Berries and fruits contain many vitamins and minerals, other valuable substances. Fresh, they are tasty enough to eat them in their pure form, not sweetened. However, in the winter they are harvested with added sugar, getting a high-calorie product that people who are overweight or suffering from diabetes cannot afford. But you can cook berry or fruit jam for long-term storage without the addition of sugar.
Cooking Features
The traditional technology of making jam involves grinding the main component, mixing with sugar and boiling the resulting mass to the desired consistency. Sugar free jams are prepared in a similar way, but they have their own specifics.
- Sugar not only makes the jam sweet, but makes it thicker. Without it, it is longer to boil fruits and berries, the mashed potatoes subjected to heat treatment are significantly reduced in volume.
- Cooking time depends on the content of pectin in fruits and berries. In the immature fruit of his more. The concentration of this substance is maximum in the peel. If you want to reduce the cooking time of jam without adding thickeners to it, take 70-80% of ripe fruits with 20-30% of greenish, chop them together with the peel.
- If initially there is little pectin in the raw material, it is almost impossible to make jam from it without sugar and without gelling components. Most of the pectin is found in black and red currants, apples, apricots, plums, raspberries, pears, quince, strawberries, cherries and cherries, watermelon, gooseberries. In cherry plum, cranberries, grapes and citrus fruits, pectin is less. It is possible to make jam from them without adding gelatin, pectin and similar ingredients, but this will take a long time. To speed up the process, they are blended with fruits that contain a lot of pectin, or gelling powders are added to them during the cooking process.
- When using thickeners, you should carefully study the instructions on the packaging. The consistency and composition of these powders are not always identical, which affects the characteristics of their application. If the information in the recipe differs from the directions on the package with the gelling agent, the manufacturer's recommendations should be considered as priorities.
- You can sweeten jam not only with sugar, but also with sweeteners, in which case the amount of sugar indicated in the recipe is adjusted for the sweetness of the substitute. Fructose will need 1, 5 times less than sugar, xylitol - about the same or 10% more. Erythrol take 30-40% more than sugar, sorbitol - 2 times more. Stevia extract will require an average of 30 times less than sugar. Replacing sugar with sweetener, you must understand that the replacement may be even more high-calorie. If you want to prepare low-calorie jam for the winter, give preference to sugar substitutes based on stevia (stevioside), erythritol (erythrol).
- Jams can not be cooked in aluminum cookware. This material, in contact with organic acids in fruits and berries, forms harmful substances.
- If the jars without sugar-free jam are not sterilized, it will spoil in a week. If you are doing this work for the winter, the cans and lids must be sterilized. Close the jam with metal lids to ensure tightness.
Store sugar-free jam only in the fridge. Its shelf life is usually from 6 to 12 months.
Apricot Sugar-Free Jam
The composition (0, 5 l):
- apricots - 1 kg;
- water - 50 ml.
Preparation Method:
- Wash, dry, cut apricots in half, remove bones.
- Using a blender or meat grinder, turn the apricots into mashed potatoes.
- Dilute with a small amount of water, put on fire.
- Cook on medium heat, stirring occasionally, for 10-20 minutes, until the apricot mashed potatoes have acquired the consistency of jam.
- Sterilize the jars, spread the jam over them, spin them with boiled lids for 10 minutes.
When the jam has cooled to room temperature, it must be placed in a refrigerator where it can be stored for six months.
Sugar Free Plum Jam
Composition (for 0, 35 l):
- plums - 1 kg;
- water - 100 ml.
Preparation Method:
- Pick the fruits, wash them and let them dry.
- Clear pits from pits, fold the halves of the fruit into an enamel basin.
- Pour water into the bowl, put it on low heat, boil plums 40 minutes after boiling.
- Grind the plums with an immersion blender.
- Boil down the plum puree until it is thick as jam.
- Fill sterilized jars with plum jam, tightly close them with metal lids.
In the refrigerator, the plum jam made according to this recipe will not spoil for 6 months.
Strawberry Jam with Honey
The composition (0, 5 l):
- strawberries - 1 kg;
- honey - 120 ml;
- lemon - 1 pc.
Preparation Method:
- Sort strawberries. Rinse well and dry on a towel. Unscrew the sepals.
- Cut, dividing each berry into 4-6 pieces, fold into the pelvis.
- Squeeze juice out of lemon.
- Melt the honey in any way you like so that it is completely liquid.
- Pour half the honey and lemon juice over the strawberries.
- Cook the berry on low heat for 40 minutes.
- Remember strawberries with a potato masher, add the remaining lemon juice and honey.
- Cook the berry mass for another 10 minutes.
- Spread strawberry jam on sterilized jars. Roll up.
Store the jam brewed according to this recipe, should be in the refrigerator. You can use it within six months, but not more than a week after opening the can.
Strawberry sugar-free jam with agar-agar and apple juice
Composition (for 1, 25 l):
- strawberries - 2 kg;
- lemon juice - 50 ml;
- apple juice - 0, 2 l;
- agar-agar - 8 g;
- water - 50 ml.
Preparation Method:
- Wash, dry, remove sepals.
- Large-cut berries, put in a bowl, add freshly squeezed lemon and apple juice. Apple juice should be squeezed out of unpeeled apples, it is enough to wash them and blot with a napkin.
- Cook the strawberries for half an hour on low heat, then mash and cook for another 5 minutes.
- Fill the agar-agar with water and heat while stirring.
- Pour into strawberry mass, mix.
- After 2-3 minutes, the jam can be removed from the heat, placed on sterilized jars, sealed tightly and allowed to cool to room temperature.
The cooled down jam is placed in the refrigerator, where it will not deteriorate for at least 6 months.
Sugar Free Tangerine Jam
Composition (for 0, 75-0, 85 l):
- tangerines - 1 kg;
- water - 0, 2 l;
- fructose - 0.5 kg.
Preparation Method:
- Wash tangerines, dry with a napkin and peel. Disassemble the flesh. Peel and film them.
- Fold the tangerine pulp in the basin, add water.
- Simmer for 40 minutes.
- Crush with blender, add fructose.
- Continue cooking until the jam has the desired consistency.
- Spread the jam over sterilized jars, roll them up.
After cooling, the mandarin jam is stored in the refrigerator. For consumption, it remains valid for 12 months. The glycemic index of the product is not too large, which allows people with diabetes to use it, but the calorie content of this dessert does not allow people who are obese to include it in the menu.
It is quite possible to make sugar-free jam, many housewives even make such preparations for the winter. With a sufficient amount of pectin in fruit, you can do without the use of gelling components. Sweeten preparation can be honey or sugar substitutes. Store dessert cooked without sugar can be 6-12 months, but only in the refrigerator.
