A jelly-like sweet berry or fruit dish is called a confiture. Moreover, the fruits can be crushed completely or occur in the form of pieces - if it is a fruit, or entirely - berries. The peculiarity of confiture is in a jelly-like state. It is achieved due to the presence of gelling substances in the fruits themselves or the addition of artificial gelling agents.
Prepare jam from various berries and fruits. Apricot confiture is one of the most famous and appreciated for its wonderful taste, delicate texture and orange-sunny color.
Basic principles of cooking apricot confiture
All confitures are prepared according to the same scheme.
First, the fruit - in our case, apricots - is washed, removed from the bones. It is advisable to remove the skin, since these fruits have a rather thick and fluffy one as well. Apricots are cut into pieces or crushed more carefully. Pour with sugar or pour sugar syrup and boil a certain amount of time.
You can add flavoring seasonings - lemon juice, orange or zest, anise, mint, lavender, alcoholic beverages such as liquor or brandy. A mix is possible, that is, a compound in the confiture of apricots and other fruits and berries.
Gelatin, agar-agar, pectin, zhelfiks can be added as a gelling agent.
The finished jam of apricots, if it is a billet for the winter, is poured into the cans and closed with lids. Keep cool.
Simple apricot confiture
This is the most simple, basic recipe for making apricot confiture. Here gelling agents are not added - the desired consistency is achieved due to their content in the apricots themselves. However, in this case, a fairly large amount of sugar is taken, so the recipe is for the biggest sweet teeth. Ingredients
- One and a half kilograms of unpeeled apricots
- Two kilograms of granulated sugar
- Approximately 300 ml of water.
Method of preparation
- First you need to prepare the syrup, because it is used cold. Boil water and sugar for a few minutes together.
- Wash apricots, put into boiling water for a couple of minutes, then into cold water. After this procedure, they are easily cleaned from the skin.
- Remove the bones and dip the halves of the apricots into the cold syrup.
- Put on a small fire and hold until boiling, constantly stirring and removing the foam.
- When the mixture starts to boil, turn off the heat, put it in a cool place and leave it there for at least half a day.
- Then heat again on low heat, and repeat this a third time. A sign of readiness confiture - apricots should not emerge, but form as if a single mass.
- Hot pouring in cans, if long-term storage is planned - roll up with iron lids. If used in the near future, then let cool and cover with nylon covers.
Vanilla Confiture of Apricots
This option is similar to the base, but it does not require such a large amount of sugar, and adding lemon juice and vanilla diversify the taste and flavor of the dessert.
Ingredients
- Slightly more than a kilogram of apricots - based on the fact that without stones there will be a kilogram
- 4 glasses of sugar
- A pack of vanilla sugar or vanilla on the tip of a knife
- Juice of one lemon.
Method of preparation
- If desired, peel the apricots, but you can leave them.
- Cut the fruit in half, remove the bones.
- Sugar mixed with vanilla.
- Fold in an enamel bowl, cover with sugar and hold overnight. It is advisable to cover the lid so that the vanilla scent does not go too far.
- After the allotted time, put the dishes on a small fire, add lemon juice and hold until the sugar dissolves.
- When sugar dissolves completely, add heat and cook for a quarter of an hour, removing the foam. The mixture should boil, but not too violently.
- Then reduce the fire again and cook until ready. Readiness is checked using a large drop on the plate. It is carried out with a dry spoon or something similar. Halves of a drop should not be connected.
- When this condition is reached, the confiture is ready. It must be poured into containers and closed. Turn over, stand, covered, for several hours. Store in a cool place.
Apricot confiture with pectin
Pectin is a gelling agent that is produced from an extract of apples, citrus fruits. In the case of preparation of confiture with this additive, lemon juice in the recipe is not needed. The ratio of apricots and sugar depends on what is pectin. On the pack is usually indicated its ratio with the ingredients of the dish. For example, take the average pectin ratio - 1: 2. If the second digit is less, then you need to take more sugar. And, accordingly, vice versa.
Ingredients
- A kilogram with a small apricot - counting on the fact that peeled will come out about a kilo
- 1 pound of sugar
- A pectin package marking 1: 2.
Method of preparation
- Prepare apricots. If you want to remove the skin, dipping the fruit in boiling water. Remove bones.
- Finely chop the fruit with a knife.
- Mix apricots with sugar and pectin, set on high heat.
- Stir constantly, so that the sugar does not burn, but dissolves. If the mixture is very thick, you can add a couple of tablespoons of water.
- After boiling, slightly reduce the heat and boil for five minutes. With pectin, the cooking time for chopped apricots is quite small.
- Remove from heat, pour into jars, close. Such a dessert resembles marmalade, where fruit particles are found. If you need a more liquid confiture, add more water when cooking.
Fruits and herbs: confiture of apricots with lavender and lemon
The aroma of lavender flowers gives an unusual pleasant note apricot confiture. And the use of lemon makes the dessert not cloying and enriches its taste. Juice and lemon zest can be replaced by orange, and lavender - mint.
Ingredients
- Kilogram with small apricots
- Sugar depending on the desire from 500 grams to kilograms
- 1 whole large lemon or two small
- A teaspoon of dried lavender flowers.
Method of preparation
- Rinse apricots. If the skin is smooth, and they are very ripe, you can not clean. If the fruit is not too soft, and the skin with a clear down, it is better to clean it. Immerse for a couple of minutes in boiling water, cool, remove the skin.
- Remove bones, divided into halves.
- Put in the jar for boiling jam, pour out sugar.
- Take a couple of teaspoons from a lemon with a grater or a special device to remove the zest.
- Then squeeze out the juice - the more the better.
- Add juice and zest to apricots with sugar.
- Put on a small fire and cook for 20 minutes.
- Remove, cool slightly, and blender through the mixture. You can achieve a homogeneous mass, but you can leave a few solid pieces.
- Add the confiture to readiness, check drop by drop — if not spread, the dish is ready.
- Pour out lavender flowers, turn off the heat, mix.
- Pour into jars, close, wrap. It is best to try the dessert at least a week later, when it is infused and saturated with the aromas of lavender.
Exquisite dessert: confiture of apricots with liqueur and almonds
This is a special recipe - for the sake of its realization in reality it is worth trying, but the result is worth it. Here, unlike other confiture recipes, there are a lot of ingredients that together will give exactly that unique taste and smell of heat, sun, tenderness and apricots.
Ingredients
- A pound of apricots
- A glass of orange juice
- 2-3 tablespoons of orange liqueur
- 2-3 tablespoons of lemon juice
- 1 pound of sugar
- Packing Gelfix
- 3 tablespoons of almond petals.
Method of preparation
- Wash ripe apricots, remove bones, and cut fruits into slices.
- Zhelfiks mix with sugar.
- Add orange and lemons juice and apricots to the apricot and put on the fire.
- When it boils, add almonds, let it boil for five minutes, removing the foam.
- Turn off the heat, pour in the liquor, stir.
- Can be poured into cans, if this is done for the future, or cool and serve for tea.
When there are no apricots: winter apricot confiture of dried apricots
Apricot confiture, in addition to being an independent dessert, is also used for baking. Bagels, pies, pies, cakes, including the famous “Sacher” - all this is very tasty to do with apricot confiture. And if it is not stocked and there are no fresh apricots? Exit - take dried. That is dried apricots.
Ingredients
- Dried apricots and sugar to take equally by weight
- Water - at the rate of one liter per 200 grams of each product.
Method of preparation
- Rinse dried apricots. It is advisable, buying, choose not too dried, fleshy, bright.
- Pour water into a container for boiling jams, pour out sugar, put dried apricots.
- Put on a small fire and cook twenty mine. Dried apricots should be very soft. If time is not enough, boil more.
- Make dried apricots puree with a blender. When there were no blenders, they simply passed it through the meat grinder twice.
- If you need a filling for the cake, the confiture is ready. You can also drink tea with him, but if you have a desire to stock up for future use, you need to boil again, pour hot over the cans and spin.
Tips and tricks for making apricot confiture
- To clean or not peel the apricots - the hostess decides for herself. But if the fruit is not too ripe, there are dark spots, a lot of fluff - it is better to remove the skin.
- Another problem when making apricot confiture is whether to grind the fruit and how? Some recipes recommend cutting, others skipping through the blender already boiled mixture. There is no single rule here. If the fruits are overripe, they will be wonderful to boil dry without additional help. If you need a completely homogeneous mass, then you should use a blender.
- If the apricots are crushed, the cooking time is longer.
- When using the desired substances, be sure to see the recommendations for the ratio of the additive and the main product. Depends on this whether the desired consistency of dessert.
- Willingness is determined in various ways. You can drip confiture on a plate, if it does not flow when tilted, but crawls, it is ready. And the main feature is this: the liquid and parts of the fruit are evenly distributed and apricots do not float to the surface.
