Curious about making jam in a bread machine? Here’s one woman’s experience trying it!
Most of the time, I make jam on my turquoise, 45 year old, electric stove. I’ve also made jam on a camp stove, on an induction burner, on a plain gas stove and even on a high-powered commercial gas range. And now, I’m someone who is making jam in a bread machine.
Several months ago, I spotted this post on the King Arthur Flour blog, in which they make a batch of strawberry jam in a Zojirushi bread machine. Being that I’m fascinated by all things having to do with jam making (don’t tell me you didn’t notice), I determined that this was something I wanted to try. In the interest of science, of course.
I got in touch with the folks at Zojirushi and they very nicely agreed to give me a review unit so that I could see how this whole bread machine jam thing worked. It arrived on my birthday (which was more than a month ago now) and I spent at least a week circling it warily, uncertain whether I wanted to trust my fruit to an automated machine that wouldn’t let me control the heat source.
Finally I unswaddled it from boxes and styrofoam, mashed up two cups of strawberries and got to work. The instructions that come with the Zojirushi say to combine 2 cups of crushed berries, 3/4 cup sugar and 1 teaspoon lemon juice. For the first round, I followed the instructions exactly and cooked the jam without any additional pectin.
Fruit, sugar and lemon juice go into the pan. Then you close the lid and set it to the jam setting (don’t be fooled by the 3:45 time in the picture above, I took that before I set it run the jam cycle. It only takes 1:20 to make jam in the Zojirushi). When the cooking time is up, the machine issues a couple of friendly beeps so that you can rush over and check on your jam (that is, if you weren’t hovering very nearby, occasionally lifting the lid a little to peek at the progress).
So here’s the good news. This machine, which was designed to bake bread, makes perfectly adequate jam. It gets quite hot, the paddles keep the jam moving to prevent any scorching and it’s dead easy to use. If you’re the type who likes to freeze fruit and make small batches of jam throughout the year, making your jam in a Zojirushi is a really good option. However, it has a major flaw as a jam maker and that is that with the lid closed, you’re just never going to get the necessary amount of evaporation to get a really thick jammy jam.
I did one batch without pectin (sorry, no pictures of the jam with pectin, I knocked it over just after pouring it into the jar and splattered my kitchen entirely in sticky fruit spray) and one with and both remained stubbornly runny and without the body that a good jam should have (though the batch with 2 teaspoons of powdered pectin did firm up more than the batch without).
The picture below pairs a stove cooked jam (on the left) with the jam cooked in this bread machine. You can see the difference in the body of the jam. The stove top jam reduced by more than 1/3 during cooking, resulting in a thick-set, glossy jam. The bread machine jam on the right is juicier and has saturated the bread with its syrup. Not a bad thing, but an imperfect thing to use on a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. It would be perfect stirred into yogurt or drizzled on ice cream though.
I will say that I’ve been absolutely blown away by the quality of the bread that the Zojirushi makes. Of course I couldn’t resist using it to bake up a few loaves while it was hanging out in my kitchen and wow. We haven’t bought bread in weeks thanks to this machine.
Until this year I’ve only ever made freezer jam, but I’m determined to become a *real* canner and jammer this summer with the produce from our berry bushes and gardens.
I love making jam in small batches so I can experience a big variety- and I always have a quick gift on hand to give out!
Living on an orchard, I get my fill of peach jam every year. But my absolute favorite jam is raspberry! Can’t wait until my raspberries start producing every year. Thanks for the giveaway!
I can’t even remember my first experience at making jam/jelly, because I was too young! I grew up helping my mother in the kitchen with all the canning during the hot Alabama summers. We picked blackberries every 4th of July and make blackberry jam and jelly….so good and much tastier than store bought. Homemade blackberry jelly on a fresh buttermilk biscuit…heavens!
I am lucky enough to have my mother living with me–and she makes bread regularly (whole wheat from freshly ground flour). In the summer we (ok she) likes to use a bread machine so that we can cook it outside and not heat up the kitchen. She has used up several machines
I accidentally made jam once when I was trying to make blueberry syrup. Who knew blueberries had abundant natural pectin. I did use it for syrup–I just warmed it half and half with maple syrup.
Last summer I made jam with a friend and we used some old canning jars we found at a garage sale that had reusable lids that we needed to seal with wax. It was fun (but I kept the jam in the fridge just in case!)
My first jam making experience was blood orange marmalade. I didn’t have a candy thermometer or much experience so I ended up with 4 pints of syrup. I tastes really good though. I particularly like it drizzles over goat cheese or in mixed drinks.
I made jam with a friend in my new house, on my fancy stove. mine turned out well, but hers was more of a science experiment because when I said 10 cups of chopped fruit, she didn’t think that measuring really mattered, and proceeded to fill up an enormous lobster pot with fruit.
I love making jams and jellies! I got a bit adventurous a few summers back; I was visiting my parents and grandparents in upstate NY and had just read about crab apple jelly. My grandma helped me pick what ended up being 3 5-gallon buckets of crab apples (don’t know what we were thinking!) from a tree in her backyard and I spent the next 2 days peeling, boiling, straining, and boiling again. I had more crab apple jelly than I knew what to do with, but it was such a fun experience!
I made my first (ever) batch of strawberry rhubarb jam this weekend. All in all it turned out well, but then I like my jam runny. 🙂
My experiences making jam have all started this summer. I overplanted on the cucumbers, and my first canning experience was with 3 types of pickles. I thought, if I could do that – I could make jam!! After visiting a you-pick farm, I tried 3 types of peach jam – the first the scared way with a box of pectin and their directions. Too sweet! The next a low sugar pectin recipe with peach and pinapple & honey. Too honey-ey! Finally, your peach, plum, ginger …DELISH! (I also made a plane plum with no pectin, whichI’ve never trasted below. OMG – plum jam is my new fav!!Perfect combo of tart and sweet!) I would love to try jam in a bread machine (plus some yummty homemade GF recipes!)
Last fall was the first year I made jam from fruit I picked (huckleberry). My son and I practically destroyed the kitchen making it, but it was a fantastic memory!
I use my bread machine almost every day and man, oh man, could I use a new one. It has jiggled itself off of the counter twice and barely closes. Plus, I just love to can but in a bread maker? Guess I would have to try it to believe it. Pick me!
The blueberry crop this year is outta this world. I’ve already put up blueberry jam, blueberry lemon jam, and blueberry marmalade, and the berries just keep coming!
My first experience in canning was actually pumpkin butter. I found the recipe years ago on the back of a can of pumpkin and I just cannot for the life of me find it again. After we complete our move from the west coast to the east coast next month, maybe I’ll have the time to do an in depth search for it again. Do you think that it could be made in a bread machine?
What a great idea, I’m going to give it a try with tomatoes, once they grow and if my grandmother will let me use her machine of course! I liked to keep my fresh tomatoes as well as possible to use for large batches of sauce throughout the year and the chunkier consistency will be just right :o)
This is my first time visiting your site, I am so very glad I found it though, as I have been searching for an informative blog focusing on canning and preserving. Years and years ago my grandmother used to let me watch and help (keep time) when she canned. I loved to help her, as a little girl getting the extra little bit of fig preserves, and strawberry jam to spread over her homemade biscuits was the perfect reward for “helping”. But she passed many years ago and now that I want to begin canning and putting up jams and preserves sharing the joy and the experience with my own daughter, I wasn’t sure where to turn to for reliable information or recipes.
Thanks again
That sounds like fun! I am slowly circling around the idea of canning (hopefully not down the drain) after getting shares of my husband’s grandmother’s jellies and my mother’s freezer jam.
I love canning and made lots of jams and preserves over the years, but never in my bread machine, then had to relearn everything after I could no longer eat anything with sugar in it.
I make jam on a gas range and for some reason I haven’t been able to get a good set in years! I used to make it just fine but now it’s all runny. Still tasty though.
Raspberries on our property and neighboring farms are so plentiful that we can barely keep up! Lately we’ve taken to picking berries from the bushes and depositing them directly into the pots for jam-making. As soon as a pot is full, one of us takes it into the house and starts a small-batch of jam!
I am a wild canner!!! I will can anything!!! 7 snapping turtles turned into wonderful Turtle Soup (recipe was my Grandpa’s). Ex-husband shot a moose in Canada and 410 quart jars later it was all canned. I am really holding out for a breadmachine large enough to hold 7 turtles or 1 large moose, but until then I would love to win one to make small batches of jam!!!
I successfully and messily made sour cherry jam without the aid of a pitter. My hands looked like a henna creation gone wrong! I will say that jam tasted amazing maybe even more so because of the cussing that went along with it…you know the love.
I have made a bunch of different types of jam, but have never tried anything other than the usual stove! Sounds interesting!!
I’ve have my bread machine for about a year and a half and have anxiously been waiting to make strawberry jam in it. Tried it last weekend and while the jam turned out quite nicely, the machine broke while making it…………..
Made a second batch on my stove and and I have to agree with you that the stove top jam does turn out better and thicker!
My first jam experience I made strawberry fig jam and it turned into strawberry fig sauce instead lol but it was still go especially over ice cream.
When I was a young girl, back in the ’50’s, my family moved out of the city to a rural 60-acre farm for financial reasons, and to breathe fresh air! That was the beginning of 10 years of growing, harvesting, and canning everything we could, much of which was already established on the property. I helped Mom make and preserve: apple butter, tomato preserves (still one of my favorites), strawberry jam, peach preserves, Concord grape jelly, blackberry, huckleberry, raspberry….and the most interesting one, quince from the lone, ancient quince tree. (That’s the one I’d love to taste today!) We canned peaches, applesauce, and ketchup. I inherited, and still have, my mother’s large blue steel water bath canning pot and rack, though I confess that all of my jam making has been simplified — no more boiling water baths, covering the jelly with paraffin, storing hundreds of jars in the cellar! The microwave and freezer have been my indispensable sidekicks since then, concentrating on micro batches made from purchased local farm produce. Though I have used a bread machine, I do not own one — that would be a real treat to get back to bread making as a way to further enjoy the latest small batch of strawberry-rhubarb microwave jam, which is almost gone!!!
The only kind of jam I ever made was strawberry freezer jam. Would love to make it in a bread machine. This would make a great addition to my new kitchen.
My Zojirushi gave me faithful service of a loaf of bread every week for almost 10 years before it finally died 3 summers ago. I am making due with a garage sale find currently. I would love to have a new one and one that makes jam??? I’d do a dance to spring!!
Last year, I canned so much jelly and jam! The ones that get the most comments are the “weed jelly” made from Queen Anne’s Lace flowers and Lilac jelly.
Thanks for your blog…I love reading it (this is my first comment though)
I love making jam with my Girl Scout troop! I’m the leader of my daughters troop and I like to teach the girls various cooking skills. We have made a lot of things on our Troops Camping Stove and we have even made jam outside on it. Fun times with our girls. We could probably do a lot of things with a bread machine as well!
My first experience canning was 7 1/2 months pregnant on a gas stove in my friend’s kitchen (she was also 7 1/2 months pregnant) which has NO air circulation in Houston, TX, in July. We had to take turns sitting in front of the giant box fan and standing at the stove stirring the jam. We each almost passed out once but made it through with large amounts of iced tea… and the jam was worth every minute of it!
I’ve really enjoyed reading everyone’s stories. My most recent memories is having friends over to help them learn to can. Everyone was so pleased with their jars of “Creamsicle” jelly (thanks for that lovely recipe).
I made jam for the first time last year and I’m totally hooked! I was waiting, and waiting, and waiting for my apricot/sugar mixture to boil last summer when I ran to the bathroom just for a quick stop. When I got back the jam had boiled over and burned onto my parents flat top stove. I was only gone for about a minute! That was a crazy mess! I had to make jam at my own house after that.
I had my very first canning experience a couple weeks ago and made delicious strawberry jam. I actually had a hard time finding a pot the right size (not too big, not too small) for processing my short & wide half-pint jars. Then I remembered one of your old posts from the archive. My asparagus pot turned out to be just the right size! 🙂
I made strawberry jam almost every Summer with my mom growing up. There are just as many stressful memories from that experience as there are joyous, but it definitely spurred on my love of home canning so the good must have far outweighed the bad in the end!
I’ve never technically made jam. A group of girlfriends got together last year several times for “canning parties”. We made jellies, but jam has eluded me. I am hoping that after delivering my 3rd baby next Friday, I’ll have time (and the room to move around with a smaller midsection) to get some jam made from the raspberries that are coming in.
It has been years since I have made jam, and never in a bread machine! My Aunt taught me to make jam and also to can. I am very excited to start back up again!!!
That’s pretty cool that you can make jam in a bread machine. This is the first time I actually heard of it. Since My wife always talking about canning to me in some pot. This is something I can tell her to check out. Thanks for sharing it with us.
I make blueberry jam and it’s particularly challenging to make it in my VERY tiny loft kitchen. Friends always clamor for my homemade jam.
Last year we had so many plums I gave up on the whole crime scene mess & resorted to making dozens of jars of freezer jam instead. It was good but the messy, old-fashioned way tasted better. Off to check my bread machine book & see if it’ll make jam 😉
Last year was my first year of canning. I bought a bushel of peaches because I didn’t think a 1/2 bushel was enough. I ended up having to take a day off of work to can them all and make the most awesome jam evah!!! vanilla bean peach jam!
The best bread machine I have I bought at a yard csale for $3. It makes decent bread, but I prefer a crispy crust. But I, too, am mad about making jam. If I had more bread, I’d eat more jam.
Would love the bread machine as my fresh bread gets made less and less during the hot summer in GA. Last year we were so proud of our many jars of fig jam that I hoarded it. Now it’s nearly fig season again and I still have 8-10 jars left. My husband said our gas bill spiked in August last year due to all the jam making.
I just discovered your blog thanks to my daughter who lives in Philly and has been inspired to explore small batch canning. When visiting her a couple of years ago I fell in love with the Rittenhouse Farmers market. But I digress, a jam making story was requested… I have always made freezer jam, strawberry and peach, but have been experimenting with strawberry and rhubarb and LOVE it! My next plan is to try raspberry and peach….
Oh…homemade jam that easily sounded too good to be true! But…bread…oh my…how wonderful 🙂
I have made jam every where but never in a bread machine. The last batch I did in the oven as a roasted very tasted but turned out like syrup way to thin.
I don’t know that I would try jam in it, but I would love to try the bread. Fingers crossed. I used your recipe to make a whole lot of strawberry jam last week. It’s really good.
My favorite jam to make is blackberry. The first year I made it, I shared a jar with my supervisor (now one of my best friends). Once she tried it, she immediately demanded the rest of the jars. She hoarded what I gave her, and wouldn’t even share it with her husband!
I’m happy to say that I made my first jam tonight using the Strawberry Rhubarb recipe from the other day. Tastes so yummy! Jam has always scared me a bit because it seems so much more involved than just canning fruit but tonight may have changed my mind 🙂
I made your strawberry rhubarb vanilla jam and it turned out great. Last summer I tried making an cran apple butter and I started it after the kids went to sleep, and it took twice as long as the recipe said to boil down to the right consistency, so I didnt end up going to bed until 4 am!!! but I had to get it finished! would love to try jam in a bread machine, sounds fun!