I love strawberries! I love going to the strawberry farm with my daughter, Kristina, and spending the afternoon picking berries. Then to come home and have a dessert of just berries...yummm! But, then what to do with the rest of them??
I have been making strawberry jam for years but I was a little worried how sugar free jam would turn out. I scoured the internet looking for recipes. Most I found used fruit juice, grape juice, splenda, plain gelatin or strawberry jello...or any combination of the above. I could not find any recipes that used the natural sweeteners I have become so fond of. Even the recipe in the "no sugar needed" pectin box used splenda.
So what did I do? Experimented of course! And I am pretty pleased with the results. I hope you give it a try and let me know what you think.
Ingredients
1 box pectin (I used sure-jell no sugar needed, in the pink box)
3 cups crushed strawberries
1/2 cup water
1 tsp fresh orange zest
1/2 cup xyletol
Pour berries, zest, water and pectin into a large saucepan; stirring to dissolve the pectin. Place pan on med-high heat. Bring mixture to a full rolling boil, stirring constantly.
Pour into jars and process as you normally would. Alternatively, you can place in freezer containers and store in the freezer.
NOTE: This jam does have a softer texture than regular jam, so I did put it into freezer containers for my use.
