Petits fours can be made with a variety of fillings. From assorted jams such as strawberry and raspberry to butter cream, pastry cream curds, marzipan, etc. Strawberry jam is what the recipe called for and I had no complaints about that.

This was actually the perfect excuse to try a small batch strawberry jam recipe I had found and never ended up making. I also just so happened to have a pound of strawberries in the fridge. Oh yes, strawberry season is just getting underway. But you could easily skip this step and use a store bought jam as the recipe calls for.

I have never made any kind of jam before and didn’t really know what I was doing. But that, my friends, is what the great interwebs are for. In this case, YouTube – How To Make Small Batch Strawberry Jam and the blogs that link to these things. I didn’t bother with the canning aspect of this recipe because it was for immediate use.

So how hard was it? Pretty easy actually. Wash and slice your berries.

Add the sugar and lemon juice. Stir.

Stir some more as it simmers.

Remove the foamy stuff that comes to the top, then stir again.

Let it cook a little more. Keep stirring.

I would show you how I tested a drop on a cold plate to see if it had set up but all those pics came out a blurred mess. The video will show you though.

And before you know it you have this sweet dark jam.

Mmmm jam. It actually turned out pretty tasty, though a bit on the sweet side. A friend mentioned that it tasted very similar to Smucker’s jam and I would have to agree. I kind of questioned the consistency of the jam because I didn’t exactly know what I was looking for but for the petits fours, it was perfect.

I quite enjoyed it spread over toast.

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Small Batch Strawberry Jam

Adapted from Marge Braker on Cooking Up a Story

Do yourself a favor, watch and learn from the video

• 3 cups/1 lb sliced strawberries
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 tbsp lemon juice

Stir ingredients together in a wide pan. I had plenty of room in my 8 inch saute pan. Move to the stove top and turn heat on high. Meanwhile place a small plate in the freezer

Stir. Stir. And stir some more.

After about 8-10 minutes pull out the small plate from the freezer and drop a small amount of jam on the plate. Let it sit for a few seconds and rotate the plate to see how easily the jam slides. The goal is for it to not run off the plate. It should be thick but moveable. If it is too runny, cook it a few more minutes. I think overall I ended up cooking mine about 20 minutes.

Let cool a bit before putting into a container and placing in the fridge.

Makes about 1 8oz jar.