The Yummiest Apricot Jam!!! (Recipes Included)

I love apricot jam, but not really any apricot jam. Besides the fact that it's really hard to find JUST apricot jam at the store (usually it's Apricot-Pineapple or something), the jam there can really never compare to my grandma's recipe. So this week I happened to be at my parents' house right as they had apricots on their tree so I got to can some apricot jam! And I'm sharing the process and recipe so that you too can discover how yummy and more-healthy this jam is than the store-bought stuff.

And if you've never made your own jam before, don't be scared. It's easy!


What You'll Need:
8 cups mashed/pureed fruit
4 cups sugar
4 Tbsp. lemon juice
1 cup Ultra Gel (more on this below)
A blender
6 pint-sized jars & lids for them OR freezer containers
A waterbath canner (if you're canning the jam)


A Word on Ultra Gel
Ultra Gel is made by a company in Boise, Idaho and used as a starch thickener that you don't have to cook. The reason that my family loves it is because you don't have to use NEAR as much sugar with it as you would with other thickeners like Sure Jell. If you look at the recipe, you use half as much sugar as fruit. In the Sure Jell recipe you use TWICE as much SUGAR as fruit. So really with those homemade jams, you're eating mostly sugar!

If you're in the Boise area, they sell Ultra Gel at some of the local stores. If you're not in the area, you can buy it online for a little more. I wouldn't actually buy it from the company that produces it (Carnet Foods) because their shipping is outrageous! I found it cheaper from a company in Utah that uses it in their jams and sells it as well (so maybe they produce it too?).

If you want to just try it out, you can buy the 16 oz. bag here. That 16 oz. bag should last you for at least 6 batches of my grandma's recipe. Shipping is about $6 though, so if you try it and want to buy more, I would do this option because it's cheaper overall. I'm lucky because my parents live in the Boise area so I bought it locally and didn't have to worry about all this shipping stuff. :)

The Process
Just in case you were wondering, I didn't use that entire box of apricots. But I just had to show that picture because my parents worked hard to save their apricots from the squirrels. They trapped 23 squirrels this year in their live trap and released them miles away. TWENTY-THREE! Oh, and one stupid cat. :)

Anyways, so start out by washing those apricots. I love this sight:

Then cut them open, take out the pit and put them in the blender. Add a little bit of water (enough so that the apricots will blend) and then blend the apricots by pressing the pulse button on and off. If they're not blending, grab a knife and push the apricots down more.

 After blending them, it should look like this:

Do this until you have 8 cups of blended fruit in a bowl. Then mix in the sugar and lemon juice. After that is mixed in well, add the Ultra Gel and mix. You'll need to grab a whisk and whisk it because the Ultra Gel tends to clump. In the end, no matter how much whisking you do you'll have some itty bitty clumps, but that's okay. When you process it, it melts anyways. After it's mixed, let the jam sit 10 minutes.

 Now at this point, you can spoon that jam into freezer containers and pop in the freezer OR you can can the jam. I like to can it because then I can store it for years. Just a good rule of thumb: use freezer jam within 1 year of making and use homemade canned jam within 5 years.

So if you're going the canning route: Spoon the jam into jars, filling it to the bottom ring. Wipe the lip of the jar with a wet paper towel or rag to make sure it's clean.

At this point you should have your lids ready by warming them in water in a pan. The lids need to be hot so they will seal better. Once they are hot, put them on the jars, securing it with the jar ring.

You should have your water almost-boiling in the water bath canner (shown below in case you don't know what that is) at this point. You'll want to fill it 3/4 way full because you need a few inches of water covering the jars once you put them in. Put the jars in and the lid back on. Once the water is boiling, process the jam for 20 minutes.

After 20 minutes, pull them out and let them sit (without moving them) for at least 12 hours. By then, if they haven't sealed (which you check by pushing down on the lids. If they pop, they're not sealed), then put it straight in your fridge to use or you can even put them in your freezer and treat it like freezer jam.

And you're done! Don't they look beautiful? Below are some printable recipes for the jam and also a yummy Apricot chicken recipe I make with this jam. It's worth the work to make this jam because the chicken is not nearly as good with store-bought jam! Enjoy!