My passion for Palm sugar has made me try out a few more recipes which normally are a forte of not-so-healthy white sugar. Even though Palm sugar is not devoid of all that is bad for health, at least I get the extra nutrients from it which are missing in white sugar. I purchased a lot of the pink colored Guava on impulse and was wondering what best can be done with the leftover overripe fruits. The other fruits in my refrigerator helped me out in making this wonderful fruit preserve – Healthy Mixed Fruit Jam.

Palm sugar gave a rich and dark Jam while the white sugar preserve is light and transparent. We had this fresh fruit preserve with freshly baked Wholewheat English Muffins this weekend, and could ask for more for a scrumptious breakfast!

Blogging has certainly made me pull up my socks and try out my hands on recipes which I never dared to make. And Jams, Breads and Spreads are those few which were always pulled out from my supermarket.

Mixed diced fruits

Ingredients;

• 1/2 kg Guava
• 2 Apples
• 1 cup of Grapes
• 2 Pears
• 3 Oranges
• 1/2 cup of Strawberries
• 1 Kg sugar (1/2 kg white sugar+1/2 kg Palm sugar)
• 1/4 cup of water

Pink variety of guava in the mixed fruit.

Method: Wash and wipe all the fruits. Peel oranges, remove stalks from the Strawberries and Grapes. Dice all the fruits into small pieces. My fruit mix had predominance of Guava in it.

Boiled pulp of fruits..

Heat a thick bottom or a pressure cooker and add all the diced fruits with the water in it. Pressure cooker makes the work pretty easy, just about 2 whistles are what required to boil all the fruits. In a pan it will take about 30 minutes to boil and soften all the fruits.

The color doesn’t look appealing but the taste does, as I made the jam in night and took pictures in less light.

Paste of boiled fruits

Take out the boiled fruits from the vessel and mash it with the back of a ladle. You can grind it quickly in your blender for just a few seconds.

Strain the mashed fruit pulp using a mesh and collect all the strained pulp in another vessel.

Strained fruit pulp..

Heat another thick bottom vessel and add the strained fruit juice into it. Keep cooking it on a slow flame till the juice is reduced to half the quantity and is quite thick.

Separate it into two different vessels if you want to use both types of sugar. Add palm sugar in one and white sugar in another. Cook for a few more minutes and test the jam for the correct consistency.

Shinning beauties!

For testing the correct setting  for Jam, I normally do the age old saucer test and have got good results always. For doing the test, just chill a saucer in refrigerator, take out a spoon of jam and drop it on the chilled saucer. If you see it set like a thick jam which does not move after you turn the saucer upside down, your Jam is done!

Compare the two Jams..

Store the jam in a sterilized glass bottle, you need to refrigerate it if you are not using any preservative in it, which I don’t use normally.

A closer look..

I am sure after switching over to Palm sugar this fruit preserve is going to be a staple on my breakfast table. Try it and you will be more than happy that you did it too!

wholewheat english muffins for healthy breakfast

A hearty Breakfast with my Palm sugar fruit preserve and fresh baked Wholewheat English Muffins! I couldn’t stop myself from licking spoonfuls of this delightful treat, need to check my glucose levels 🙂

Notes;

1. Add a juice of Lemon in the end to give a tangy flavor to your Jam.
2. The Jam has predominant taste of Guava in it. Exclude the fruit if you don’t like it. Just add any fruit of your choice and go ahead.
3. Avoid Palm sugar if you want to make a transparent, clear and light color Jam.
4. I saved a small bottle of plain fruit preserve before adding sugar into it. This preserve can be refrigerated and later used in baking or making any spread along with honey or cornflour.

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