Apple Pie Jam

You know that line in one of the Batman movies where Batman says "I am Batman"? Well, I spent the day on Tuesday peeling apples and the thought that kept going through my mind was "I am Apple Peeler." Obviously, mundane tasks allow your mind to wander into weird places.

So what did I accomplish? I made 6 half-pints of a delicious recipe called "Linda Lou's Apple Pie Jam" that I found on the Harvest forum on Gardenweb.com. It had received rave reviews so I decided to give it a try. So thank you, Linda Lou, for posting the recipe! I also made 3 quarts of frozen apple pie filling, so in the future all I'll need to do is defrost and put in a pie shell and call it a day (well, after it bakes anyway).

Here is Linda Lou's Apple Pie Jam recipe:

APPLE PIE JAM

4 cups tart apples, peeled and finely chopped
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
4 cups sugar
1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 box pectin
1/2 teaspoon butter

Add water to chopped apples to measure 4 cups.(This is NOT 4 cups each, but water placed on top of the diced apples to come up to the 4 cup mark.) Place apples and water into large, heavy saucepan. Stir in lemon juice, cinnamon and allspice.

Measure sugars. Stir pectin into fruit. Add butter. Bring mixture to full rolling boil on high heat, stirring constantly. Quickly stir in both sugars. Return to full rolling boil and boil exactly 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Skim off any foam with metal spoon.

Ladle quickly into hot, clean jars, leaving 1/4" headspace. Wipe jar rims and threads. Cover with two-piece lids. Screw bands on finger tight. Process in boiling water bath for 10 minutes.

Now, I would make one change, simply for appearance's sake. Allow the jam to sit for a few minutes and then stir to distribute the apple pieces throughout the jam. The apple pieces are less dense and float to the top otherwise (which is what happened to me). Not really a problem since once you open the jar, you can stir but it would just look prettier on the shelf being more "even."