Before I get to the Slow Cooker Jam with the name that is a mouthful to say, is anyone watching America’s Got Talent? I don’t normally, but I caught last night’s episode and saw more than a few amazing acts (and a few not so amazing ones), but if you didn’t see 11 year old Mara Justine perform, you should google it. Between her, the two brother’s rocking out Jimi Hendrix on the cello’s, and 74 year old, Frank Demetri, making his debut singing (and sounding just like) Frank Sinatra, I think I’m going to tune in every week now. So good.
Ahhhhhh, Summer. What a gorgeous (and busy) weekend. Celebrated the birthday’s of a couple of our little friends, drank fishbowl sized spiced and coke’s on a patio with two of my big friends, woke my kids up early (for a Sunday) to then sit still in church for an hour, and be a part of an extra special little girl’s first communion (they did great by the way), and then played outside the rest of the day. Not much time or motivation for creativity in the kitchen.
I did however, manage to churn out some amazing slow cooker jam though. It started out with Superstore clearing out a whole lot of strawberries for 50% off. These berries are on their way out, so even though I only need 2lbs for the recipe, I always buy 2 x 2lb clamshells worth to allow for trimming the good ones and turfing the ones that have gone bad. Because these berries have a much shorter life expectancy than their fresh counterparts, they make perfect jam.
I was first introduced to slow cooker jam through Pinterest (of course), and stopped buying premade jam ever since. It’s soooooooo ridiculously easy, and makes about 7 cups of jam. I’ve experimented with a few flavors since first trying the original recipe. This time, I had planned on making just Strawberry, but the case of peaches sitting on the counter were calling to me, so I threw some in. Then, I added a dash (or three dashes) of vanilla paste and some cream of coconut (the same thing I added to my Pina Colada Jam) to round it out.
Thus, the name. Strawberry-Peach-Vanilla-Coconut Slow Cooker Jam. It’s a mouthful, but a delicious one. And, even if you don’t follow this recipe, you can change out the fruit to suit your tastes.
So, make the tastes of summer last all year long with some slow cooker jam.
Strawberry-Peach-Vanilla-Coconut Slow Cooker Jam
Yield: 8 cups
Ingredients
- 2 lbs strawberries, trimmed and sliced in half
- 4 peaches, peeled, pits removed and sliced
- 3 tbsp vanilla bean paste
- 1 box (mine was 170g) of creamed coconut
- 4 c. sugar
- 4 tbsp lemon juice
- 2 packets of liquid pectin
Instructions
- Turn slow cooker on to high. Add in the strawberries, peaches, vanilla paste, creamed coconut, and lemon juice.
- Cook on high for 3 hours (covered) and take a nap.
- Once the 3 hours are up, using a potato masher or immersion blender to mash up any fruit that is still whole and add in the liquid pectin. Stir to combine for 1 minute and pour into hot, sterilized jars.
- Put on seals and fingertip tighten the lids, and if not keeping in the fridge, process in boiling water for 10 minutes to make them shelf-stable.
