Old Bachelor's Jam with Cherry Kirsch

This is the second of the canning recipes I made last week. I got this recipe from the March 2010 issue of Martha Stewart Living. This jam is very pretty once it's in the mason jar because it has a layered effect to it. (And it tastes pretty fantastic, if I do say so myself.) I have also been told I use alot of booze in my cooking, which I guess is true... I used it in two more recipes that will be upcomming posts - so be looking.

Ingredients:
2lbs organic raspberries (i used local frozen)
2lbs organic blackberries (also local frozen)
3 1/2 cups sugar divided
Juice of 2 lemons divided
2 ounces Cherry Kirsch Liquor

Instructions:

• Bring blackberries, 1 3/4 cup sugar and juice of 1 lemon to simmer in large pot over medium heat. Cook until sugar dissolves and berries are soft about 5 minutes. cover with parchment or aluminum foil directly on surface of jam, refrigerate overnight. Repeat with raspberries and remaining 1 3/4 cups sugar and juiced lemon in another pot.
• Remove parchment; bring each pot to boil. Cook on med-high heat until berries are slightly broken down and jam is the consistency of loose jelly. The original recipe says about 12 minutes for blackberries and 17 for raspberries but I did about 20 minutes for both so the berries would cook down a bit and not get soupy.
• plate test jam to be sure its set. (Plate test instructions on previous post)
• Divide blackberry jam between 4 1/2-pt size sterilized mason jars, filling each halfway; top each with 1/2 oz kirsch, divide raspberries between jars; top each with 1/2 oz kirsch, leaving 1/4-in headspace at tops. Can in water bath for 10 minutes. (I had extra raspberry jam so I filled a jar with just that and topped it with a little of the cherry liquor.)

Water Bath Instructions:
 Fill mason jars with whatever concoction you come up with. Place a wire rack on the bottom of a large pot of hot water and submerge jars, standing them upright.Bring water to a boil, and boil jars for about 10 minutes. This creates a vacuum seal. Let cool and refridgerate over night before serving.
*I didn't do this however and my mason jars created their own vacuum seals when I cooled them down. So I don't know... But this is the proper technique for canning. It honestly probably increases the shelf life if you were going to keep them in a pantry for months at a time.

For decorating the jars I did the same as with the marmalade jars. I made tags with pretty cardstock and tied it onto the jars with ribbon or jute rope. On the tags I wrote the type of jam and the date it was made and packaged and handed them out to family and friends for a fun gift.

This jam can be used as a fruit spread on bagels, toast etc. or a filling for tarts and deserts, or any other place you would use a regular jam. Enjoy!

Make Something Fabulous!