Homemade Pear Jam

Since my husband arrived on August, we have been buying some seasonal fruits because most of them are very expensive or at least they are expensive for us because as I have told you coming from Mexico where you find strawberries for $30 mexican pesos, and then you find them here

for almost 4 Euros is a big change. So we try to buy fruits we like but that are cheap... pears are one... a box with 8 or more pears is less that 1 Euro.

Anyways, yesterday I saw that we had some pears that weren't going to last more time on the fridge so to use them instead of throwing them away I made pear jam. I think that when the fruit is in its last period of lifetime its good to use them maybe in jam, or other desserts. So, that's what I did...

The photo can show you the consistency it will take. Let me explain the procedure of making jam.

You will need:

1/2 cup of water

1 cup of granulated sugar

2 small pears or 1 big one.

First warm the water and add the sugar in a small bowl. Use a medium to high flame on the stove. Let the sugar kind of dissolve. While it is, chop the pears (you can peel them or leave them like that) in little squares. (NOT TINY, so when you smash them, you can still have some little pear chunks on the jam)

Then when the sugar is starting to dissolve put the pears into the bowl. Let the water, sugar and pears boil for about 5 minutes (maybe more), keep an eye on them, mixing every once in a while. You will see that bubbles are starting to form and to come up inside the bowl. It is normal...

When you see that bubbles are starting to disappear, remove the bowl from fire. Check consistency, you will find that the mixture is thicker. Smash two or three times the pears against the bowl to make some pear puree. You can put on the fire for two more minutes and mix. Then remove from stove and let it cool.

Now, here is what happened to me yesterday... this is the second time I did this and the first time I had no problems, but yesterday I left the jam cooling and when I wanted to go for it and put in a jar I found out it was caramelized, so I freak out and after a while, realized that if I warm it up and put a little bit more water it would be fine. So, PAY ATTENTION... don't let your mixture dry completely or have a puree consistency inside the bowl, it should be dripping when its hot, later when it is cool it will have the right consistency.

I hope I explained myself, I promise next time I do jam I will take pictures step by step, if I didn't it was because I am too excited to use them in something I will do right now... maybe you will find them on my Etsy Shop for Christmas. ;) I'll show it to you later on facebook...