Fresh Jam

The other day my family lucked out: our neighbors had gone peach-picking and brought over some of the literal fruits of their labor (I know...cheap pun) for us! Since we had already bought some peaches the day before, I decided to use some of the grocery store peaches and a couple tahitian mangoes we had to make some fresh jam!

Fresh Peach-Mango Jam

yield: about 32oz. of jam

2 c. chopped peaches (about 4 small peaches)

1 c. diced tahitian mangoes (about 2 mangoes)

1/2 c. granulated suagr

1/2 c. light brown sugar

1/8 c. water

1. Combine all ingredients in a heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium heat.
2. Bring mixture to a boil, and mash with a potato masher until it is the desired consistency.
3. Cook for another 5 or so minutes, or until the mixture reaches a rolling boil for about 1-2 minutes.
4. Remove from the heat, and allow to cool for 10 minutes, then transfer to a heat-proof mason jar, screw on lid, and let sit for about 24 hours for jam to settle.
5. After jam has settled, store it in the fridge for up to 3 weeks.

I was too lazy to preserve the jam by boiling the jar (so it can be stored outside of the fridge), but it's a small enough amount of jam that I think we'll be able to eat it in 3 weeks. I also didn't have any pectin, which many jam recipes called for, hence my addition of extra light brown sugar. It definitely is not a very thick jam (it's fairly runny), but I think the consistency is pretty good...and it tastes pretty great too!

The only problem was that I woke up the morning after putting it into the fridge craving the jam on honey whole wheat bread...which we didn't have. So, being the frantic baker I am, I decided to bake some! I used the "lighter version" of this quick bread recipe from the NYT website...but changed slightly.

Honey Whole Wheat Quick Bread

1 2/3 c. skim milk

2 c. whole wheat flour

1 c. all-purpose flour

1 tsp. sea salt

1 tsp. baking soda

1 egg

scant 1/2 c. honey

1. Heat the oven to 325F. Grease a 9x5" loaf pan.
2. Mix together the flours, salt, and baking soda in a medium-sized bowl.
3. In a glass measuring cup, stir together the milk, egg, and honey. Pour this into the dry mixture and stir until well-mixed.
4. Pour the mixture into the pan, smooth out, and bake for roughly 50 minutes.
5. Cool in the pan for 15 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool.

This bread was soooooo good, and went perfectly with the jam!

Side-note: the jam was also really good as a topping for Haagen Dazs' low fat tart frozen yogurt!

xoxo