Thick Apricot Jam

Name: Thick Apricot Jam with Pectin – Homemade Family Recipe
Prep time: 1 h
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 1 h 30 min
Cuisine: European
Ingredients: Ripe apricots 5 kg; Sugar 5 kg; Pectin (powder) as needed

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1 h 30 mins

Midsummer is apricot jam season. You have to catch it while the fruit is plentiful and fully ripe. Just 5-10 kg of apricots is enough for a sweet treat that will keep you happy all winter. It is especially good with cottage cheese pancakes (syrniki) – for us that has become a Saturday breakfast tradition.

Making jam is a tradition, and so is eating it afterwards. Years ago people put up many times more preserves. Whether the families were bigger or, as my grandmother used to say, you need something to eat in winter – I can’t say for sure. These days, out of all the options, we have settled on sour cherry jam, currant jam and apricot jam. Less often, when the chance comes up, we manage to make mulberry jam. And in winter we make a delicious, fragrant tangerine jam.

Making preserves for winter comes down to reducing, or briefly boiling, fruit or berry pulp with sugar, sometimes with added pectin. A high concentration of sugar preserves fruit perfectly. What mostly sets jam apart from other sweet preserves is that it keeps more or less whole pieces of fruit in a looser syrup, whereas fruit butter turns out smooth and thick, and fruit spreads are runnier.

An important step in preparing the fruit is removing the pits. It is quick and easy when the pits are large, but with cherries it gets rather tedious, especially without a special pitter. The apricot, however, is a large fruit, and its pit comes away from the flesh very easily.

Many people like to use the small, half-wild apricots that grow in our shelterbelts. We prefer the large, juicy fruit grown in orchards. What matters is that the apricots are ripe and juicy, with no signs of spoilage or dark spots.

In our family we prefer exactly this kind of jam, where the apricot halves stay almost whole in a thick syrup. It goes well with thin crepes and makes a great pie filling. Our jam comes out bright orange – apricots are rich in carotene. To make the syrup thick we use any pectin available in the shops – there is plenty of choice. My wife and daughter make this jam every year, and I help as best I can.

A homemade family recipe for delicious apricot jam.

Ingredients

12–15 jars of 0.5 l

Ripe apricots 5 kg
Sugar 5 kg
Pectin (powder) as needed

Step-by-step recipe

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Preparing the apricots

Good, brightly colored apricot jam can only be made from fruit of the very best quality and ripeness. If you have an orchard, it is better to pick ripe apricots from the tree rather than gather them from the ground. At the market you will most likely get fruit that has fallen from the branches.

Go through all the apricots and discard any that are rotting or damaged. Also avoid slightly green apricots and ones with a dark side — they are not uncommon.
Wash the sorted fruit — this matters, since there is always dust and other nasties on it.

Break each apricot in half and remove the pit. The stem is often still attached — remove that too. We throw the pits away, although people often dry them and use the kernels as a substitute for bitter almonds. Put the apricot halves into a large bowl.

Cooking the jam

At this stage we add pectin. Large supermarkets sell sachets meant for thickening fruit and berry mixtures. They vary a lot and often contain other additives — citric acid, sugar and so on. The package has clear instructions on how to use the pectin. In our case it was 1 sachet per 1 kg of fruit.

Mix all the pectin with a cup of sugar (180 g) and sprinkle it over the pitted apricots.
With clean hands, lightly mash the apricots so that large pieces remain and a thick, puree-like juice appears. Transfer the apricots to a cauldron or a large jam pan.
Put the pan over medium heat and heat the mixture, stirring constantly with a wooden spatula. Stirring is a must, as the fruit can very easily stick to the bottom and start to burn. If you spot a stray pit while stirring, remove it straight away. Bring the apricot jam to a boil and simmer over low heat for exactly 10 mins.

Add all the remaining sugar. Just pour it into the hot jam and stir.
The sugar will make the syrup noticeably runnier at once. That’s normal. Without pectin it would not get much thicker as it cools — keep that in mind.
Stirring with a spoon, cook the apricot jam for another 3 mins, then turn off the heat. If sweet foam forms, it is best to skim it off into a separate bowl.
By the way, the foam is a special “by-product” of making apricot jam. When the syrup boils, the sugar produces a sweet, fragrant foam. You can leave it, but then light specks may show up in the finished jam. Ideally, skim off the foam and save it for syrniki or tea. As kids, we could not dream of anything better.

Filling the jars

Wash and sterilize the jars in advance. As a rule, we wash them with plain baking soda and sterilize them with boiling water from the kettle. We use 500–550 ml glass jars with screw-on lids — the most convenient size for storing and eating over the winter. Boil the lids in hot water for 1–2 mins.
Use a cup to ladle the runny hot jam into a jar, up to where the thread on the neck begins. If you are afraid the jar might crack, put a spoon in it — that helps. Screw the lid on immediately. Turn the jar upside down and stand it on the table. There is no need to wrap it up.
The finished apricot jam in jars cools down quite quickly. After half an hour the jars can be turned right side up, and once cool, put away in the pantry. They keep perfectly for a whole year until the next harvest.

Serving

As it turns out, a jar of delicious jam makes a wonderful gift for friends, especially if they deserve it.

Calories and macros

218 kcal

100 g

Protein0.7 g1% of kcal
Fat0.2 g1% of kcal
Carbs54.6 g98% of kcal

Calculated from the recipe ingredients, excluding salt and spices. Data: USDA and Matvaretabellen.

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To Get It Right

Which apricots to use

Juicy, large orchard fruit — ripe, with no signs of spoilage or dark spots. Many people make jam from small semi-wild apricots too, but we prefer orchard ones: the jam turns out bright orange, as they are rich in carotene.

For a thick jam

Pectin is what makes it thick — any store-bought kind will do. Sachets vary, so check the dosage on the package: ours was 1 sachet per 1 kg of apricots. Once you add all the sugar, the syrup will suddenly turn runny — that’s normal.

Halves, not puree

To keep the apricot halves almost whole, mash them with your hands only a little — just enough to release a thick juice. Stir gently with a wooden spatula. The cooking is short, so the halves don’t have time to fall apart.

Storage

Sealed jars keep in the pantry for a whole year, until the next harvest. Keep an opened jar in the fridge.

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Questions and answers

How much sugar do you need per 1 kg of apricots?

1 kg: in this recipe sugar and apricots are equal by weight — 5 kg to 5 kg. One cup of that sugar (180 g) is mixed with the pectin, and the rest goes into the jam once it has come to a boil.

How long do you cook apricot jam?

13 minutes: 10 minutes over low heat from the moment it boils, then another 3 minutes after adding the sugar. Stir all the time so the apricots don’t stick to the bottom.

Can you make apricot jam without pectin?

Yes, but it won’t be thick: without pectin the syrup gets only slightly thicker as it cools. Without pectin the jam has to be boiled down longer, and the apricots will fall apart more.

How many jars of jam do you get from 5 kg of apricots?

12–15 jars of 0.5 l. If you have fewer apricots, scale everything down: 1 kg of apricots makes 2–3 jars.

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