Bright Cherry Jam!

I haven't been very cheery lately, so I thought I would make some cherry jam. I had been putting it off for a long time. I have never made cherry jam before, but I'm not that good at making the pies, so I thought I would use some of the bright red fruit I have in the freezer and make jam with them.

Here is the recipe I used:

4 cups prepared fruit (take all those pits out)
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 box SURE JELL fruit pectin
5 cups sugar
1/4 tsp almond extract

Prepare your jelly jars. Either sterilize the jars before hand or process your jam for 10 minutes afterwards. There will be instructions on the Sure Jell pkg insert about how to prepare and handle the jars and lids.

Finely chop or grind fruit. Measure exactly 4 cups of the prepared cherries into a large sauce pot. Stir in lemon juice.

Stir the pectin into the fruit mixture in the sauce pot. Bring mixture to full rolling boil on high heat, stirring constantly. Stir in sugar and extract. Return to full rolling boil and boil exactly 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat; skim off any foam with a metal spoon.

Ladle immediately into prepared jars, filling to within 1/8 inch of tops. Wipe jar rims and threads with a damp paper towel. Cover with two-piece lids and screw bands tightly.

Now you can either process them in boiling water for 10 minutes or invert the jars for five minutes. Then, listen for the ping, letting you know your jars have sealed.

As I stated above, you can follow the instructions in the Sure Jell pkg insert. My ingredients are a little different, though. They don't tell you to add the lemon juice or almond extract and the amount of sugar they tell you to use is only 4 & 3/4 cups.

Here is where I got my recipe that I used.

My son, David, who I didn't think was that crazy about cherries, loved it!
I had a little extra left over and it is delicious on crackers. It tastes just like a cherry pie.



One of my jars did not seal, so it will be put in the fridge and be our first jar to eat.


Making jelly is easy to do and I have been doing it for years. Just get all your ingredients and utensils ready before your start and the process doesn't take very long at all.

Add some cheer to your jelly jars by making bright red cherry jam!