I am well acquainted with grape jelly. It’s my favourite fall treat and so easy to make, especially with a steam juicer which saves hours of work. This year, I was determined to make grape jam. But i was not prepared to spend hours « peeling » grapes. I was very pleased to find a recipe for roasted seedless grape jam on the Food in Jars website- thank you Alex Jones!
Two varieties of grapes were combined to make the jam: beautiful blue Concord grapes and champagne « like » grapes. Actually, any two or three types of grapes can be combined- I think they add depth of flavour to the mix. As long as they are seedless…
This recipe makes 6 x 250 ml jars.
Ingredients
3 lbs seedless red grapes (or 1/2 red and 1/2 another grape) after picking through
1/4 cup honey
2 cups sugar
1/2 Lemon, juiced (2 tbsp bottled lemon juice)
Directions
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
Wash, pick over and stem the grapes. Toss the grapes with the honey and spread them in a single layer on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Roast for 25-30 minutes, until the grapes begin to give up their juice and the skins wrinkle.
Once cool enough to handle, put the grapes into a large measuring cup and blend with a stick blender to your desired consistency. Mine is relatively smooth, with a few chunky bits. You should have about 4 cups of grape purée.
Place the purée, sugar, and lemon juice in a heavy-bottomed pot. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, then cook, stirring frequently, until the jam passes the plate test or reaches 220 degrees on an instant-read thermometer.
Remove the jam from the heat and let it sit a few minutes. Skim off any foam from the top of the jam. Funnel into prepared canning jars. Wipe the rims, apply the lids and bands and process in a steam canner for 10 minutes. At the 10 minute mark, turn off the stove, remove the lid carefully and let the jars sit for approximately 15 minutes. Remove from the canner and let the jars sit for 24 hours before labelling, cleaning and checking the seals.
Enjoy!
