Apricot Jam

Summer is in full swing, and that means lots and lots of fresh fruits and vegetables from our CSA. We got a small container of apricots this week, and while they are delicious out of hand, my favorite thing to do with them is make jam.

What's great about apricots (and plums) is that their skins have plenty of pectin, which means that making jam with them is so easy. It's also easy to scale the recipe, depending on how much of the fruit you have. So feel free to double or triple or quadruple, depending on your quantities. One of these days, I'll do some full scale canning and write that up for you, but this time, I only had enough fruit for one jar of jam, which will keep for a few weeks in the fridge (if it lasts that long).

The important thing to remember is that you need 3/4 of a cup of sugar for every cup of fruit.

Ingredients:

• 2 C. diced fresh apricots (leave the skins on, just remove the pits)
• 1 1/2 C. sugar
• 1 Tbsp. lemon juice

In a small saucepan over medium heat, stir the apricots, sugar, and lemon juice. When it begins to bubble, reduce the heat to medium low and simmer for about 15 minutes. The apricots will mostly disappear as the mixture reduces. It will be nice and syrupy.

Pour the hot jam into a mason jar. Screw on the lid and refrigerate. The jam will set as it cools.

I had a little extra hot jam left, which I used as a sauce for crepes.