Recipes

Split vanilla bean in half and scrape out the seeds, adding them to the caster sugar. Add lemon juice, strawberries and sugar to a medium-sized pot and give it a quick stir, then turn on your stove-top to medium heat. Place a saucer in the freezer.

Cook the berries for about 20-30mins, giving the pot an occasional stir so they don’t boil over, and making sure to skim the froth from the top. Once the berries have softened and the liquid has thickened, remove the saucer from the freezer and put a dab of jam on the back - if it forms a skin and ‘jellies up’, then immediately turn off the heat and store in a sterilized jar (or, if you have no jam jars, then a tupperware container in the freezer). If it slides straight down the back of the saucer then it’s not thick enough yet so put the saucer back in the freezer and leave it for another 5-10 minutes before trying the saucer trick again.

Enjoy said jam on a slice of toast, or…as the filling for a genoese sponge (as per my next post!)