The pink guava tree is groaning under the weight of ripening fruit and while it is nice to eat them freshly cut as guava with sugar and lime juice, we thought we would make some jam to use up some of the harvest. The result was a tasty, well set jam for our toast  at breakfast and worth the small effort involved.

Pink Guava Jam

Ingredients:

• 1.7 kg pink guavas, washed, topped and tailed, cut lengthwise
• 1.4 kg white sugar
• 250 ml water
• 5 Tblsp lemon juice
• Peel of 1 lemon,  removed thinly with no pith

Method:

1. Wash jam jars in hot soapy water, rinsing them well.Put them on an oven tray.
2. Put the lids into a small pan of water and bring to the boil. Then lower the heat and leave them to simmer on the lowest heat. Add the tongs and ladle you may be using. I have found that a small turkish coffee maker like the one below the most useful to ladle the finished jam into jars
3. Wash the guavas, top and tail them and cut them lengthwise.
4. Carefully scoop the seeds from the guavas making sure to get every one out.
5. Put the seeds into a doubled muslin square. Tie it into a small bag with some cooking twine
6. Thinly peel the skin from a lemon making sure that there is no pith
7. Then juice the lemon – there should be 5 tablespoons of juice
8.  Put guavas, water, lemon juice, lemon peel, little muslin bag of seeds into a stainless steel saucepan with a heavy base (or stainless steel preserving pan ) and bring slowly to the boil. Stir it constantly till the mixture comes to the boil
9. Then simmer until the guavas are  tender, around 1 hour. Stir from time to time to prevent the mixture catching
10. Whiile the guavas are cooking and about ten minutes before they are done,  put the sugar into a clean baking dish and warm it in the oven for 10 mins at 110 Deg C
11. Remove the sugar from the oven and place the jam jars on an oven tray that has a li around it, into the oven on 110 C . They should be completely dry when the jam is ready to fill.
12. When the guavas are cooked down and the skins tender, add the warmed sugar to the pan, stirring until sugar has dissolved
13. Then boil rapidly at just below high until the temperature of the jam reaches 106 F on a candy thermometer for about 15 – 20 minutes or until setting stage is reached
14. Drop a  small amount of the jam onto a chilled saucer for 30 seconds, Push the jam gently with your finger, if it wrinkles it has reached its setting point. If not continue and repeat the test until the jam is set.
15. Carefully remove the jars from the oven leaving them on the tray to catch any spills
16. Ladle the jam into the hot, sterilised jars leaving a 1cm space between the jam and the top of the jar, and seal. Handle the lids with sterilised tongs and never let your hands touch the inside of the lids. Set the jars aside on a wooden board. You will find that as the jam jar cools the lids will pop as a vacuum forms
17. Makes about 5 jars of jam
18. Enjoy with toast, piklets or scones and a good cup of coffee or tea.

Recipes

Ann’s Lemon Pikelets 

Heart Shaped Scones

Spiced Pumpkin Scones