Strawberry Bay Leaf Jam

A nagging desire to make jam hit me the other week when I finished off, yet, another jar of store bought jam (a pb&j every other day for lunch will do that).

I haven’t made jam since I was little when my mom would go to the farmer’s market and purchase a large basket of peaches, and make dozens of jars of peach jam to put up in the pantry for the coming year. Mmmmm. I love homemade peach jam, but, for some reason, could care less about store bought peach jam...but that's another story.

Well, it’s not peach season, but it is strawberry season! I got up first thing Saturday morning to hit the Headhouse Market for local strawberries, purchased three quarts, and got to cooking.

Along with the nagging desire to make jam, I also had a notion to pair bay leaf with strawberries. I looked around to see if strawberry and bay leaf jam had been done before, and came up empty handed. Maybe that’s not a good combination?

But I had to try it any way. I split the batch of jam into two – one with bay leaf, and one without – just in case bay leaf and strawberries was not a good combination.

And the results? Quite good! It’s still strawberry jam, but with a spicy, mysterious flavor. If you like intrigue in your food – What is that spice? I just can’t place my finger on it. Oh, yeah, it’s bay leaf! – then you’ll like this combination.

I sort of followed the cooking guidelines of this simple strawberry jam recipe from Martha Stewart, but I had no idea how many pounds of strawberries I had. I took a guess at how many pounds my three quarts of strawberries weighed, and then adjusted the lemon juice and sugar amounts.

We also couldn’t find the candy thermometer. So, how were we to determine when the jam reached 220° and the jam was set? Plate test!

Plate test (or gel test) is a fail-proof way to determine when your jam has set up enough. Place a saucer in the freezer at the beginning of your jam making session, cook your jam for just a little under the amount of time specified in the recipe (this is important because "things" happen quickly towards the end of cooking), place a teaspoon of jam on the frozen saucer, then stick the saucer with jam back in the freezer for 1-2 minutes. Remove the saucer from the freezer after 1-2 minutes, and if you push your finger through the jam, and the skin wrinkles, you’re done! If not, boil longer.

Seriously, this worked!

Strawberry Bay Leaf Jam
makes about 2 pints

3 quarts fresh strawberries, washed, drained, and halved
3 tablespoons lemon juice
4 cups sugar
2-3 fresh bay leaves

• Place two saucers in the freezer (in case you need to test the jam again).
• Cook strawberries and lemon juice in a large stock pot over medium-high heat for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until juices from the fruits have release.
• Add sugar and bay leaves to strawberries, turn heat up to a rapid boil, stirring occasionally, and cook for 30-40 minutes, or until jam thickens. Remove foam off the top of cooking berries with a spoon during the cooking process.
  
• To test jam for doneness, place a spoonful of jam on the frozen saucer, return the saucer to the freezer for 1-2 minutes, remove saucer from freezer, then push finger through jam. If jam wrinkles, the jam is done.
  
• Remove bay leaf from jam. Ladle hot jam into sterile jars. Refrigerate and eat within four weeks, or process for canning.