In late August and early September, if you take a walk in the English countryside, you will often see hedgerows full of plump juicy blackberries. If you have a garden or allotment, you may well have blackberries growing there too, and of course blackberries can also be obtained from "pick your own" farms, and ready packed and prepared in supermarkets. However you obtain them, although sometimes a little sour, blackberries can be quite delicious and can be used in a number of different recipes.
One of the best uses for blackberries is to make your own jam at home. In the past, many people used to make blackberry jam using ordinary sugar, water, and the juice and rind of lemons. While this can work wonderfully, it can also be a bit of a hit and miss affair, and it is not unknown for the jam not to set well and come out rather too runny.
An easier way to make blackberry jam is to use "Jam Sugar" - which you can find in most major supermarkets. Jam sugar contains pectin (usually obtained from apples), which is the essential ingredient for make jam gel properly. Basically, making the jam involves mashing the blackberries, gradually adding the jam sugar while heating, and a little knob of unsalted butter, and finally bringing to a boil for about 4 minutes. Then jam then needs to be removed from the heat, and transferred into jars (it is best to warm the jars up first so that they don't shatter when the hot jam is poured into them).
Using jam sugar, making blackberry jam is really quite easy and fun. Perhaps most importantly of all, homemade blackberry jam really does taste great. You will love it on buttered bread or toast!
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