Sweet Cherry Jam with Hazelnuts and Lemon: Step-by-Step Recipe
Sweet cherry jam is a sign that summer has arrived – the season when ripe, sweet cherries finally show up at the market. I remember how, back in childhood, when the summer holidays began and our parents “exiled” us to our grandmother in the village, the very first thing the grandkids pounced on was the cherry tree. Provided, of course, they got there before the competition – the local crows.
Sweet cherries are a very delicate thing and don't keep for long. So they have to be eaten as quickly as possible – ideally right there on the tree. When I think back to my childhood, nobody ever thought of washing cherries, pears or apples. And nobody, not once, ever got sick. We were walking antibiotics, and any germ that got into us simply died.
Whatever cherries we didn't manage to eat went into jam. Jam is a dessert – so say scientists and chefs. Jam is a treat – so say the kids. Jam is a winter preserve – so say mums and grandmas. Jam is a currency you can sell out your homeland for, along with cookies – so says Bad Boy from the old Soviet fairy tale. Jam is fuel – so says Karlsson-on-the-Roof.
Ripe sweet cherries make an excellent base for delicious jam. Besides the simple and somewhat ordinary ways of making it, there are plenty of really interesting techniques that turn jam into a proper sweet dessert. In the Caucasus, white cherry jam is made by tucking a hazelnut – whole or a half – into every single cherry.
Usually it's mum or grandma who makes cherry jam, but nothing stops you from making a couple of jars yourself, just the way they do it in the Caucasus.
It's a proven fact that homemade jam tastes three times better. We make our grated pie using the classic recipe with currant jam, but you can use cherry jam instead – and it will be just as delicious and special. This jam is closer to a full-fledged dessert: it's not only a treat on its own but also a great addition to tasty sesame buns served with tea.
Ingredients
2-3 jars
- White sweet cherries with a red blush 1 kg
- Shelled hazelnuts 100 g
- Sugar 1 kg
- Natural vanilla 2 g
- Lemon 1
Step-by-step recipe
- Sweet cherries are widespread in the Caucasus, Ukraine, Crimea and Moldova – the cherry tree loves warmth. The cherry got its name from the city of Kerasous (in modern Turkey), where many sour and sweet cherries grew. The Romans called them “fruits of Kerasous”, cerasi. Hence the Italian ciliegia, French cerise, Spanish cereza, Portuguese cereja, German Kirsche and English cherry.
- White cherry jam is popular in the Caucasus. For some reason, people here tend to think that a white cherry means an unripe, green one. To be honest, I haven't seen purely yellow cherries in a long time. But yellow ones with a pink blush are everywhere, so that's what we bought. Then again, jam made from red cherries turns out no worse. Good heavens, what am I saying – there's no such thing as worse jam.
- You'll want small hazelnuts. If they're large, you'll have to split them in half. Rinse the cherries and remove the pit from each one, trying to leave only a very small hole so the cherries keep their shape.
- Finally all the pits are out, and it's time for the hazelnuts. If they're small, you can leave them as they are. If they're large, split each nut in half. Either way, the hazelnuts need to be toasted: toast them in a hot dry frying pan until they give off a pleasant aroma.
- Next comes an even more entertaining task – you need to push one nut into each cherry through the hole. But it's much easier and quicker than pitting them.
- In my childhood, jam was always made in a huge copper basin – that was set in stone. We don't have a basin now, but we do have a large pot, and we're not dealing with two buckets of cherries, just one kilogram. So a pot will do just fine.
- Make a sugar syrup in the pot. Bring one cup of water to a boil and add 1 kg of sugar and 2 g of vanilla. Note: vanilla, not vanilla sugar. Ideally, use a natural vanilla pod – cut it in half and put it in the syrup. Cook the syrup until it starts to boil, a lot of foam appears and all the sugar has dissolved. This amount of sugar seems to be about the limit of what boiling water can dissolve, but I may be wrong. Don't worry, though – the cherries release their juice almost instantly as they cook and will dissolve whatever is left.
- Add the cherries to the boiling sugar syrup and bring to a boil, stirring gently. Don't be put off by the heavy foaming. As soon as the syrup with the cherries starts to boil, turn off the heat and let the jam cool for 2-3 hours. Better not to cover it with a lid, so moisture doesn't collect. Cover the pot with a clean cloth instead, or you'll end up with wasp jam rather than cherry jam. Wasps are the most annoying part of making jam.
- Repeat this three times: once the jam has cooled, bring it back to a boil. If some of the hazelnuts fall out of the cherries, don't worry. When the jam is ready, you won't even notice.
- Before the last heating, add thinly sliced lemon to the jam, and only then bring it to a boil.
- Pour the still-boiling jam into sterilized jars and seal them tightly with lids. Once cooled, put them on the shelf if you're planning to eat the jam in winter. Usually, though, it never gets that far – it gets eaten much sooner, the same day or the next.
- Oh, where's our basket of cookies and jam??? It's amazingly delicious, especially with tasty biscotti and a fragrant cup of hot ginger tea.
| Yield: | 2-3 jars |
| Calories: | 245 |
| Prep time: | 1 h |
| Cook time: | 12 h |
| Total time: | 13 h |
| Category: | Desserts and Drinks |
| Cuisine: | Caucasian cuisine |
| Rating: |
⭐
⭐
⭐
⭐
⭐
4.9
(5)
|