By Sarah Condley

Sun columnist

Last week, I mentioned I’d picked up peaches while The Peach Truck was in town and had a heyday using them up.

They were delicious cut up, they were delicious in the cobbler, and I know my granddaughter, Abigail, is going to enjoy the ones I canned.

After all of this, I still had a few peaches remaining, so I decided I’d try a second recipe from The Peach Truck Cookbook.

The Peach Truck Signature Peach Jam

INGREDIENTS

— 4 cups sugar

— 1 (1 3/4 ounce) package

— less-sugar/no-sugar needed pectin

— 4 1/2 cups peaches, peeled, pitted, and finely chopped (about 5 medium)

— 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

— 2 teaspoons ascorbic acid (such as Fruit Fresh)

— 6 half-pint (8 ounce) jars with lids, sterilized

INSTRUCTIONS

In a small bowl, mix together 1/2 cup of the sugar with the pectin.

Combine this mixture with the peaches, lemon juice, and ascorbic acid in a medium saucepan.

Bring this mixture to a hard boil over high heat (meaning the mixture will not stop bubbling when stirred) as you continuously stir.  Slowly add the remaining 3 1/2 cups sugar, a third at a time (so as not to reduce the temperature of the jam), until all the sugar is dissolved before adding more.

Once all the sugar is added, bring the mixture back to a boil for 1 minute.  Remove from the heat, skim off any foam with a metal spoon, and carefully ladle into the sterilized jars, leaving 1/4 inch of head space.  Wipe the jar rims of any jam and screw on the tops.

Prepare hot water bath for canning.  You can do this in a hot water bath canner or a large deep pot, with a cooling rack inside.  Immerse the jars, on top of the rack, in the boiling water to cover 1 to 2 inches above the top of the jar lids.  Cover the pot with a lid and bring to a boil.  Process in the hot water bath for 10 minutes.  Carefully remove the jars from the water; let stand at room temperature until cool.

I was home alone because Brad had left for a canoeing and fishing trip up north when I decided this recipe for peach jam would be a good one to try.

I’d be using up the rest of the peaches and hopefully we’d be able to enjoy the summer flavors this fall and winter — meaning if it turned out and we liked it.

The first thing I had to do was prepare the jars for canning.

Next came peeling and pitting the peaches.  To peel them I placed the peaches in boiling water for a minute, then submerged them in ice water and the skins practically slid right off.

Since the peaches were freestone it was not hard removing the pits.

To keep the peaches from turning brown before I could start the jam, I placed them in cold water with some crushed-up vitamin C tablets (same thing as ascorbic acid).

For the recipe I also crushed up some more vitamin C tablets instead of buying Fruit Fresh.

All of the peaches were sliced and soaking in the ascorbic acid-water mixture.

I put a 1/2 cup of the sugar and the pectin in a small bowl and set it aside.  Then I drained the peaches and chopped them into small pieces, placing them in a medium-sized pan as I went.

When the peaches were sliced and diced, I sprinkled them with the sugar-pectin mixture then added the lemon juice and crushed vitamin C tablets.

I put the pan on the stove and turned on the heat.

The mixture came to a rapid bowl over pretty high heat and I slowly added the remaining sugar.

Once all the sugar was added, I let the mixture come back to a rapid boil.  I stirred the whole time because I didn’t want the jam mixture to burn or stick to the bottom of the pan.

After a minute of boiling non-stop, I turned off the heat and let the jam calm down.

The recipe mentioned skimming the foam off the top, but I didn’t have any foam on top of mine.

I had my canner ready, meaning it had water in it and the water had been heating up while the jam was cooking on the stove.

I carefully ladled the jam mixture into six half-pint jars.  There was still some left in the pan so I filled one four-ounce jelly jar. Since there was still some in the pan, I filled another four-ounce one.  I figured one of these little jars would be a great size for taste testing at some point.

After filling all the jars and placing the lids on top, I gently lowered each jar into the water-filled canner.  I put the lid on, made sure the water had come to a rapid boil and set the timer for ten minutes.  (If you make jam, make sure you follow proper canning instructions).

Ten minutes passed quickly.  I removed the canner lid and slowly removed each jar from the hot water.  I set them on a towel-covered cooling rack and waited for the cool sound of the lids sealing.  It really is satisfying to hear those little pings as the jars seal.  It lets you know your hard work has paid off.

I let the jam sit overnight without disturbing the jars.  The next morning, I picked up a jar and the jam wasn’t as set as I thought it would be.  When I rolled the jar around in my hand, the mixture was rolling along too and I thought I ruined a whole batch of jam; but I wondered how it would taste. That would be the true test.

That weekend while at the farmers’ market, some of the vendors had jam and I picked their jars up and noticed that the jam moved around in their jars too. So maybe mine will be OK. Maybe it’s not supposed to set up like jelly.

I didn’t try the jam until Brad got home from his trip.  For supper one night I prepared some bread, opened one of the little jars and hoped for the best.

I was the first to scoop some out onto the hot buttered bread.  I took a bite and was hooked.

Brad did the same.

We both really liked this jam.

It was sweet, but not so sweet you thought you were eating pure sugar.

The peach flavor was yummy.

It was so good we ate almost the entire jar of jam in that one sitting.

I will say this is definitely a “nailed it” recipe.  It’s so good.

I can’t wait to share some with our grandkids. I bet they will like it too.

I believe this will become a yearly tradition: buy peaches from The Peach Truck and make their peach jam.

Sarah Condley is an amateur baker and chef who is compiling a cookbook of her favorite recipes.