When summer comes, it becomes possible not only to enjoy fresh berries and fruits, but also to extend this pleasure for a whole year.
Most of us try to stock up on something tasty, so that in the winter cold or on a rainy evening, remembering with a cup of coffee or tea the warm touch of the sun and the aromas of freshly ripened fruits.
Fruits and berries can simply be frozen. But they are no less tasty in the form of jam, jams or marmalade.
While processing berries and fruits with sugar, you don’t really think about what will happen as a result. All products of our own production are often called just jam. So it is: it is the most beloved delicacy, the most common and popular.
But recipes are used differently. Therefore, the bins of most housewives are filled not only with jars with various types of jam, but also with more refined dishes: jams or jams.
Jam called the French variation of jam. This sweet dessert is made by boiling whole or crushed berries in sugar. At the same time, the fruits are evenly distributed in the sweet liquid, while retaining their healing properties.
Strawberry confiture is especially delicious. It serves as a wonderful preparation for pies and pies, cakes and sweet sandwiches. Strawberry confiture itself is already a finished dish. Weld it is not difficult. With a little exertion, you can stock up on a surprisingly aromatic and tasty dish.
Thanks to the confiture, the house will be especially cozy and sweet.
Strawberry Confiture - General Cooking Principles
Strawberry confiture is distinguished by its unusual taste, rich color and a peculiar translucent jelly structure.
Its consistency is more dense than that of jam. This is achieved by adding gelling substances to the dish, such as gelatin, pectin, agar-agar and gelfix.
Pectin is especially commonly used. It helps to make jam very quickly, which means that all vitamins are stored in it as much as possible. The jelly structure that pectin creates is particularly pleasing.
To make the jam sweeter, it is better to use fresh and ripe strawberries.
Berries need to be sorted out. Slightly rotted parts can be cut with a knife. Then wash the strawberries and carefully remove the ponytails.
To prepare the dish, the berries are cooked whole, or crushed into small pieces. Often, strawberries are mashed before cooking. You can use a blender for this.
Another main ingredient in strawberry confiture is sugar. Most often, its amount is equal to the weight of the peeled berries.
Lemon, vanilla sugar, starch, liquor, vodka and even basil can be added to the confiture.
If a sweet dish is being prepared for the winter, then it must be poured hot in sterile jars and tightened with a lid. It is advisable to place the container with strawberry confiture upside down and leave to cool completely. Then the jars are cleaned in a dark pantry or cellar.
The confiture, which will be used immediately, is also poured into glass containers and tightly closed. In this case, the sweet dessert must be stored in the refrigerator.
For making confiture, dishes with a thick bottom are used. It does not burn a sweet dish.
Using proven recipes, you can easily and with pleasure cook several types of fragrant and tender strawberry confiture at once.
Recipe 1. Strawberry Confiture with Lemon and Liquor
Ingredients:
• one kilogram of strawberries;
• half a kilogram of sugar;
• one lemon;
• three tablespoons liquor (any).
Cooking method:
Cut the strawberries into small pieces and place them in a prepared bowl.
Let’s clean the lemon, remove only a thin layer of zest. Cut it into strips.
Squeeze the juice from the lemon.
Add sugar, lemon zest and fresh juice to the strawberries. Mix all the ingredients.
Cook the confiture and stir occasionally.
Bring the sweet dish to a boil and turn off the heat after three minutes.
Then pour in the liquor. It can be not only strawberry, but also cherry, raspberry.
Pour the jam into the jars and tighten the lids tightly.
Recipe 2. Strawberry Jam "Waiting for the Winter"
Ingredients:
• three kilograms of strawberries and sugar;
• 45 gr. gelfix;
• three tablespoons vanilla sugar.
Cooking method:
Place the prepared strawberries in a large bowl. If there are large berries - cut in half.
Grind the strawberries with a meat grinder, choosing the largest nozzle. Berries can simply be cut into small pieces with a sharp knife.
Measure out half the sugar and pour it into the strawberries, mix and leave for four hours in the corner of the kitchen. You can put it on the shelf of the refrigerator until morning.
When the specified time has passed, add sugar (half a cup leave) and cook for one hour.
At the very beginning of cooking, mix vanilla sugar, jellyfix and half a cup of the usual sweet ingredient.
Add to the strawberry jam and stir with a whisk for about five minutes.
We pour the finished dish into sterilized jars, close it very tightly and hide it away.
It is best to enjoy strawberry jam in the winter.
Recipe 3. Strawberry Confiture "Home"
Ingredients:
• 600 ml of water;
• two cups of sugar;
• four tablespoons potato starch;
• a kilogram of fresh strawberries.
Cooking method:
In a saucepan we combine sugar and 400 ml of water. We send to the fire.
We interrupt the strawberries in a blender.
Pour potato starch into the remaining water and mix thoroughly. Each lump should completely dissolve.
Introduce the mixture into hot sugar syrup. Stir and bring to a boil.
Add strawberries to the boiling mass. Mix again and leave until it boils.
As soon as the first bubbles appear on the strawberry confiture, turn it off.
Pour the dish into cans and tightly screw the lids.
One jar can be covered tightly and stored in the refrigerator to use confiture now, without waiting for the winter cold.
Recipe 4. Strawberry Confiture with Pectin
Ingredients:
• one kilogram of peeled strawberries;
• one kilogram of sugar;
• a bag of pectin.
Cooking method:
Pour a bag of pectin into the strawberries and stir.
We send the dish to a small fire. Stir the berries so that they do not burn.
As soon as the strawberries start juice, the fire can be increased.
Cook the berries until large bubbles appear - the mixture boils.
We fall asleep on a little sugar. In this case, you need to constantly stir the almost finished confiture.
When all sugar has been added, bring the confiture to a boil.
Exactly a minute later, remove the foam and pour the finished dish into jars.
Recipe 5. Confectionery Strawberry "Sandwich"
Ingredients:
• kilogram of berries;
• 800 gr. sugar;
• a glass of water;
• two teaspoons with a hill of agar-agar.
Cooking method:
Pour the berries in a blender and turn into mashed potatoes.
We pour it into the vessel and turn on the gas.
When the berries begin to boil, we begin to gradually add sugar. At the same time, we don’t stop stirring the jam.
Agar-agar is bred in cold water and poured into strawberries.
When the sugar has dissolved, a foam will appear. Remove it with a spoon and continue cooking for another five minutes.
When the time is up, you can pour strawberry confiture into pre-cooked dishes.
Recipe 6. Strawberry Confiture "Sweet Evening"
Ingredients:
• one and a half kg of strawberries;
• 150 gr. vodka;
• 10 grams of citric acid;
• 2 gr. salts;
• three kg of sugar.
Cooking method:
Put half the sugar in a bowl, mix it with citric acid and salt.
At the bottom of the saucepan we place a bowl of strawberries: approximately its fourth part. Sprinkle the berries with vodka.
Pour strawberries with the fourth part of sugar with acid and salt.
Spread the next bowl of berries on top and repeat the process: add some vodka and sugar. Thus, we form four balls of strawberries with sugar and vodka.
We send the berry mixture for twelve hours to a quiet place (it is also possible in the refrigerator).
The next day we put a saucepan with berries to cook, add sugar. Pour it all over the strawberries and mix.
After boiling the strawberry confiture, cook it for twenty minutes and roll it into jars.
Recipe 7. Strawberry Confiture with Basil
Ingredients:
• one kg of berries;
• 0.7 kg +0.1 kg sugar;
• 20 gr. pectin;
• 100 gr. lemon juice;
• 15 gr. basil (leaves).
Cooking method:
We will prepare a strawberry, cut large berries in half. Mix with 700 grams of sugar and put on medium heat.
Combine the rest of the sweet ingredient with pectin and stir with a whisk.
When the sugar dissolves, increase the heat. Mix the strawberry mixture thoroughly.
Add a mixture of sugar and pectin.
Cook the strawberries until boiling without ceasing to mix.
Finely chop the basil and put it in the confiture. Pour in fresh juice from the lemon.
Again, let it boil, and remove from heat.
Pour the confiture into sterilized jars and tighten it tightly.
We hide away and open only with the onset of cold weather.
Strawberry Jam - Tips and Tricks
Using fructose instead of sugar will not only make confiture accessible to diabetics. It is much sweeter and therefore its quantity in the dish is two times less.
To determine the readiness of the confiture, you can put a drop of it on a plate and cool. When the surface is covered with a wrinkled film, the dish is ready. In addition, we pour the jam into jars, if it does not just drip from the spoon, but flows down in a thin stream.
Part of the sugar, for example, 200 grams, can be replaced with liquid glucose. This will give the cream a creamy texture and prevent sugaring.
Even if the sweet dish will be used immediately, you need to take care of the cleanliness of the container. This will ensure the preservation of the aroma and taste of the dish.
Confiture is best cooked in small portions. The maximum number of berries is 1.5 kilograms.
Strawberries, which were picked from the garden in the morning, are much juicier and stored longer.
