Ball Automatic Jam and Jelly Maker

Pina Colada Jam

#canning

 

 

I know it is the dead of winter where you live. It’s freezing cold outside and the last thing you have on your mind is making jam or jelly. Jam or jelly making is for the summer months right?

So why am I posting a Jam recipe this time of year. Or maybe your not wondering why at all. Maybe your like me and you make jam in the winter. Or all year long whenever the urge strike.

Well there are a couple of reasons why I am posting this very tropical jam recipe at the end of December.

One being that I was suppose to post a review of the new Ball Canning Jam & Jelly Maker back in October after a giveaway I hosted ended.

But life got in the way and then the holidays were upon us. Then I moved at the beginning of December.

Never move in month of December if you can avoid it!

A few weeks ago I noticed on the Fresh Preserving website that there were some new recipes just for the new Ball Automatic Jam and Jelly Maker (affiliate link).

Back in October when I was running that giveaway the way to get an entry in to win a Ball canning prize pack was to leave a comment telling what flavor recipes you would like to see created for the new Ball Automatic Jam & Jelly Maker. Ball wanted to see what flavors or flavor combo’s people were interested in for the new canning maker.

Ball took all of the suggestions from my readers and from other bloggers readers to come up with a new batch of recipes for the jam maker. So when I saw the recipes I immediately looked through them all. There were a couple that I knew I would be making asap but the Pina Colada Jam jumped off the page at me and I knew that this was the recipe I would be making to test out the Jam & Jelly Maker.

I am very happy I picked that one because it turned out lovely.

I will not be covering the safety measures of making jam or jelly today.

You will still need to prepare your jars, lids and have a way to process the jam or jelly in a hot water bath when using the Automatic Jam & Jelly Maker.

Today I will just be writing about my experience using the jam & jelly maker.

As I mentioned I picked the Pina Colada Jam for my recipe.

 

I measured out all the ingredients except for the pectin.

 

Then sprinkled the pectin in the bottom of the jam maker.

 

Next I added the pineapple, coconut water and butter to the jam maker.

 

After adding all of the ingredients in the order specified I turned the Ball Automatic Jam & Jelly Maker on. The stirrer begins to turn, scraping and mixing the ingredients.

After four minutes the jam maker beeps and you add the sugar slowly, sprinkling it over the top of the rest of the ingredients. Once all the sugar was added I then sprinkled the coarsely chopped coconut flakes on top of the sugar.

 

Almost immediately the ingredients start to bubble and heat up.

Once you finished adding all the sugar the instructions say to immediately put the lid on the jam maker.

Warning!

For demonstration purposes I did not put the lid on so I could take these pictures.

Please follow all instructions and safety precautions when using the jam maker.

It gets very hot very fast.

 

If you look closely at the timer on the jam maker you see that there is 15 minutes left to go. During this time I took my canning jars out of the hot water and set them next to the jam maker on a dish towel.

Everything was ready to go when the timer went off.

 

 

From start to finish it took 25 minutes to make a batch of jam.

 

My thoughts on the Ball Automatic Jam & Jelly Maker

When using the jam maker there is a big difference in the amount of jam or jelly you will can or put up.  The amount of ingredients you are using is much smaller them a standard batch of jam made the regular way. In comparing the recipes available for the jam maker all recipes will yield either 2 or 4 half pints of jam or jelly.  This is perfect for someone who does not want to make a large amount of jam or jelly.

If your canning goals are to put up a huge amount of jam or jelly this jam maker is probably not for you.

But if you are like me and you like to make flavors that not everyone in your family will be interested in eating then this will not be an issue. Or you do not have accesses to large amounts of fruit or vegetables at at cheap price. 

There are some benefits of making small batches.

• Less ingredients are needed to make a batch
• Smaller batches mean less jam to store
• Less waste when experimenting with flavors

 

There are some limitations to using this appliance but I think they out weight the benefits. 

• There are only 23 recipes available for the Jam Maker.  I am sure Ball will be adding more soon. As I mentioned earlier they just added a bunch of new ones and I am sure before Spring rolls around they will probably be adding more.
• Smaller batches are yielded  But if you are canning for yourself or a small family 4 – 1/2 pints of jelly from each batch is plenty. And if not then you can make a second batch using the jam maker.
• Most of the recipes available are for jams or jellies. There are a few for Pizza Sauce and Salsa.

Since I am the adventurous type I will probably create a few recipes of my own.

To wrap it up

I loved the ease of using the Jam & Jelly Maker. The process went by so quickly from making a batch of jam to filling the jars and processing in a hot water bath that I made a second recipe. I’ll save that recipe for another post. But I can tell you it is so good that I have eaten almost a jar already as a yogurt and cheese cake topping.

I will be making another batch or two of this recipe for sure!

Disclosure: I received a Ball Automatic Jam & Jelly Maker along with some other canning supplies to help me write this review.

All opinions and photos are my own.

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner