Freezer Strawberry Jam Recipe: Delicious and Easy

Do you love strawberry jam and wish for an easy way to whip up some whenever you want it? This easy freezer strawberry jam recipe is for you! You only need a few simple ingredients and a little bit of time to make this delicious jam. It’s perfect for enjoying all year long. Just thaw some out and enjoy!

A Few Reasons to Make Freezer Strawberry Jam

Freezer strawberry jam is a delicious and easy way to enjoy your favourite fruit. You can capture the distinctive taste when they are in season, and revisit the pleasure of this fruit whenever you want for the rest of the year.

Freezer strawberry jam is so easy to make, and a safe start if this is your first time making jam. It’s also a great way to use up all those strawberries that are starting to become over-ripe so that you don’t lose any of this luscious fruit – it’s a win-win, you avoid potential food waste and create a lasting treat.

All you need is some strawberries, sugar, and lemon juice and in under an hour, you have jam to freeze. No special canning techniques are needed as you will store them in the freezer.

This jam has no added pectin. and does not use extra sugar to set, but uses lemon juice instead. Lemons have a lot of pectin which facilitates the setting of this jam and well as helping to cut through the sweetness of the strawberry jam and add a bite of freshness.

How to Make Freezer Strawberry Jam

You start by washing the strawberries and taking off their green tops (hulling). Keep these off-cuts to extend the strawberry magic into a simple Strawberry-Top Vinegar .

Then you chop up the strawberries into small pieces either by hand or in a food processor, after which you measure out 2 cups of chopped strawberries.

Put the chopped fruit into a saucepan with half of the sugar and stir through. Now you get to have a cup of tea while leaving this to sit for about 15 minutes so that the fruit can macerate and release its juices.

Once you have been sufficiently refreshed, you add the remainder of the sugar to the mixture, stir through and leave to rest for another 15 minutes – you get to go back to that magazine article you were reading!

Now put the saucepan to heat, and as it comes to a boil, make sure that you keep stirring to make sure that the sugar dissolves completely.

As the mixture starts to thicken, add the lemon juice and stir until it thickens further for at least 15 minutes.

You can then use the Wrinkle test to assess the set point or in the spirit of this simple, quick jam or when it starts clumping on the spoon and looks thick enough to you, this may be just fine.

So, take the saucepan off the heat and let it stand for a few minutes.

Ladle into glass jars, label it with name and date, and store it in the freezer, where it has the potential of lasting up to one year – when the strawberries are in season again! But that depends on whether you can resist that long…

TIPS for Making Freezer Strawberry Jam

• You can use either bottled lemon juice or a fresh lemon here – a fresh lemon has more pectin and you can also add the 2 left-over lemon halves to the cooking mixture for added lemon flavour. Then remove the lemon halves once the setting point has been achieved and before ladling the jam into jars.

• When ladling into jars, make sure to leave a space of about 1-1.5cm (headspace) between the jam and the lip of the jar as the jam will expand when frozen.

• Freezer jam is a softer set jam than usual. If you want to enjoy some as soon as you can leave it for 24-48 hours in the fridge for a firmer consistency. Remember that this is about extending enjoyment and not winning a competition – even if the jam turns out a bit thin it will still taste wonderful – just use a spoon to deliver it to your buttered bread!

• As the shelf-life of the jam once in the fridge (out of the freezer) is 1-2 weeks, consider this when choosing the size of jam jars for storage as this will determine how much you take out of the freezer and thaw at any one time for use in this period.

Using Freezer Strawberry Jam

• On hot buttered toast – still an all-time favourite.
• On scone with clotted cream.
• Lightly warmed and drizzled over vanilla ice cream.
• A spoonful stirred through an alcoholic or non-alcoholic drink for that true summer flavour.

Jam is a great way to preserve the summer’s harvest, and this recipe is so easy that you will be able to make it even if you have never made jam before. The results are delicious, and I am sure that you will enjoy having an easily accessible taste of summer available all year long. So give the recipe a try, and enjoy!

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