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Recipe Detail Page
Honeyed Apricots
Summer 2010
Local apricots, picked at their peak and preserved with wildflower honey are deliciously tangy. The flavour of the honey is important here as it really does add a lot to the apricots. Customize individual jars of preserves by adding one of the optional flavourings below. Don’t be tempted to peel apricots before preserving as their thin skin helps hold the fruit together. Spoon apricots and syrup over thick strained yogurt and over toast spread with fresh ricotta or farmers’ cheese, or use them to perk up a wintery bowl of oatmeal.
Makes 5 jars
4 lbs (2 kg) fresh apricots, halved and pitted
3 tbsp (45 mL) lemon juice
4 cups (1 L) water
⅔ cup (150 mL) sugar
½ cup (125 mL) honey, ideally wildflower
Optional Additions
To each jar add:
½ vanilla bean, slit with the point of a sharp knife
to expose seeds
or 6 cardamom pods, cracked open,
and 2 black peppercorns
or 1 branch lavender blossoms
(or ¼ tsp/1 mL dried organic blossoms)
1. Place apricots in a non-reactive bowl and add lemon juice, tossing to combine. Set aside.
2. Combine water, sugar and honey in a large pot and bring to a boil over high heat, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Add apricots, return to a boil and boil 2 minutes or until apricots have just begun to soften. Remove from heat.
3. Divide hot apricots between 5 hot sterilized2-cup (500-mL) jars, layering them in jars skin side up. Add additional flavourings if using, and pour in hot syrup leaving ½-inch (1-cm) headroom. Run a butter knife around the inside edge of each jar to help any bubbles to escape. Wipe top edge of canning jars to make sure they are clean, then top with prepared 2-piece canning lids. Bring water in canning kettle to a boil. Place filled jars in canning kettle, cover with lid, and boil for 20 minutes. Turn off heat and let stand for 5 minutes, or until water has stopped boiling. Remove jars of jam from canner, being careful not to tilt them, and allow to cool.
Tips
1. Always choose firm-ripe fruit so that preserves retain maximum texture after processing.
2. It is safe to preserve acidic fruit in lighter sugar syrups, but a heavier syrup acts as much more than asweetener—it also preserves the colour and texture of the fruit.
3. Slightly cooking fruit in the sugar syrup before transferring it to canning jars is called the hot pack method. It is messy work but often makes for better preserves than the raw pack method.
4. Don’t be concerned if you lose some of the sugar syrup while processing. This happens for a variety of reasons (too many air bubbles, jars overfilled or tipped during processing or removal, too much fruit in proportion to liquid, or abrupt changes in temperature). As long as your jars were processed for the right amount of time, you have lost less than half of the liquid, and your lids have sealed properly, your preserves will still be safe to eat, though fruit above the liquid may darken in colour. Use these jars up first. Don’t be tempted to add extra liquid to jars, because you would then need to reprocess them.
Makes 5 jars
