Strawberry Freezer Jam

I was determined to try my hand at freezer jam with our loot of strawberries. My friend, Maureen, makes the best homemade freezer jam I've ever tasted: not too sweet, not too thick, naturally GOOD! So I called her (maybe a few times) to get her recipe. I love the way mine turned out and have enjoyed it on toast, yogurt, rice cakes, a spoon . . . basically anything that will get this good stuff into my mouth!


4 pints of strawberries
1 cup sugar (the recipe in the box will say that you MUST use 3 cups of sugar or it won't set right. I loved the texture of mine using just one cup. It was a little runnier than jello, but still could hold it's own on a piece of toast)
1 package SureJell Pectin (for less or no sugar needed recipes)


Prepare plastic containers by washing, rinsing and drying. Use 1-2 cup size containers. I used one container that was too large, filled it too high, and the fruit separated and rose to the top while it was setting. Boo.

Wash, rinse, and hull strawberries. Crush with a potato masher one cup at a time until you have 4 cups of crushed berries. Make sure not to puree. There should be nice chunks of berry left.

Measure one cup of sugar into a large saucepan. Stir in 1 box of pectin (make sure to use the less or no sugar needed kind for this recipe). Stir in 1 cup water. Bring mixture to a boil on medium-high heat, stirring constantly. Boil and stir 1 minute. Remove from heat.

Stir fruit mixture quickly into hot pectin-sugar mixture. Stir 1 minute or until thoroughly mixed.

Pour into prepared containers, leaving 1/2-inch space at top for expansion during freezing; cover.

Let stand at room temperature 24 hours until set. Refrigerate up to 3 weeks. Otherwise, store in freezer for up to 1 year. Thaw in refrigerator.