Can it all...

There isn't much you can't can...you can can almost anything...today my Mom and I are going to make and can some Lavender Vanilla Pear Jam.  We have decided to start with the Sure Jell recipe for making jam.  We are going to alter the recipe to add the vanilla and lavender.  We will do our best to write everything down.

The Kraft site says you need 3 lbs of Pears, and one lemon.  You need to peel, pit and finely chop the pears (you will or should end up with 4 cups of finely chopped pears).  Then add 2Tbsp fresh lemon juice and 5 cups of sugar.  But I think that is too much sugar, so we instead made a reduced sugar version following the directions on the Ball Classic Pectin jar.  And added our own twist.

We used:
4 cups of fruit
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
4.5 tablespoons pectin
3 cups sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons lavender in a tea bag
1/2 teaspoon butter

Bring a large pot of water to boil for the jars, you need to sterilize them before you put your hard work into them.  They can just stay in the water until right before you need them.  Same goes with the lids and bands...just let them sit in hot water until you are ready for them.

Prepare the fruit, we peeled some of the pears, but left the red skin on, cause it's so purdy.

This pear had a face

We cored them and chopped them into tiny pieces!

Put the fruit, lemon juice, butter, lavender and pectin in a large pot and stir it up!

 

Bring it to a full rolling boil (the kind of bubbles that don't go away when you stir it) and stir constantly. Stir in the sugar and let it get to a full rolling boil again, then set your timer for 1 minute.
It helps having two hands so you can pull the hot jars out of the water while the other person stirs.
Using a sterilized measuring cup with a handle and a wide mouth funnel ladle into the jars.  Wipe the rim before putting the lids on, screw the lids on finger tight and place back in the pot and let it boil for 10 minutes to process the jam. This part goes soooo fast we didn't get any pictures.

Remove the jars from the boiling water and place on the counter and listen for the pop!  Leave them to cool for 24 hours!

You can store unopened jars in a cool dry dark place up to one year, open jams keep in the fridge for up to three weeks.

Next time we are going to throw some of the lavender buds directly into the pear mix, they are edible and add such a depth.  I also want to try using some vanilla beans instead of extract.

Enjoy!