sunshine yellow happy jam

I made a potful of this glorious, bright yellow jam in all of 25 minutes using a punnet of greengages spied in my local Waitrose. I didn’t realise until recently that greengages, plums, damsons, bullaces and sloes are all members of the same family albeit distant relatives.

perfect pick-me-up

Personally, I prefer my jam bordering slightly on the tart side, so by all means add a bit more sugar if you like yours sweet, but it’s worth tasting the fruit first to gauge the level of sweetness.

As with all jams the less sugar you use the shorter the shelf life so bare this in mind if you’re planning to make a batch for Christmas.

If you use tart underripe fruit you can afford to (almost) double up on the sugar I’ve used here, in which case the jam will last 3 years!

Serving Size: 1 pot
Preparation & Cooking Time: 25 minutes
Effort Level: dead easy
Shelf Life: 6 weeks

Ingredients:
300g greengages
150g granulated sugar
50ml water

Here’s What You Do:
Check over the greengages and rinse under the tap. Discard any damaged,moldy or overripe fruit.

Place in a pan with 50ml water, cover with a lid and gently simmer for 15 minutes and the fruit is soft and pulpy. To retain this wild yellow colour, lift the fruit out with a slotted spoon (otherwise it will turn a brownish amber colour) and transfer to a plate.

Now add the sugar and keep stirring until it dissolves then boil hard for about 10 minutes and a setting point is reached.

Hook out any small greengage stones then return the fruit and stir well. Pour the conserve into a sterilised jar, seal tightly and leave to cool.