Cranberry Jam Recipe
A delicious cranberry jam recipe, the most riveting shade of ruby red you've ever seen. Would be perfect with toasted walnut bread and an antique gruyere cheese.
I picked a delicious cranberry jam recipe to feature today. It comes from a beautiful cookbook by Tessa Kiros called Falling Cloudberries. I suspect many of you are familiar with it. For those of you who aren't, this personal volume is a scrapbook of Tessa's food memories anchored in family and the many countries where she has lived. The journey she takes us on is beautifully colorful, eclectic and full of interesting flavors - we go from Italy to South Africa, Finland to Greece.
You fall for Tessa the minute you see her. In her author photo she wears a mango pink gingham-check blouse, around her neck is a perfect strand of bright sky-colored beads - she oozes personal style and good taste. Dewdrop skin and introspective eyes tell us she will be a kind and patient teacher (and I can't keep myself from thinking she'd be the perfect person to shop or visit a flea market with). Falling Cloudberries is her second book. Twelve, rooted in Tuscan recipes, was her first book - also stunning and worth tracking down.
I chose the cranberry jam recipe because it's seasonal, sounded delicious, and is the most riveting shade of ruby red you've ever seen. If you've got lingonberries on-hand (which I never see at our markets), those will work too. The jam is very easy to make, you start your berries the night before and it only takes about 20 minutes or so to make the jam and put it in jars the next morning. I didn't bother to seal the jars, because I figure we will finish off the batch inside of the week. Tomorrow I'll shop for some tasty walnut bread and maybe an antique gruyere cheese to go with the jam - but it seems to go with just about everything. If you've never tried making jam before, this is the time to give it a shot.
Books by Tessa Kiros:
- Twelve
- Falling Cloudberries
- Apples for Jam
Related links:
- Jen Maiser on Apples for Jam
- Jam Faced on Twelve
- And if you're interested in reading an interview with Tessa, hop on over to Who Wants Seconds.
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Lingonberry or Cranberry Jam Recipe
Depending on the tartness of the berries you may need to adjust the amount of sugar.
1 lb. 2 ounces (500 g) frozen or fresh lingonberries or cranberries
A scant cup (7 oz/200g) of caster (superfine) sugar (hs note: I just gave my regular granulated sugar a whirl in the food processor for 15-20 seconds)
Finely grated rind and juice of 1 lemon
1 small apple, peeled and cored
Rinse the berries, if necessary, then drain well and put them in a non-metallic bowl with the sugar and lemon juice. Leave overnight, turning once or twice.
Coarsely grate the apple and put it into a jam-making pan or other heavy based saucepan with the grated lemon rind. Strain in all the juice from the berries (hs note: I didn't end up with a ton of juice, but scraped all the thick, sugary juice in) and add two wooden spoonfuls of berries, leaving the rest of the berries in the bowl for now. Add 1/2 cup (125 ml) water and simmer for 20-30 minutes, or until the apple is very soft and the whole lot has thickened (hs note: I ended up ~10 minutes). Add the rest of the berries and heat through for 5-8 minutes. Pour into sterilized jars. Seal tightly and turn upside down. Cover with a cloth and leave to cool completely before turning upright and storing in a cool place. The jam will keep for a couple months but, once open, keep it in the fridge and use fairly quickly.
Makes about 2 cups.
from Falling Cloudberries by Tessa Kiros (Murdoch Books, 2004) - reprinted with permission
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looks delicious, and the color is gorgeous!
Looks & sounds delicious!
We live on five acres in Alaska liberally carpeted with lowbush cranberries, and my children love picking and cooking with them! This fall my 14-year-old made jam and froze some of the berries for using in muffins and breads. Next fall, we'll give this recipe a try! It sounds really great!
her latest 'apples for jam' book is really lovely too. same style with lots of pretty photos and children's drawings. i've just made some gingerbread dough from this book and will be rolling it out tomorrow!
That looks so good. I never thought about making cranberry jam before. Imagine it in those thumbprint cookies this time of year. Yummy! Lovely photos, as always.
I went out and purchased this cookbook when you first posted this. It wasn't that easy to find--I finally found a copy in Australia on ebay. It's a beautiful book. I actually did a book review on one of my blogs http://dogearedandunderlined.blogspot.com/2006/08/falling-cloudberries.html
I just wanted to say The Cook's Library has this book and all the imports from England, Italy, France and Spain. Give us a call 323-655-3141, or email us a [email protected]. Thanks so much.
Mm, this looks so good. This year I discovered how much I really love cranberries. Just posted a recipe for cranberry applesauce in my own blog. I'll have to this jam recipe out. Thanks for sharing.
For years I've been collecting cookbooks on my travels. I always look for books that are published locally, and I rarely see any of those books in the US. My favorites are Mrs. So-and-So's recipes -- the books are always paperbacks, and Mrs. So-and-So is usually a locally famous, self-taught cook who has mastered the entire repertoire of the country's traditional dishes.
I always eat your photos with my eyes and this ruby-jewelled cranberry jam recipe was no different. I make this jam every Thanksgiving for the winter festive season, it goes so well with the turkey sandwiches that we eat, a thick slice of stuffing featuring as well. The apple in the recipe provides the pectin which is what jells the mixture but a spoon of Certo would do just as well. I too will often add a stick of cinnamon or whole allspice when making this jam, plus grated orange zest and grated ginger root. Try a big splotch on top of a whole small brie, then wrap in filo, puff or mascarpone pastry and bake until golden... This is featuring on my Christmas Eve buffet. This jam is strictly a seasonal thing for us as cranberries can only be fund in winter here in the wilds of France, but it is certainly something to enjoy all year. Thank you for a lovely site. :-)
The first time I made this jam, using apples for the pectin, I was skeptical, but it works beautifully and makes the jam truly a whole food. I used asti for the liquid, attempting to replicate a spread we bought commercially years ago. Attractive jars made the jam perfect for gift giving. Thanks for sharing the background on this author...
That's one of Tessa's Finnish recipes, and we eat pretty much the same lingonberry jam alongside our Christmas black pudding this weekend all over Estonia:) I'm a lucky owner of "Falling Cloudberries" - it's probably the prettiest cookbook I have! There isn't a single cloudberry recipe in the book though - even the cover image is of cranberry sorber:) Have you seen her newest book, "Apples for Jam" yet? That's gorgeous, too!
lingonberries jam is usually available in your local IKEA store
This one is definitely will be on my "to try" list. Thank you for the recipe
I know this may be a redundant comment on your site, but the top picture is just so nice!!! I have been given cranberries after looking for them everywhere with no success and I know now what to do with them!
Heidi, Thank you for another great cookbook suggestion. I will be adding this to my Amazon shoplist. Recently, I have been buying a lot of cookbooks from the UK Amazon site, including my current favorite series, Culinaria. Fresh cranberries are available at the local import supermarket near me, so this recipe looks worth trying. I haven't made apple-based jam since moving back here, since I thought that the apples for jams had to be green apples, and here in Japan, all the apples are sweet. Will sweet apples work as well?
If you cannot find cranberries or lingonberries, can you find green blueberries? When they are unripe, or green, they are actually colored red... and I'm told a mixture of ripe and unripe blueberries makes a good substitute for lingonberries. This cranberry jam looks really good, and so did the cranberry salsa that e.claire posted. This year, the freezer broke, so the (frozen) cranberries got processed very quickly in the microwave with honey to taste. Would be scared to can it since the microwave heats unevenly, but it froze as cranberry jam very well when the new freezer came. (I am totally new here. I found your site while looking for a cheese-cranberry tart recipe. Your site is wonderful!)
We make our cranberries to go with turkey or chicken... sometimes pork, cheese works too - as you will see often see cranberries served with a cheese ball at Christmas . We don't do the over night bit mentioned in the recipe. During the simmering of the berries I add a stick of cinnamon, you could try a touch of clove. If you are planning to give the jars of cranberries as gifts put a stick of cinnamon in the jar before pouring in the cooked cranberries.
Can't wait to get some cranberries and make what looks like a delicious jam to eat whenever tempted!
its gr8 with tast , colour it pulls me like magnet pulling a metal
i love lingonberry jam! Its so hard to find too... :)
You don't find cranberries that often around Belgium, but I will most definitely try this recipe out. Sounds delicious!
Yummy... This is great!!! Zaireen will definitely loves this!!! Can't wait to tell her about this cranberries jam...
This looks sooo yummy. Never tasted cranberries in my life!
Yum. I love cranberries too. If you have any extra, you should try this cranberry salsa. It goes with everything. All you need are cranberries, limes, cilantro, onion and a little sugar. I got the recipe from a Texan, so of course there was a jalepeño in it too. You can take it or leave it (I take it.) www.eclaireskitchen.blogspot.com
Delicious and simple. I just can't get enough cranberries this time of year.
This looks amazing! I have been seeing cranberry jam and chutney recipes abound on the food blogs since thanksgiving. The finished products always look like jewels and sound so yummy, however, I live in a tropical country and the only cranberries I can get here are craisins (if that!). Sigh...
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