I have never made proper jam before, mainly because it sounds very labor intensive with a huge amount of sugar! In fact I don’t really eat a lot of jam on toast either, I am much more or a peanut butter girl!
But there is something about a thick doorstop slice of white toast, thick organic butter and seasonal jam washed down with a strong cup of tea that just really makes me happy every now and then! One day I really fancied this but had no jam, what I did have was raspberries and chia seeds!
Chia seeds are a fairly new thing in my life, I am still experimenting with what they can do and the textures they create. I knew they could be used to thicken liquids (aka chia pudding) so I decided to puree my raspberries and add chia seeds. I left this over night and the next morning prepared for some home made raspberry jam. Blimey was it tart!!
Ok so I see the need for some sugar now! But I wasn’t about to add refined sugar and ruin my simple healthy jam, so I added organic honey and lemon juice and it improved it vastly!
You could use other fruits such as strawberries, blueberries, blackberries etc which would all work perfectly, you may just need to tweak the sweetener you use and the liquid content.
Makes one small pot of jam
1 punnet of raspberries (approx 250g)
Splash Water
Squeeze of lemon
2 tablespoons honey/ maple syrup/agave syrup
2 tablespoons Chia Seeds
Place all ingredients except the chia seeds into a blender and blitz until smooth. Taste and adjust sweetness to your liking, I like to keep a bit of that fresh raspberry tang in there! Pour into a bowl or jar and add the chia seeds, stir well and leave in the fridge over night.
You may have to add more chia seeds if your fruit produced a lot of liquid, you can check it after a few hours and see how it is doing!
What fruits would you use? What’s your favorite breakfast spread?