How to make jam from whole paradise apples. Paradise apples. Video “Ranetki jam”

For homemade preparation, you will need small, as they are called, heavenly apples, the size of a walnut. These apples with tails can be used to cook beautiful apples, or they can be preserved in sugar syrup. In addition to sugar, you can optionally add various aromatic spices that apples go well with. It could be cinnamon, cloves, ginger, cardamom. Herbs are also suitable: mint, lemon balm. So, we are preparing apples for the winter, and a step-by-step recipe with photos will help us.

Paradise apples in syrup

This homemade preparation for the winter looks very beautiful, aromatic and incredibly tasty! By treating your guests and your loved ones with such a delicacy, you will truly give them heavenly pleasure! Children eat this preparation with special pleasure; small apples delight them. So, let's get ready.

Ingredients:

Based on the calculation for the workpiece, they are indicated for 1 liter. jar

• small apples - approximately 0.9 liters;
• sugar - 300-330 grams depending on the sweetness of the apples;
• cloves - 1-2 pcs.;
• 1 sprig lemon balm.

Preparation:

For homemade preparation, take ripe but firm small apples. Rinse them thoroughly.

Rinse the jars with soda. Sterilize them in a way convenient for you. Prepare 3 clove buds and rinse three lemon balm branches.

Place a full jar of whole apples, lemon balm and cloves.

Pour boiling water over the apples, cover the jars with lids and set aside for 30 minutes to warm the apples. The jars can be covered with a towel for better heating.

After 30 minutes, drain the water from the jars and boil it.

Pour over the apples a second time. Then drain the water from the jars again into the pan and add sugar into it. Let's cook sugar syrup.

Bring the broth to a boil so that the sugar dissolves completely.

Pour sugar syrup over apples and screw on lids.

Wrap the jars in something warm and leave them until they cool. The apple stock should be stored in a cool and dark place.

Paradise apples in syrup are very sweet, tasty and with a slight lemon aroma, thanks to lemon balm. And the remaining syrup can be used to soak biscuits, cakes, and gingerbread. You can also add a spoonful to tea or coffee. Enjoy your preparations!

Wild apples practically do not differ in taste from ordinary ones. Therefore, compote from paradise apples is in no way inferior in taste to compote from ordinary ones. These wonderful apples are no more than five centimeters in diameter. Due to their very appetizing and aesthetic appearance, which they retain even in “twists,” they are often used as a decoration for desserts. But you can simply eat the apples as a separate delicacy; in compote they become soft, soaked in syrup, and do not lose their aroma.

There are not so many varieties of such apples. This has developed historically, when large-fruited varieties were developed, small apples were undeservedly forgotten. We cultivate only three varieties of wild apples - Siberian, Chinese and Ranetki. By the way, the apples got their name - “paradise” - from botanists who, having identified one of the types of low-growing apple trees, called it “paradise”, that is, paradise, the name stuck and gradually spread to all the small apples. The disadvantage of such apple trees is that they are not frost-resistant. Therefore, they are found more in the southern regions of Russia. Hybrids are planted in the northern regions and middle zone. Gardeners also value these trees for their appearance - fragrant flowers in spring, bright fruits in autumn, beautiful crown shape and tasty fruits, which are widely used in homemade preparations.

Beneficial properties of wild apples

Paradise apples are rich in vitamins and minerals. They contain a lot of pectin, which is beneficial for the intestines. 28 microelements, including minerals such as magnesium, phosphorus, iodine, calcium, iron. And, of course, as with all apples, there is a whole list of vitamins - C, E, A, B1, B2, PP. They are wonderful antioxidants, cleanse the intestines, relieve dysentery and colitis, due to their high fiber content. They contain substances that normalize blood pressure, remove excess cholesterol, toxins, and waste products. The fruits are useful for rheumatism, kidney and liver diseases, and problems with skin diseases. The polyphenol contained in apples prevents the appearance of cancer cells. They contain ten times more biologically active substances than ordinary large apples. And this storehouse of usefulness can be preserved in canned food by sealing the compote of paradise apples for the winter.

A simple recipe for wild apple compote

The process of preserving wild apples cannot be called complex or labor-intensive; everything is done very simply. Let's look at a simple apple compote recipe step by step.

For one 3-liter jar of compote you will need:

• paradise apples – 700 grams;
• sugar - half a kilogram;
• water – 2.5 liters.

Apple compote, preservation in stages:

To ensure that the fruits in the compote do not burst, but retain their beautiful appearance, you need to carefully prick each apple with a toothpick in several places at the stage of their preparation.

Recipes for wild apple compote with additives

Some people think that compote made only from apples is bland and does not have a rich taste, and they prefer to make apple compote with additives. This is also possible for compote of small apples for the winter.

You can combine wild apples with cinnamon and cloves by making a compote according to the above recipe, adding spices to taste (in the classic version, for a 3-liter jar - 3 buds of cloves, a cinnamon stick) and you will also need to add 1 teaspoon of citric acid per jar. Vanilla sugar is also added for flavor.

Delicious compotes are obtained by combining apples with hawthorn, grapes, and pears. These berries and fruits ripen during the same period as the apples of paradise. Let's look at a recipe for compote of paradise apples with hawthorn; this is a pretty good combination both in terms of taste and appearance. The fruits are close in size and match well in color. And compote left to brew before winter turns out to be very aromatic and tasty.

The highlight of the recipe is that the compote reaches its maximum taste when preserved, aged for at least a couple of months.

For the recipe you need for one liter of water:

• 150 grams of hawthorn;
• 50 grams of apples;
• 150 grams of sugar;
• 0.5 teaspoon of citric acid.

Compote of paradise apples for the winter, recipe step by step:

Compotes made from small apples will please you and your household. You can make several different options for preservation so that after trying it, you can choose the best combination of flavors, apples with cinnamon, mint, hawthorn, or pure apple compote. Enjoy the taste and get a boost of vitamins and other beneficial substances that these fruits are rich in.

Preparing compote from paradise apples for the winter - video

Required utensils

An enamel or brass basin, commensurate with the weight of the products used in cooking (3 liter basin = 1 kg of apples + 1.3 kg of sand + 1 tbsp. water + space for the foam formed during cooking) or a wide, voluminous saucepan.

Preparation procedure:

The fruits of paradise apples are usually boiled whole, with the stalk cut to half. In everyday life, the stalk is called differently: these are the so-called tails, petioles, stems, etc. If there is a fear that children may choke on the tail, then you can remove it completely, but keep in mind that with the removal of the stalk, the jam will lose its exquisite charm and exotic view.

For jam, you can take paradise apples of any variety. They usually differ from each other in the color of the fruit, which varies from light green and yellow to dark burgundy. Raw apples of paradise taste equally unpalatable. Although, it is possible that there are lovers who like the astringent taste and hardness of these fruits. Traditionally, it is customary to make jam from bright yellow fruits. It is this variety that allows you to make bright orange jam.

First of all, the apples need to be prepared. To do this, they are sorted, clearing each apple from the sepals. You also need to cut the stalk in half, leaving a tail 2-2.5 cm long. Next, the apples are washed and placed in a colander to drain the water.

Using a fork or toothpick, prick the apples, making several holes in the skin of each apple. If this is not done, then during heat treatment the skin of the apples will burst and the inside will boil ahead of time. The fruits will lose their shape and attractiveness. The jam will turn into porridge.

At the next stage, the apples are blanched in boiling water (100˚ C). To do this, pour 2-2.5 liters of water into a wide saucepan and bring it to a boil. Then the prepared apples are poured into the water. After 3-5 minutes, drain the water and allow the fruits to cool.

Now you need to prepare the syrup.

To do this, pour prepared granulated sugar into a container intended for making jam. Add water at the rate of 1 kg of granulated sugar per 1 glass of water and vanilla sugar. The mixture is stirred and placed on low heat until the granulated sugar is completely dissolved in the water.

As soon as the syrup boils, remove it from the heat and allow to cool slightly. Then blanched paradise apples are added to it and put back on the fire. After 5-7 minutes, turn off the fire and leave the apples and syrup for 3-4 hours until completely cooled.

Then the jam is brought to a boil again over low heat, after which it is boiled for 5-7 minutes and cooled again. The jam cools and soaks in syrup for 6-8 hours. The abundant foam that forms during cooking will disappear on its own when it cools, so there is no need to collect it right away.

You just need to periodically gently shake the container with jam. If at the end of cooking there is still foam left on the surface of the jam, it must be carefully removed with a slotted spoon. As they cook and soak in syrup, the fruits become transparent to such an extent that the seeds inside the fruit are visible. The last time the jam is cooked until fully cooked, about 10-15 minutes.

At the last stage, practically no foam is formed. The finished jam has a bright orange color. It is very important not to overcook the jam as the color may become dark and unattractive. The readiness of the jam can be determined by the transparency of the fruit and the syrup. To do this, drop a spoonful of syrup onto a saucer. If the cooled drop does not spread when the saucer is slightly tilted, then the jam is ready.

Before putting the jam into jars, it must cool down.

They store jars of jam in a cool place, although it probably won’t last until winter - it will be eaten earlier. Paradise apple jam looks very beautiful on the table. When serving tea, it is usually laid out in rosettes. Despite this, it is customary to eat it not with a spoon, but simply by grabbing it by the tail.

Our apples of paradise ripen in the second half of July. The harvest from the trees goes on sale until mid-September. So, if you want to make jam from paradise apples and it’s already August, then you need to hurry.

Chinese jam (paradise apples)

Miniature apples (Chinese)

There are several ways to make jam from apples of paradise - small apples similar in size and long stem to very large cherries. They are also called China apples (or Chinese apples), and they grow on the plum-leaved apple tree.

Other small-fruited apples are ranetki, which are a close relative of the Chinese apple. Therefore, jam from small ranetki and from paradise apples is cooked according to the same recipes.

Bowl with Chinese

Chinese tails for jam are shortened by a third

On the left is a Chinese apple, on the right is a medium-sized apple

Bowl of Chinese apples

What do you do with china before making jam?

This is common to all recipes, and the differences and proportions for syrup (sugar + water) and the weight of apples for it are given in the table (see below).

At the same time, you should cook no more than 2 kg of paradise apples or apple slices in a basin. Otherwise it will be difficult to stir and cook for a long time.

1. Shorten the ponytail

Most often, paradise apple jam is made from whole fruits with tails. The tails are shortened (the hardest upper part, approximately 1/3 of the tail, is cut off).

Why do they leave a tail?: Firstly, the tail is not so easy to tear off (unlike cherries). And secondly, heavenly apples with tails are more convenient to remove from the syrup and eat.

2. Blanch and chop

• Throw the apples into boiling water and blanch for about 5 minutes. Then remove them from the boiling water and immediately cool (immerse in cold water).
• Prick the cooled apples in several places with a wooden toothpick or pin (so that they are better soaked in syrup during the jam making process).

Prick each apple with a toothpick

3. Infuse apples in syrup

• Immerse the chopped apples in boiling syrup (do not cook, turn off immediately).
• Leave for several hours (from 6 to 12, depending on the recipe and your free time).

4. Make jam

After infusion, jam is cooked in two ways:

• in 1 dose (immediately until ready).
• five minutes (3 times after a certain time).

Very little foam is formed; I did not remove them at all, so as not to damage the apples. Stir with a wooden or Teflon spoon (also to keep the delicate Chinese skin intact or not to crush the apple pieces).

During pauses between cooking, the jam should be covered with a lid.

Proportions, time and other cooking features for different jam recipes are given in the table (see below), individual recipes are illustrated with step-by-step preparation photos.

Jam is ready

Readiness is judged either by time (for example, the recipe limits cooking time = 20-40 minutes), or by external signs:

• the apples should become translucent (which does not always happen and not for everyone);
• a wrinkled film will appear on the surface of the syrup (which means it is already quite thick);
• When stirred, the jam does not flow from the walls of the basin like water, but sticks to them.

Some housewives advise judging by a drop that does not spread over the saucer (as in ordinary jam). However, it is worth considering that apples rich in pectin make jelly jam. Therefore, in order not to overcook and thicken the jam unnecessarily (thick jam, when frozen, will become even thicker, closer to candied fruits, and will not be as tender), it is better to follow the principle by which readiness is judged - as soon as it begins to stick to the walls, it’s ready .

Paradise apples in syrup

This is how you get apples in jam

Chinese jam in slices

There is an option for making jam in slices. Cooking in slices or pieces is convenient when not all apples are perfect. Then you need to remove the bad part and put the good part into the jam.

When cooking in slices, the Chinese do not need to be blanched or pricked. Just cut into 4 parts, remove the core and tail (after cleaning and discarding, I got 1.5 kg of jam slices from 2.5 kg of china). Using the same recipes, you can cook large apples, cut into pieces or slices.

The slices are covered with sugar (either mixed, or in layers: apples-sugar-apples-sugar). And infuse with sugar for 10-12 hours at room temperature. And then they cook it by adding a little water. The further technology for cooking Chinese slices is the same as for jam from whole apples with a tail (in one step or in several steps over five minutes).

Chinese jam recipes

You can close the jam with iron (ordinary) lids.

Cooking in pictures

Recipe No. 4 (jam from a whole Chinese jam with a tail, in 1 serving)

Jam from tiny apples (Chinese)

Recipe No. 3.1 (with orange)

Miniature apples (Chinese)
Chinese, cleared of seeds and tails (slices)
Sprinkle the slices with sugar and leave

Bring the slices in sugar with water and juice to a boil
This is how you make jam from Chinese wedges
Dry, steam or pour over boiling water

Transfer the jam into jars
Closing the jam