The taste of summer - Sweet cherry jam
Cherry season in Switzerland lasts only for a short time, from late June to mid-July. In order to enjoy the red, round fruits for longer, I remove the cherry pit and freeze them in portions so that I always have cherries ready for cake or tarts also in autumn or in the winter. Cherries are also great fruits for jam. With butter on homemade baguette or as filling in “Spitzbuben”, a tipical Swiss Christmas Cookie, cherry jam is always a big hit. The jam is very easy to make and it only needs two ingredients:
1 kg of pitless
1 kg of gelling sugar
clean Mason Jars
Wash the cherries and remove the stem and the pit. Cut very big cherries in half. Use one kilogram of gelling sugar for one kilogram of prepared fruit. Please note! There is also gelling sugar that is used in a ratio of 1:2 (i.e. 500 g gelling sugar to 1 kg prepared fruit). Just follwo the instructions on the jam sugar packaging that you are using.
Bring the cherries and sugar to the boil, stirring occasionally. In the meantime, sterilize the clean screw-top jars on a baking tray in the oven at 100° C. As I don't like large chunks in the jam, I puree the cherries as soon as they are soft. Using a soup ladle and a funnel, fill the hot cherry jam into the screw-top jars up to the rim. Put the lid on, close tightly and leave the jam to cool standing on the lid. That's it!
You can store the cherry jam in a cool, dark place for six months (or even longer). Once opened, keep the jar in the fridge and consume quickly.
I enjoy the cherry jam for breakfast on my home-baked baguette or use it as a filling for “Spitzbuben” (which you can enjoy not only at Christmas but also during the year).