Healthy hawthorn jam is so perfect for breakfast or braised dishes.
Have you ever heard of hawthorn berry? This small good looking fruit is extremely loved by Chinese people. In the old times, we usually use hawthorn berry to make fruit leather. But now, the most popular way is to simmer for quite a long time for a bottle of extremely yummy Jam. This jam can be used directly on breads or it can also be used to replace Chinese sweet and sour sauce in many recipes like sweet and sour ribs.
Fresh hawthorn berry usually is just too sour to taste. But they have great benefits to our body. In the Traditional Chinese Medicine, dried hawthorn berry is often used to treat anepithymia or food retention.I know that this fruit might be not a common ingredient for western country, but no matter where you live, do have a try as long as you can find them.
Since I do not plan to storage them for a long time, I did not add a huge amount of sugar for the consideration of storage. The sugar amount given in the following recipe is mainly for balancing the sour taste. I would love suggesting taste the jam in the simmer process and adjust the amount accordingly.
After cleaning, soak in slightly salted water for around 20 minutes. Wash again.
Transfer hawthorn into a food processor, add water. Blend until almost smooth but there are some small particles or smooth according to your own taste.Pour the mixture to a sauce pan; add sugar and simmer for around 80 to 100 minutes. Add fresh lemon juice in the middle. Stir from time to time.
Ingredients
- 1 pound of hawthorn berries
- 1 cup sugar or more as needed
- 1.5 cup water
- ½ tablespoon fresh lemon juice
- Airtight and clean containers
Instructions
- Wash and rinse your storage containers.
- Clean the fresh hawthorn berry and then soak in slightly salted water for around 20 minutes. Then wash again and remove the core.
- Transfer hawthorn into a food processor, add water. Blend until almost smooth but there are some small particles or smooth according to your own taste.
- Pour the mixture to a sauce pan; add sugar and simmer for around 80 to 100 minutes. Add fresh lemon juice in the middle. Stir from time to time.
- Pour the jam into the prepared containers. Leave ⅓ of space at the top of each container to allow room for the jam to expand in the freezer.
- Seal the containers and let the jam sit at room temperature for 24 hours. Then store the jam the refrigerator for up to 1 week or in the freezer for up to 1 month.
Notes
Nutrition
Again, I would highly recommend this recipe for kids.
Teresa
Looks delicious! I’m thinking to try making a couple things with Chinese hawthorn (might try this jam too!) and I’m wondering if you can help me with a few questions?
1. Why do you do the salt soak? Is it always necessary?
2. How do you remove the core since there are so many seeds around the middle?
3. I was thinking of cooking them and putting them through a sieve to remove the seeds before baking with them - wondering if that’s something I’ve tried before?
I’ve been wanting to try these for years but have been a bit daunted by the seeds - I’m determined to try this year 😄