Rhubarb and Apple Jam

We have 3 apples trees in our back garden that are fully laden and my family get rather sick of homemade crumbles and turnovers.  I do freeze loads of cooked apple for later on in the year but I needed another way to use up some of the apples.  I decided, after making strawberry jam, to give rhubarb and apple jam making a try.  The jam is a light caramel colour and is not too sweet with a slight tang from the rhubarb.  It tastes fab on freshly made crumpets or pancakes!

Here's how to make Rhubarb and Apple Jam

500g finely chopped rhubarb

1kg of peeled and thinly sliced apples

125ml (1/2 cup) freshly squeezed lemon juice

125ml (1/2 cup) water

approximately 1kg of sugar

Put the rhubarb, apples, lemon juice and water in a large saucepan and bring to the boil.   Reduce the heat and let the fruit simmer for around 20 minutes or until the fruit is pulpy.  I used my stick blender to blend the fruit until it was smooth at this point because I wanted a nice smooth jam at the end, but you could leave it chunky if you wanted to.

Measure the amount of fruit you have then add 3/4 cup of sugar per 1 cup of fruit mixture.  Put the fruit mixture back into the saucepan with the amount of sugar your fruit requires and heat it gently, without boiling, until the sugar dissolves.

Boil the jam uncovered, stirring occasionally, for about 10 minutes or until jam sets to a spreading consistency when tested. 

Pour the hot jam into hot sterilised jars and seal them whilst everything is hot.

This recipe made approximately 1.75 litres of jam.