Pumpkin is a miracle product. In terms of benefits for the body, this berry breaks all records. Talking about the beneficial properties of pumpkin and its taste is endless.
Various first and second courses, and wonderful desserts are prepared from pumpkin.
Pumpkin jam is a tasty and healthy preparation, but, unfortunately, not very popular. Pumpkin goes well with different fruits and berries. I propose to cook pumpkin jam with dried apricots for the winter.
If you have not tried this jam, try preparing at least a couple of small jars of this amber delicacy. The jam is tender and fragrant, without the specific smell inherent in raw pumpkin. I'm sure you'll like it.
Wash the pumpkin, remove the skin, seeds and fibers. Cut into small cubes of the same size.
Pour the pieces of pumpkin into the pan, in which we will cook the jam, pouring sugar in layers. We take sugar and pumpkin in equal quantities, but if you wish, you can increase or decrease the amount of sugar. We leave the pan for 2-3 hours (or overnight) at room temperature so that the pumpkin starts up the juice.
Rinse dried apricots, fill with warm water and leave for 40-60 minutes to swell.
Then we dry the dried apricots and cut them arbitrarily. I cut into strips.
That's how much juice my pumpkin gave. I left her overnight. If your pumpkin hasn't given enough juice, then add water. Add lemon juice to the pan, mix gently and start cooking over low heat.
As soon as the contents of the pan boil, add dried apricots, mix. Cook for 10-15 minutes, avoiding a violent boil, over low heat, stirring with a wooden spoon. Remove the jam from the stove and leave to cool at room temperature for 3-4 hours. Then again put the pan with jam on the stove, bring to a boil and cook for 10-20 minutes on minimum heat. Don't let the pumpkin pieces boil. If you notice that the pieces have begun to boil, stop cooking. After the 2nd time, the jam is cooled again.
You can boil the jam 2 or 3 times, it all depends on what consistency of jam you want to get. The break between the second and third cooking should be at least 6 hours. We boil the jam for the third time and pour it into sterile jars.
Pumpkin jam with dried apricots for the winter is ready.
Pumpkin jam has a pleasant delicate aroma and unusual taste. A bright dessert that contains a whole complex of vitamins can be consumed separately or added as a filling to homemade cakes. Today we will share the secrets of how to make healthy and nutritious pumpkin jam with dried apricots.
What is useful pumpkin
Recipes for apricot jam, cherry or cherry jam, apple, pear or currant jam are found in almost every cookbook. However, not all housewives know that delicious desserts can be prepared not only from fruits, but also from vegetables. For example, from a juicy nutmeg pumpkin, you can cook amazingly tasty and fragrant jam.
Pumpkin contains many vitamins and minerals. Even after heat treatment, vitamins A, C, PP, K, B1, B2 and B12, as well as calcium, potassium, magnesium, sodium, phosphorus and pectins are preserved in the composition of the vegetable. This product has a beneficial effect on the digestive system. Pumpkin jam is recommended in violation of the water-salt balance of the body, problems with reproductive function and a tendency to obesity. According to nutritionists, a sunny vegetable helps to remove cholesterol from the body. This product can be used as the main ingredient during fasting days.
Video: "Jam from pumpkin, dried apricots and orange"
From this video you will learn how to quickly and easily prepare a delicious and fragrant dessert for the winter.
Recipes
You can talk about the benefits of pumpkin for a very long time, since this vegetable is widespread in our area. It is used in cooking for the preparation of first and second courses, sauces and gravy, various desserts, juices and even energy drinks. Pumpkin jam, which even the most demanding gourmets like, can have a different aroma and taste. To diversify the taste of the finished dish, add lemon, orange, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, apples, pears or zucchini during the cooking process.
We bring to your attention several interesting recipes for making a “golden dessert” from pumpkin and dried apricots.
Classical
The most popular dessert, the main ingredient of which is pumpkin, is the Transparent Amber jam. For cooking, we need the following products:
- pumpkin pulp - 1 kg;
- dried apricots - 300-400 g;
- lemon juice - 5 tbsp. l.;
- granulated sugar - 3-4 cups;
- gelatin or any other gelling mixture - 1 sachet.
Please note that the "Transparent Amber" dessert is prepared not on water, but in pumpkin juice. The main ingredient must be washed, peeled and chopped. The diced pulp is sprinkled with sugar and left for several hours for the vegetable to release the juice. When the amount of juice is enough to form a syrup, add lemon juice and put the saucepan on a slow fire.
Now you can rinse and chop dried fruits. As soon as the contents of the saucepan boil, add dried apricots and cook everything together for another 15-20 minutes. Turn off the stove and let the product brew for several hours. The mixture of ingredients is boiled 3 times for 15-20 minutes, while making sure that the pumpkin does not boil. At the third stage of cooking, a gelling mixture is added, allowed to boil and the jam is removed from the heat. After cooling the amber color, the syrup should be viscous and transparent.
With ginger and cinnamon
Ginger jam with pieces of pumpkin, dried apricots and cinnamon has a delicate and delicate aroma, which clearly captures several dozen different combinations. Prepare 2 kg of ripe vegetable, 0.8 kg of dried apricot, 1 kg of sugar, lemon, a few cinnamon sticks and a piece of fresh ginger. So let's get started:
- Cut the prepared main ingredients into small pieces.
- Sprinkle pumpkin pulp with sugar and leave for several hours. When the juice appears, put the saucepan on the stove. Bring the syrup to a boil, boil for another 15-20 minutes. Remove from stove and cool at room temperature.
- Repeat the procedure by adding dried apricots, grated ginger, lemon juice and cinnamon sticks to the container. The duration of this stage is no more than 20-30 minutes.
- Sterilize jars. Put the jam in jars and screw on metal lids.
With walnuts
To prepare a classic pumpkin dessert with walnuts, you will need the following ingredients:
- pumpkin - 2 kg;
- dried apricot - 300 g;
- sugar - 900 g;
- walnut - 200 g;
- lemon - 1 pc.;
- purified water - 200 ml;
- nutmeg and cinnamon - a pinch each.
First, all the main ingredients are washed, peeled and chopped. Then water is poured into the pan, sugar and nuts are poured. Once the sugar has dissolved over low heat, pumpkin and lemon are added. Nutmeg, cinnamon and dried apricots are poured a few minutes before the end of cooking.
The foam that appeared during the cooking process must be removed with a slotted spoon. Many mistakenly believe that it only spoils the appearance of the finished dessert, but does not affect the taste and shelf life of the product. According to experienced chefs, the foam remaining in the jars shortens the shelf life of the jam.
Through a meat grinder
Jam "without cooking" is considered a healing potion that helps strengthen the immune system and resist many viral and colds.
The algorithm for preparing a “raw” dessert is very simple:
- Wash the vegetable, remove the peel from it and cut the flesh into cubes.
- Take an orange and a lemon (1 each), wash and cut into large slices. Citrus peels do not need to be removed.
- Pass all cooked ingredients, including dried apricots, through a meat grinder.
- Add granulated sugar and cinnamon to the resulting mixture. Mix thoroughly.
- Spread the healthy mixture into jars and close with nylon lids. The product must be stored in the refrigerator.
In a slow cooker
The miracle saucepan, as the slow cooker is often called, is considered an indispensable assistant in the kitchen. This piece of household appliances helps to save time and greatly facilitates the process of preparing various dishes.
So, the process of making pumpkin jam with dried apricots in a slow cooker will not take much time and effort:
- Pour 2.5 cups of purified drinking water into the bowl. Add 700 g of granulated sugar and turn on the “Extinguishing” mode by setting the timer to 40 minutes. The syrup should be thick and sticky.
- Take 1.5-1.7 kg of slightly unripe pumpkin. Wash the vegetable well, remove the peel and cut the flesh into medium-sized cubes. Add the crushed fruit to the bowl where the syrup is being boiled.
- Rinse dried fruits thoroughly in warm water. Pre-soaking is not required. Cut the dried apricot into long strips and transfer to a slow cooker.
- Turn on the "Extinguishing" mode for another 90 minutes. Open the lid periodically and stir the contents of the bowl with a wooden spatula.
- A few minutes before the end of cooking, add vanilla sugar (approximately 5-10 g).
You can cook delicious jam from almost everything that is sold in vegetable shops, on the market or grows in the garden. It doesn’t have to be fruits or berries; vegetables also make wonderful sweet preparations. One of the unusual recipes is pumpkin jam with dried apricots and walnuts. Bright, fragrant, with a rich taste and thick, viscous amber syrup. Cooking it is no more difficult than fruit and berry blanks, it just takes a little time to prepare the pumpkin: you need to cut off the peel, remove the seeds and finely chop the pulp. To prevent the jam from becoming cloyingly sweet, it is recommended to add lime or lemon juice or a few crystals of citric acid at the end of cooking.
Ingredients:
- peeled pumpkin (without seeds and peel) - 500 g;
- walnuts (peeled kernels) - 0.5 cups;
- dried apricots - 100 g;
- sugar - 300-350 g;
- lime or lemon juice - to taste.
How to make pumpkin jam with dried apricots and walnuts
We clean the pumpkin: cut off the crust, remove the middle with seeds. We weigh the remaining pulp, we need half a kilogram. We cut into a small cube with sides of 1.5-2 cm. Pour the pumpkin cubes into a saucepan or cauldron, basin.
Pour sugar until 300 grams is enough. If the pumpkin is unsweetened and there is not enough sweetness, add as much as you need during the cooking process. Stir, cover with a towel and leave for a couple of hours so that the pumpkin gives juice.
After two hours, the sugar will almost completely melt, a lot of syrup will appear, the cubes will seem to float in it. Perhaps the pumpkin will come across not juicy, and there will be little syrup. In this case, add a little water.
We put the dishes with pumpkin on a small fire. Let's boil. We collect the foam that has risen in the middle and along the edges with a spoon.
Cook for ten minutes, soaking pumpkin cubes in syrup. In the process of cooking, the cubes will become almost transparent, the jam will begin to darken, acquire a rich color and taste.
We steam the dried apricots, rinse and cut into strips or small cubes. Chop the walnut kernels with a knife into small pieces. Add nuts and dried apricots to the pumpkin.
For a more balanced taste, add lime or lemon juice, about a tablespoon. Or pour citric acid, collect a little, at the tip of a teaspoon. Mix it up, try it. If there is not enough sugar, add as much as you need. If you need to acidify - add lemon / lime juice. Cook the jam for another 12-15 minutes, until the pieces of dried apricots soften. Immediately after cooking, it will be liquidish, but in the process of infusion it will thicken. If you want to cook thick jam, then after cooking, let it cool to room temperature and boil again for three to five minutes.
Jars for jam take a small volume of 250-300 ml. We wash with soda, then sterilize. We boil the lids. We lay out the boiling pumpkin jam in jars, roll up.
Every year, the owners of summer cottages harvest the products grown during the season for the future, often competing in the invention of recipes. The recipe for pumpkin jam with dried apricots will be a real find for tea drinking in the winter. Its sunny color will remind you of a hot summer, and its unique taste will cheer you up.
Cooking method
Preparing products for pumpkin jam with apricots takes a little longer than when using the usual berries or fruits. Peeled pumpkin cut into cubes. To eliminate the sugary-sweet taste, lemon is added to the vegetable. Dried apricots give the dish a bright color and rich taste.
To prepare one and a half liters of jam, you need to take:
- Peeled pumpkin - 1 kg.
- Dried apricots - 300 grams.
- Sugar - 700 grams.
- Lemon - 1 piece (or citric acid - 0.5 teaspoon).
During this time, you can prepare dried apricots. Poor-quality berries should be removed, the rest thoroughly washed with cold water and soaked to soften for 1 hour. If the berries are fleshy, then pre-soaking can be avoided. After that, it is washed again, dried and cut into strips.
Settled pumpkin must be put on fire and brought to a boil, stirring occasionally. Boil in a boiling state should be at least 12 minutes. The foam that forms on the surface during cooking should be removed. It not only spoils the appearance of the finished product, but also reduces the shelf life.
After this time, you need to add pre-prepared dried apricots and squeeze the juice from ½ lemon. After tasting, you can add juice from the second half, if it seems that the acid is not enough. To give the dish a citrus note, you can add lemon zest by rubbing it on a fine grater.
The jam must be boiled for another twenty minutes and removed from heat. It will be slightly runny, but will thicken as it cools. If it seems that pumpkin jam with dried apricots has not thickened enough, you will need to cool it and boil it for an additional 10 minutes.
It is allowed to boil the contents of the pan in the amount of two or three times, depending on the required density of the finished product. You can judge the readiness of the jam by the stopped foaming.
Containers for preparing jam for future use are prepared in advance. They are washed, sterilized and dried. It is recommended to fill jars with hot product. After complete cooling, the blanks are removed to the storage room.
This recipe gives vent to the culinary imagination and allows you to add berries and fruits (raisins, apples, pears), nuts, spices (ginger, cinnamon, cloves) that suit your taste to the main ingredients. Cooking methods depend on the preferences of the hostess, who is allowed to use in this case an ordinary stove and a saucepan or a slow cooker.
Sunny pumpkin jam with dried apricots in the winter season for a few moments will return the one who eats this delicacy to a hot and generous summer. And making such a magical jam is not at all difficult - if there is a good recipe, natural ingredients and the desire to turn them into an exquisite dessert. Also, do not forget about the possibility of enhancing the effect of mixing the flavors of pumpkin and dried apricots by adding lemons, apples, raisins and nuts.
Bright, summery, full of flowers and flavors, pumpkin jam with dried apricots and lemon in cold winter time will remind you of hot summer and fruitful autumn. Such a delicacy will allow you to warm up your body and soul, and if it is created from a pumpkin grown in your own garden, it will also become a healthy dessert without any dyes or preservatives.
Ingredients:
- (pulp) - 1 kg;
- dried apricots - 300-400 gr.;
- lemon - 1 pc.;
- sugar - 600 gr.
Divide the pumpkin pulp into identical small pieces (no more than 2x2 cm), which must be laid out, sprinkled with sugar, in a saucepan or stewpan. Next, the container under the lid is sent to the refrigerator for 10-12 hours.
Rinse dried apricots thoroughly and leave filled with cold water for the same period. When the pumpkin gives abundant juice, it will be possible to add filtered and chopped dried apricots to it.
Important! Pumpkin jam does not acquire a homogeneous structure - you need to mix it smoothly and carefully so that the pumpkin cubes do not soften and become porridge. It is also important to regularly collect foam from the mass during cooking.
After mixing, the jam blank is put on low heat, brought to a boil, then the foam is removed and put in a cool place. When the mass has cooled to room temperature, it is again heated over a fire of minimum intensity with the addition of juice squeezed from a lemon for 20 minutes.
Pumpkin jam with oranges
In jam with orange, pumpkin and dried apricots, various shades of color, taste and aroma are harmoniously combined. Subtle apricot and citrus notes will help improve your mood on a cloudy winter morning, and the thick taste of bright jam will allow you to create great pies and desserts with it. Ingredients:
- (pulp) - 2.5 kg;
- - 2 pcs.;
- lemon - 2 pcs.;
- dried apricots - 300 gr.;
- sugar - 1.5 kg.
Remove the peel and seeds from the pumpkin, cut into cubes, sprinkle with sugar (do not mix!) And refrigerate overnight.
Read also: Sweet tomatoes for the winter - 11 recipes
In the morning, when the vegetable gives abundant juice, it can be transferred to a saucepan in which jam will be prepared and put on medium heat to bring to a boil. After that, oranges and lemons are sent there - peeled and diced.
Advice! In this recipe, you can adjust the taste of the finished product by using the specified amount of lemons (for sweet and sour jam) or by excluding them altogether (for sweet and dessert treats).
After the boil starts again, the jam should boil for 5 minutes, and then it is removed to cool in a cool place for 4-5 hours. After this time, the food is supplemented with dried apricots washed and cut in halves, brought to a boil again and cooked over medium heat for 30 minutes with occasional stirring.
Pumpkin jam with dried apricots and raisins
Pumpkin jam with dried apricots and raisins will turn out to be hearty and thick, more dense than when creating a treat with the addition of citrus fruits. But the density of such jam is a virtue, thanks to which it is successfully used as a filling for homemade pastries - pies, cakes, "baskets" and rolls.
Ingredients:
- pumpkin - 1 kg;
- dried apricots - 200 gr.;
- raisins - 200 gr.;
- sugar - 500 gr.;
- water - 900 ml
Pour sugar into water, bring to a boil and boil sugar syrup. Pour slices of peeled and diced pumpkin into the boiling composition, then boil it for 30 minutes over medium flame. Next, the pumpkin in sugar syrup should be cooled and put in the refrigerator for 10-12 hours. Pour raisins with boiling water for 30 minutes, rinse dried apricots, cut into halves and also soak in hot water for 1-2 hours.
The pumpkin that has been infused and given the juice is put on medium heat, brought to a boil, then the intensity of the flame is reduced to a minimum, and raisins and dried apricots are poured into the pan - always carefully squeezed out of excess water. Jam should be cooked for 30-50 minutes until the desired density, after which it is preserved in sterilized jars.
Recipe with almonds
Pumpkin and dried apricot jam has a pleasant sweet taste and unique aroma, but those who have repeatedly prepared such a delicacy will soon want variety. Someone changes the flavors of jam by adding oranges, and someone goes even further - adds a twist, creating a delicacy with lemon and almonds.
The infused pumpkin is put on fire and boiled over medium heat for 15 minutes every 4-5 hours, repeating the sequence at least 5 times. In the 3rd cooking, you can add squeezed dried apricots cut into quarters to the pumpkin, and add almonds to the 5th. Upon completion of cooking, the jam is poured into jars and corked.
Cooking in a multicooker
Juicy pumpkin jam with dried apricots, cooked in a slow cooker, is unlikely to have to be preserved - it turns out to be so tasty, fragrant and bright that you will no doubt want to eat it right away. Such a product can become a wonderful natural dessert, moreover, prepared in a way that retains a maximum of useful substances in the finished product. Ingredients:
- pumpkin - 600 gr.;
- dried apricots - 300 gr.;
- sugar - 500 gr.;
- citric acid - a pinch.
The pumpkin needs to be peeled, rid of the peel and seeds, washed and cut into cubes. Rinse dried apricots first, then pour boiling water for 15-20 minutes to soften, then drain, squeeze and cut into halves. Put both components in a multicooker bowl, add sugar and citric acid, mix the mass thoroughly. On the device, turn on the “Baking” mode for 60-75 minutes, close the lid, after 40 minutes mix the jam again and leave to cook further, but already under the open lid.
Pumpkin jam with dried apricots and apples
Pumpkin jam with dried apricots and apples is not only tasty, but also healthy, as it contains many trace elements important for the normal functioning of the body - provitamin A (beta-carotene), vitamins C, P and representatives of the B-group. Such a delicacy is a healthy dessert that improves sleep and digestion, as well as normalizes the work of the heart and blood vessels.
