Baker wannabe : Apple Jam

23 September 2017

Being in Sweden has made me adventurous in the kitchen. As I have the kitchen utensils to my disposal, I thought I shall try baking. I baked in Malaysia but I was assisting my sister instead. They always said that there can never be more than 1 chef or baker in the kitchen. So, she gave the instructions and I followed. 

As it was the autumn season which is also the apples season, my boyfriend and I went to pluck apples. For FREE. I thought that my first attempt at baking will be making apple jam. There was a girl in my Swedish class that made apple jam for her son and she told me that it is such an easy recipe. It truly is an easy recipe except for the 'apple-peeling-and-chopping' part. 

Recipe:

• 4 apples
• 1 inch of ginger (you can add bigger slice if you are a ginger fan)
• A spoonful of honey to taste (I replaced sugar with honey. I suppose people use sugar also as a form of preservative.)
• Lemon juice (important to maintain the freshness)
• 1 teaspoon of cinnamon powder

All these measurements can change as you desire. There is no hard and fast rule to my measurement. My aunt always said - Agak-agak. That means 'somewhat' in Malay Language. I guess that comes with years of baking experience.

First, peel all the apples and chop them to tiny pieces so they turn to jell-o easily when you boil them. Four apples took me about 45 minutes. 

Put all the chopped bits in a pot. Add in the honey. You can use sugar but I am trying to be healthy (HAHA!). Squeeze the lemon juice. Add the slivers of ginger and cinnamon powder. Boil them first at high heat and then gradually to medium heat once you see them turn mushy.

I boiled them for about an hour. You can boil them longer at 1.5 hour too depending on how mushy you want them to be. I don't mind eating some of the apple chunks. They are pretty soft, anyway.

Ta-da, the outcome of my apple jam! My sister said that she did not enjoy the ginger's silvers. She calls it ginger jam instead. Haha! I like it though. I like the ginger taste.

I made this a couple of times, and I enjoyed eating the jam for my breakfast. I can use many apples (depending on my mood to peel and chop the apples) as I like and I add more honey or ginger to it.