A jam question

[gorionine]

Has anyone made jam using light brown sugar instead of the white stuff? How did it taste? Did it keep as well?

if you have mountains of plums you can also make a chinese plum sauce ( the kind you have with duck)
heres a decent recipe

rowan berry jelly is for meat really , but i love it in a sandwich with cheddar cheese.
there is no early reason why you couldn't just eat it on toast- dd does. it has a tart but fruity flavour - a bit like redcurrant jelly but less rich. but the colour is sublime.
thanks for the ederberry recipes- i will try if i can reach the berries before the birdies get to them.lol

Apple jelly with rose petals?

mmn now youre talking
would you put whole rosep etals through it?
or just extract the perfume?

I did apple jelly with rosemary. Very nice

Will try chestnut jam but how?

i only have a french recipe but will translate if you like

Ingredients (for 6 jars of 500g):

• 2 kg of chestnuts
• 1.5 kg of sugar
• 2 cups water
• 1 vanilla bean

Preparation:

Make a circular incision on the chestnuts (on the top ).

Place chestnuts in a saucepan. cover with cold water. bring to the boil.
Boil a few minutes.

Remove from heat and take out 2/3 of the chestnus, leaving the rest in the pan of hot
Next put chestnuts in a pan containing 1 / 2 liter of warm water. Cover and cook over low heat a few minutes. To check for doneness: when they crush easily, they are cooked.

Drain and pass through a sieve manually or whizz in a food processor Keep warm.

make a syrup with the sugar and water.Bring to the boil and test for a set. (Soft Ball stage)Pour over the hot puree. Add vanilla bean .

Heat gently, stirring. Boil 15 to 20 minutes. The mixture should be thick and stick to the spoon. Remove the vanilla.

Place in sterilised jars for preservation.

sorry transalation is appalling but i hope you get the drift.

Chop the rose petals and add at the last minute when potting up.

cremola you are a star, thank you so much that sounds very do-able. I can't wait to try it I'll let you know how I get on when they are ready.

(we have a lady near here who has a large tree in her garden, she lets me in to pick chestnuts up and I bag up the husks for her and take them home to help her tidy the garden. Fab arrangement ) )

ooh these are great recipes! I made oodles of hedgerow jelly last year using: rowans, rosehips, blackberries, crab apples, elderberries and sloes. All free and picked on my walks. I always make crab apple jelly (plain just about) but last year had a new tree (we had moved) with only about 3 apples on so had to go foraging. The resulting jelly was so flavoursome, eevrybody ate with everything - i kept a jar back for xmas turkey.

I will make apple and mint jelly or apple and rosemary i think t give as xmas presents this year - we are very broke this year and all gifts wiill be homemade but who couldn't love a jar of one of these: all jewel like ?
I am going to make sloe gin too for pressies and anything else anyof you guys suggest! we have apparently ahuge sweet chestnut tree in teh park so wil be invesitigating that for the chestnut jam recipe.

I love this time of year! I made damson and apple crumble at the weekend, damsons from the village fete (almost free,70p) and free apples from a neighbour. Used flour, ground almonds and butter. it was so lovely all buttery and a wonderful colour.

Great idea to make them for Christmas pressies (we're skint too this year). Tescos do those nice flip lid kilner-style jars for £1.25 too.

Thank you for all the fab ideas and recipes! My mouth is positively watering!