar
 juice of one lemon
2 tablespoons pectin (I use Certo)
1 teaspoon of vanilla (I use the concentrated paste but you can use a pod if you have one)

Clean empty jars for filling.
Waxed discs for the tops

Method :

Put a saucer in the freezer (we will use this to test the set)

Put the jars on a baking tray, upside down and the lids as well. Into an oven 140 degrees. This sterilises the jars. Leave them in until you are ready to fill them.

Everything face down on a baking tray

Wash and chop the rhubarb and put in a deep pan (I dont have no fancy jam pans, just a normal saucepan). Put water in the pan to almost cover the rhubarb.

Water just to cover

Simmer on a low heat until the rhubarb is breaking up, anywhere from around 20 - 35 minutes.

Lower the heat and add the 2 tablespoons of pectin, juice of the lemon and the sugar.

Make sure that you keep stirring all the while, and keep stirring until every grain of sugar is dissolved (this stops the jam from crystallizing)

Then turn the heat up on that mutha until you have a rolling boil.

You need to stir occasionally to stop the mixture from burning. Be careful as hot jam mixture can mean hideous burns ! I kept my mixture on a rolling boil for about 35 minutes, but you want to start testing your jam from about 25 minutes.

In order to test the set, get the saucer from the freezer and drop some of the mixture onto it. Put it back in the freezer for around 5 minutes and then take it out. Push the jam with your finger to see if it has the correct consistency, if it does not, keep boiling the mixture and checking using the saucer method every 5 minutes or so.

Once the consistency is right, take the pan off the boil and remove any scum with a slotted spoon.

Then add just over 1 teaspoon of vanilla paste, or the seeds from one vanilla bean.

Stir in the vanilla well.

The brands of vanilla and pectin that I use.

Take out the jars from the oven, be careful as they will be hot. Obvs.

Ladle the jam into the pots and cover with a wax disc (I cut these myself from baking paper). Put the lid on the jars.

Clean the jars off (ladelling is messy, I am sure this works better with a funnel !)

Leave to cool and label the jars with the flavour and the date.

Pass out to neighbours (scoring karma points for future favours ! But I promise that is not why I do it !)

There you have it ! I swear its absolutely the most lush jam I have EVER HAD.

Enjoy !

K xxx