Strawberry Freezer Jam

Strawberries were $1 at the grocery!  Am I the only one that gets excited when this happens?

Anyway.  I bought (a whole) lot.  And then I had to figure out what to do with them.  We eat a lot of sliced fresh strawberries, but I bought more than five people can eat in a reasonable amount of time.

We smashed them up and made jam with them!  What else?

While the girls and I made jam, Baby Bear organized the tupperware for me.

I've never made freezer jam, but it's crazy easy.  There's no canning involved, which was good news for me.

The only annoying thing is that you need to boil the containers in which you will store the jam.  I used two tupperware containers and simply poured boiling water over the containers and lids.

To mash my strawberries, I used this great tool from Pampered Chef.  Normally I use it to break up ground beef as I brown it, but it worked as the perfect strawberry chopper.  If you don't have this cool tool, then you could use a potato masher.

And so now you need to stir in four cups of sugar.  Yes.  Four entire cups of sugar.  Let the strawberries sit for about 10 minutes.  Stir them occasionally.

While that sits, put a pot on the stove.  Add some water and a packet of fruit pectin.  Boil it for one minute.

Pour it into the strawberry and sugar mixture.  Stir it around for about three minutes, until most of the sugar is dissolved.

Now you're ready to pour the jam into the containers!  And then let it sit on the container for 24 hours.  An entire day.

And then freeze one container.  And make lots of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with the other container.  Or you could make these bars.  I haven't done that yet, but I'm going to.

The jam is really delicious.  It tastes like straight-up fresh strawberries.  So good and so easy.  My kids loved doing it, and they love eating something that they made.  (Not that it's hard to get your kids to eat jelly, but you know what I mean.)

Strawberry Freezer Jam
Adapted from Kraft

1 lb. strawberries, hulled, sliced and mashed to make 2 cups of mashed strawberries
4 cups sugar
1 package fruit pectin (I used Sure-Jell)
3/4 cup water

Pour boiling water over three 2-cup containers and their lids to sterilize the jam containers.  Set aside to use in a minute.

Put the mashed strawberries in a large bowl and stir in the sugar.  Let it sit for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Meanwhile, bring the water to a boil in a small saucepan.  Stir in the fruit pectin and boil it for one minute. Pour it over the strawberry/sugar mixture and stir it for about 3 minutes, until most of the sugar is dissolved.

Pour the jam into the containers and put the lid on.  Sit on the counter, at room temperature, for 24 hours. Freeze the jam for up to a year or refrigerate the jam for up to 3 weeks.