Make Ahead
Love Letter Jam
- Makes 2½ pints
Author Notes
Ok, this is really a jelly more than a jam, but love letter jelly sounded a little funky to me, so I took artistic license in titling this. In any case, this recipe is a love letter to my hubby, happy traditions, and my sister and her new fiance.
My sweet husband always brings me a beautiful bunch of red roses on Valentine's Day. I love his dear predictability but also the tradition which, in addition to being ours, is also one that my parents have; married since 1973, Dad still sends Mom long-stem red roses, delivered to the door, each and every V-Day.
This year, something happened to make the whole day even more special: my sister became engaged to a wonderful man. Just as my hubby walked in the door with roses for me, my sister called from Italy (she lives in Florence) to share her big news.
In honor of everyone involved in this sweet story, I used my roses to make this jam, and I'll be bringing my sister and her fiance a jar of their own.
I used Claudia Roden's Rose Petal Jelly recipe as the foundation for this and went from there, adding currants and Meyer lemon to the mix. This jam sets slowly so don't worry if it seems loose in the jar after the water bath. Mine took a full 24 hours.
**NOTE: When I refer to rosewater in this recipe, it is the water that results from boiling the petals, NOT store-bought rosewater.
**NOTE 2: If you like to add the pectin that naturally occurs in seeds, stems and such, save the lemon seeds and ends, currant stems and apple core, and tie them up in a piece of cheesecloth. You can add this little "purse" to the pot during the jelly-making process. It's optional.
And PS- this is marvelous atop lemon curd!!!!
Update: as currants have a rather short season, you can sub raspberries if need be but use just 3 or 3.5 oz because raspberries have a more pronounced flavor. —em-i-lis
Ingredients
- To deal with the rose petals and make the rose syrup
-
3 ounces
fresh red rose petals (do not use ones that have been sprayed with insecticide or the like); this is roughly 12 or 13 roses, headed.
-
3 tablespoons
freshly squeezed Meyer lemon (or regular lemon) juice, divided
-
6 cups
water, or more
-
1 cup
granulated sugar
- To make the jelly
-
1 cup
reserved rosewater
-
1
Meyer lemon, washed and diced (including peel except for large ends)
-
1
small, firm apple (about 4 oz), cored but left unpeeled, diced
-
1
box fresh red currants, about 5.3 oz
-
1½ cups
granulated sugar (you might need a bit more, per your taste)
-
¼ cups
granulated sugar, whisked with 2 tsp natural pectin
Directions
- To deal with the rose petals and make the rose syrup
- Wash the rose petals well, and trim off any white ends you come across. Drain the petals and place into a 4 qt, or larger, pot. Cover with fresh, cold water, add 1½ tablespoons lemon juice, bring to a boil, and then simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- When the water is red, and the petals have faded to a pale magenta, drain the petals, reserving 4 cups of the rosewater. Set the petals aside.
- In the same pan, combine 2 c reserved rosewater (from what you just drained and set aside), ½ c water, 1 c sugar and the remaining 1.5 tablespoons Meyer lemon juice. Boil 10 minutes, making sure sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat and stir in reserved petals. Let macerate 2 hours and then drain, reserving this rose syrup. At this point, you can dispose of the petals.
- To make the jelly
- If you're planning to can this jelly, get your canning pot set up- water boiling, jars out, etc.
- In a (separate) large pot, add another 1 c reserved rosewater, 1 c water, the diced lemon, diced apple, and the cheesecloth purse (if using; see note 2 above). Turn the heat to high. When boiling, add the currants, and the rose syrup you made earlier. Boil 10 minutes, remove cheesecloth purse, and add 1½ c sugar.
- Let the mixture cook until the sugar dissolves and a nice boil returns. Remove from heat and carefully strain through a fine-mesh sieve, ultimately returning the liquid to your pot. Put all solids into a foodmill set with the finest disk, place the mill over the pot holding the liquid, and crank until all additional juice is pressed out. Discard solids.
- Return this strained "jelly" to a boil, and whisk in about 1/4 of your sugar-pectin mixture. You might get a few small clots which you can strain out. At this point, you can do the freezer-plate test, or you can just go for it (the freezer-plate test is kind of hit or miss in my opinion). Ladle into jars and process in the boiling water bath for 10 minutes.
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