Fastest Freezer Jam

Liz Vaccariello: Hi, I'm Liz, editor of Prevention and today, you're in the kitchen with Liz and Leah Nichols, the director of food services for our Pennsylvania offices.

I'm looking for a cooking project I can do on a Sunday afternoon with my girls. Do you have any ideas?

Leah Nichols: I do. I think I have just the one for you actually.

Liz Vaccariello: Okay.

Leah Nichols: Recently, some of my friends have started making their own jams. It’s really simple. All you have to do is stir and freeze.

Liz Vaccariello: Wow! I like the ingredients I'm seeing here. It seems healthy, too.

Leah Nichols: And you're really going to love it because it has about a quarter of the sugar of traditional jam and fewer calories.

Liz Vaccariello: Wow! I'm sold! Show me how.

Leah Nichols: Okay. Well, the first thing we’re going to do is we’re going to take our No Cook Freezer Jam Fruit Pectin and we’re going to put it in a bowl and whisk it together with 1 ½ cups of sugar, okay? Would you like to do that for me?

Liz Vaccariello: Easy enough, so we got the sugar and we got the pectin, the No Cook Freezer Jam Fruit Pectin.

Leah Nichols: Now, you may have to ask someone at your grocery store where to find this or you can try ordering it online, freshpreserving.com.

Liz Vaccariello: Terrific! Now what?

Leah Nichols: Okay. Next step, we get to the fun part, the berries.

Liz Vaccariello: Okay.

Leah Nichols: So I want you to take a cup of the raspberries and a cup of blackberries and we have 2 cups of sliced strawberries.

Liz Vaccariello: Yummy berry!

Leah Nichols: And now comes the really fun part, the stress buster. You have to mash them together.

Liz Vaccariello: Ready?

Leah Nichols: Go.

Liz Vaccariello: Okay, like this?

Leah Nichols: Uh-huh, mash it all together until it’s a really nice chunky puree.

Liz Vaccariello: Oh my god, my girls are totally going to love this part.

Leah Nichols: I know, and I know you like berries but you can use any fruit combination you like. Just remember to always use four cups with a fruit.

Liz Vaccariello: Great! Alright, what's next?

Leah Nichols: Alright. Now, we’re going to have to mix in the sugar and the pectin. How about I pour, you stir?

Liz Vaccariello: I’ll stir.

Leah Nichols: Okay. So we’re mixing that in and we want to stir it to combine it for probably about two to three minutes, so it’s well combined.

Liz Vaccariello: Okay, so the sugar kind of dissolves.

Leah Nichols: Yeah.

Liz Vaccariello: Wow! This is a serious arm workout.

Leah Nichols: That way you don’t feel guilty about eating jam I guess.

Liz Vaccariello: Yeah, they’re good.

Leah Nichols: Okay, so once you’ve stirred for two to three minutes, we’re going to take our ladle and we’re going to ladle it into a freezer jam jar, okay? And you don’t want to fill it all the way to the top because when it freezes, it will expand a little.

Liz Vaccariello: Okay.

Leah Nichols: It looks good. It looks great actually.

Liz Vaccariello: There you go.

Leah Nichols: That’s terrific. Now what we are going to do is just fill the jar, let it stand for about 30 minutes before you put it in your freezer, and you're done. Once you're ready to eat your jam, you just take the jar out of the freezer, let it thaw in the fridge. You probably want to eat it within a week though. Otherwise, it will go bad.

Liz Vaccariello: It’s perfect! This recipe is genius. Tune in soon for another episode of In the Kitchen with Liz.