Apricot jam

First, I wanted to use the home made jam making method I described earlier in my post (see my Strawberry/Rhubarb jam) :

∗ Macerating apricots in sugar for one night
∗ Heating them up until they loose their "juice"
∗ Filtering the mixture, separating fruits from the sauce
∗ Heating the sauce until sirupy (or reduced by ⅓)
∗ Adding fruits only at the very end…

It would definitely give a very tasty apricot jam and those big fruit pieces inside would add to the pleasure of eating jam.

I tasted the fruits inside the boiling juice : Not sweet enough , too acid. There was something wrong. Boiling apricot fruits and sugar longer would probably improve things…

Then came the idea of using my bread machine for the job. I poured the mixture inside and pushed the "JAM" button. And the machine worked great for one and half hour.When the bell signal rung, I poured the apricot jam into two jars and, well, that was all.

As for the Fruits/Sugar balance, you should use 400 grams of sugar for 1 kg of apricots. This was enough for me as storing apricot jam in jars for the next ten years is not in my plans. I added some plum kernel oil so simulate apricot kernel taste (breaking apricot kernels and using their seeds would do but I was damned lazy that day…). The result is very impressive.

Next on my planning : The same recipe with very ripe fruits (apricots or other fruits).