Recipe: thermomix strawberry chia jam

Strawberries have a fairly short shelf life once harvested so after our strawberry-picking adventure last week I've been on the hunt for ways to use them up. We've had them in muffins, sorbet, on pancakes, made Eton Mess, snacked on them and still had a ton left over.

I decided to try my hand at making jam. I remember my Dad making jams when I was growing up but I've never tried it myself, it can be a bit intimidating to reach the right temperature, pectin and acidity levels plus it can be messy. But I'd heard really good things about Tenina's strawberry vanilla jam in the thermomix and there's also a jam recipe in the EDC. 

My recipe is something of a hodgepodge between the two, with an extra ingredient thrown in. 

INGREDIENTS:

250gm strawberries 

Half of a Granny Smith apple, cored

Zest of half a lemon

A squeeze of lemon juice (1 tblspn?) 

100gm sugar 

1 tablespoon chia seeds

METHOD:

1) Place first five ingredients into thermomix and cook for 30mins, varoma temp, speed 1.

2) Grind up chia seeds in mortar and pestle until the consistency of sand (alternatively, you can add the seeds whole or you could grind the chia seeds in your thermomix before beginning the recipe) and add to thermomix bowl

3) Stir on 'gentle stir' for 5secs to incorporate seeds and then stir on speed 6 for about 20secs

4) Pour into sterilised jar or container and store in the fridge. 

NOTES: 

- Recipe yields approx 250ml

- Recipe can be doubled but at your own risk- the TM31 bowl will be quite full (TM5 should be fine) and the contents get very hot. I made my second batch as a double batch but it was a bit splashy. You might prefer to use the gentle stir option for the whole cooking time if making a double batch. 

- you can substitute a tablespoon of arrowroot powder for the tablespoon of chia seeds

- you can substitute an extra ten mins cooking time for the chia seeds

- to sterilise jars or containers you don't need to bake them in the oven- you can use the Milton sterilising tablets (the kind you use for sterilising baby bottles) which means that you can also use plastic containers for storage.

This recipe is very forgiving, feel free to adjust the ingredient quantities. You may even be able to get away with no sugar if you like it tart and use the chia seeds. 

Enjoy!

Laura xx