Carrot Cake Jam

Canning has always been an enigma to me; an age old secret passed down from generation to generation that I wanted in on. Our great grandmothers canned, our grandmothers canned, and maybe even some of your parents can food. My parents were certainly never into canning. Being the do-it-myselfer that I am, I decided to teach myself. I've been wanting to learn for years, but it seemed like such an involved and intricate process that would take days, maybe even weeks to accomplish one batch of jam. I was terrified. As it turns out, canning is insanely simple and much more difficult to mess up than I had originally thought. I'm a worry wort.

Recently I came into a surplus of carrots. I like raw carrots, as well as roasted carrots. My dogs enjoy carrot sticks as snacks, but there was just no way we could use up all the carrots before they went bad. A week ago, I had begun gathering the supplies I would need for canning in case I decided to get ambitious and learn before my garden was in full swing and I was up to my ears in tomatoes. Tons of carrots, pectin, sugar, and a hot water canner.... let's give this a try. And I did, and it turned out wonderfully delicious (but I also LOVE carrot cake). It was even still a little too sweet for me, I can't imagine using the 6.5 cups that the original recipe calls for! The original recipe is in the Ball Book of Home Preservation, but as I'm trying to reduce our sugar intake, I used a  low sugar pectin recipe - less sugar, but otherwise identical to the one in the book. 

Carrot Cake Jam

makes 6 half-pint jars

1 ½ cups finely grated carrots

1 ½ chopped, cored, peeled, pears OR apples (I used apples)

1 ¾ cups crushed canned pineapple, including juice

3 tbsp lemon juice

1 tsp ground cinnamon

½ tsp ground nutmeg

¼ tsp ground cloves

1 package (1.75 oz.) low-sugar powdered fruit pectin OR 3 Tbsp.

3 cups sugar

Prepare canner, jars, and lids. In a large stainless steel saucepan, combine carrots, apples, pineapple with juice, lemon juice, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring frequently. Reduce heat, cover and boil gently for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and whisk in pectin until dissolved. Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring frequently. Add sugar all at once and return to a full rolling boil, stirring constantly. Boil hard, stirring constantly, for 1 minute. Remove from heat and skim off foam. Ladle hot jam into hot jars, leaving ¼ inch headspace. Remove air bubbles and adjust headspace, if necessary, by adding hot jam. Wipe rims and adjust lids. Process in a water bath canner for 10 minutes. Remove canner lid. Wait 5 minutes, then remove jars, cool, and store.