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Tuesday, February 21, 2012

'Smashed' Strawberry Preserves


I LOVE these strawberry preserves!!

They are so sweet and yummy and FRESH!  Mainly because her recipe uses fresh, not cooked,  strawberries!  It's an interesting and oh-so-yummy twist on traditional strawberry jam!  These preserves taste great over biscuits, ice cream (my personal favorite) or straight out of the jar!!

After years of enjoying this tasty treat, I decided it was high time to learn how to make them myself, so I offered Gram a trip out to our local strawberry farm and farmer's market in exchange for a lesson in the kitchen!  Turns out her preserves are not only delicious but easy and fun to make too!  I mean, how many times have you told your children to STOP smashing their food?!  Well, now they can!  So grab your kiddos and get smashed!

Start with the freshest strawberries you can find! 
We picked ours yesterday on the opening day of strawberry season at Froberg's Farm!

Make sure you wash them and cut the stems off, as close as you can.
You don't want to waste any of these beauties!!

SMASH 'em up!  The potato masher made quick work of this!

For a full recipe, you're going to need 4 cups of fresh, smashed strawberries, so just keep cutting and mashing until you have enough!  It only takes a couple of minutes and they will look like this!

In a separate bowl, mix 1 packet of Ball Instant Fruit Pectin with 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar.
Gram gets her pectin at Wal-Mart in the gelatin section, but she has seen it near the canning supplies at other grocery stores as well.  Make sure is says NO COOK!


Once your pectin and sugar are well blended, add to your strawberry mash!

Now set your timer and stir for 3 minutes!

Pour into jars and you're done!  Now how sweet is that?!

Fresh strawberry preserves can be kept in the refrigerator for 2-3 weeks
and in the freezer much longer than that!!

Well, what are you waiting for?!  Go pick some strawberries and get smashed!!



The Girl Creative
Skip To My Lou

9 comments:

  1. Me too! I've never been a fan of fruit in 'goo' (like canned cherry pie filling for example) but I love, love, love these! Thanks for stopping by!

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  2. Hello Sassy pants! : ) You are being featured tonight on Meet Me Monday Party. Starts at 4pm. Hope to see you again this week! Just pinned this recipe to my Pinterest! Thanks! Love, Me www.youaretalkingtoomuch.com

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    1. OMG!! Thank you so much!! I hope everyone sees this recipe and gets 'smashed' too!!

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  3. Mmmmmm,...strawberry jam! What a simple recipe! My mouth is watering at the thought!

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    1. Well, they are THAT good!! Wish I could take credit for them, but at least I can take credit for my wonderful MIL who shared them! Would love for you to follow me and I will do the same for you - Jen!

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  4. I saw your feature over at Meet Me Mondays and had to check it out. Ironically, looking for a freezer jam recipe was on my to do list this week as we are gearing up for spring and our gardening. I "pinned" this for easy reference :) I'm a new follower too because who can pass up great things like this!!

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  5. Could you use Splenda instead of sugar?

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    1. I've not tried it with Splenda, but I feel like you could. Or at least use the half and half stuff so it measures te same. I have cut back on the sugar (using 1 C instead of 1.5 C) because sometimes your strawberries are already very sweet and it worked just fine!

      Thanks for stopping by!

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