Summer Apricot-Pineapple Jam-- Let's start jammin' some more

Today, I am headed to Los Altos Hills, California. It's a 90 minute drive, north, to my cousin's house. I am really excited about this day, for several reasons:

I'm on Day #6 of vacation, with 20 more to go.

Today, she is going to show me how she makes her German Apricot Cream Pie. I've never had it, but she says it has a sour cream topping. SOLD!

I've already made Ursula's (isn't that a cool German name-- say it, OOR-SOO-LAH) Bavarian Rohr Nudeln (try and say that one...). Everything she makes is really good.

I'm bringing her a jar of my Apricot-Pineapple jam. This is gold, ladies and gentleman. After reading several different recipes, I concocted my own recipe. I got the ratio of apricots and pineapple just right. Darn if my husband hasn't change his favorite morning toast and jam from olallieberry to my apricot-pineapple. I have to make more!

Here's how I made it-- start with fresh pineapple. Please. They aren't that expensive to buy. I let my ripen on my window sill for a day or two.

By the way, get one of these:

It's a pineapple slicer, and it will make your life a lot easier. You can find them on Amazon.com, Williams-Sonoma or Cooking.com. You just cut off the top of the pineapple, screw it in, pull out and you get sliced pineapple-- the core is in the center of the slicer. Just toss it away and you're read. Why buy canned pineapple?

I take shortcuts (except for processed foods and boxed mixes). In my food processor, I pulsed the pineapple. I wanted it chopped, but not pureed. Just a few pulses:

For the apricots, I decided I wanted the skins off-- though some recipes left them on. This is easy.

• Start a pot of water boiling
• Cut an "X" on the bottom of each apricot.
• Prepare an ice bath.
• Dunk the apricots into the boiling water for 1-2 minutes.

Remove with a slotted spoon into the ice bath for a few minutes.

Take your thumbs, and on the "X" slip the skins right off. It's that easy. The pits came right out, too.


Again, in my food processor, I pulsed the apricots. I wanted 5 cups of apricots and one cup of pineapple = 6 cups total fruit. I reserved the juice from both fruits, which equals 3/4 cups.

In a big pot, I added the fruit, fruit juice, one box of fruit pectin (I used MCP low-sugar pectin) and 1 1/2 cups sugar. I allowed that to come to a boil, and then slowly added the 4 1/2 cups sugar.

I won't post pictures of how I cooked the fruit, because it's exactly how I posted how to make strawberry jam. Quickly, the fruit was brought to a rolling boil (212F). I did the plate test, to make sure it had jelled. You can click here, if you'd like to see step-by-step how to make jam.

This jam is amazing, I tell you! One bite gives you the sweet taste of apricot, with just the right amount of pineapple... it compliments the fruit, but does not overpower it. I so wanted to make apricot bars, today, but I want to wait until I have more jam. I only have 5 pints (in half pints) and I can see that these will disappear fast. I definitely plan to make turnovers with puff pastry, with these.


I had a little bit of apricots leftovers, which I cooked into a compote. Later this week, I'll post a delicious sandwich that I made with it. Trust me, it was good.

I'm going to blog about Ursula's Apricot Cream Pie ("Rahm Kuchen"). She's such a good sport, and she laughed when I said I wanted to do this.

She's one of the last of my surviving German line of relatives. I don't want anymore heirloom recipes to disappear.

Enjoying Summer,