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.
Healthy Homemade Hawthorn Jam
- 1 pound of hawthorn berries
- 1 cup sugar or more as needed
- 1.5 cup water
- 1/2 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
- Airtight and clean containers
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Wash and rinse your storage containers.
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Clean the fresh hawthorn berry and then soak in slightly salted water for around 20 minutes. Then wash again and remove the core.
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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.
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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.
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Pour the jam into the prepared containers. Leave 1/3 of space at the top of each container to allow room for the jam to expand in the freezer.
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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.
For a longer storage time, you can add increase the amount of sugar used in the recipe.
Again, I would highly recommend this recipe for kids.
looks soo good >.<
I love the sour and sweet sauce too. Thanks Lee.
Hawthorne jam sounds intriguing. Actually hawthorne grows in Europe, too. But the fruits are much smaller than the Chinese appear to be. It would be impossible to divide them as you illustrate. But I caught the idea. Maybe something similar could be done with our kind by cooking them and mashing them through a sieve.
Yes Susanne,
If the fruit is much smaller, it would be quite hard to cut them directly. You can try to boil them until soft and them remove the core easily.
You can’t eat the stone in the middle though!?
No, we remove them.
CAN THIS JAM BE MADE WITH DRIED HAWTHORN?
Not suggested to use dried hawthorn
Hi
i was wondering how you obtained your hawthorn, as I am struggling to find them locally
Emily,
I am based in China and in my hometown, hawthorn is quite easy to find.
Looks like these are what in the Uk we call crab apples? Hawthorn here is a very plan, grainy tiny berry with a single stone in the centre 🙂
I had to jump in here because I’ve loved Haw Flakes (Chinese candy made from Hawthorn) since I was a kid and researched what fruit they were. From what I’ve read, Chinese Hawthorn is a different species from common European Hawthorn. Both are in the genus Crataegeus but the Chinese species is Pinnatifida, while the common European and N. Amer. species is Monogyna. I think you can eat the fruit of most Crataegeus species, but they’re somewhat different from each other. If I ever have space, I want to plant a Chinese hawthorn tree! Someday, I’ll make your yummy jam recipe.
BTW, I love your recipes; I’ve made many of your stir-fries and they were all delish. Thanks for all your great work!
Thanks for the information about the Chinese Hawthorn. Growing a Chinese hawthorn sounds like a great idea. Chinese people, especially the young generations does not eat hawthorn very much. The fresh fruits usually are sold to food factory for hawthorn roll and jams.
Thanks for the feedback about the stir frying dishes. I am happy to know they work fine for you.