Strawberry Freezer Jam: Less Sugar vs. Full Sugar

This week I've been replenishing my supply of strawberry freezer jam.   It's so easy to make and tastes so delicious!   I use the recipe that comes in the Sure Jell box to make my jam.  You can usually find Sure Jell in the section where the canning jars are sold.  

Our Best Bites has a great tutorial on how to make strawberry freezer jam using the recipe in the Sure Jell box if you'd like to learn how to make it.

Less sugar recipe in 1 1/8 cup reusable Glad containers

For the first batch I made, I used the reduced sugar recipe from the Sure Jell box.  I was curious what the difference was between it and the full sugar recipe. 

The less sugar recipe is healthier, so that's a big plus.  It calls for 4 cups of mashed strawberries and 3 cups of sugar, while the full sugar recipe calls for 2 cups of mashed strawberries and 4 cups of sugar--a huge difference! 

Four cups of strawberries -- enough to make one batch of less sugar jam. 
(I put off making the jam for a few days, so they are a bit riper than I would have liked them to be, oh well!)

The less sugar recipe makes 6 cups of jam while the full sugar recipe will make 5 cups.  I noticed that it seems to take more of the less sugar jam to make a PB and J than the full sugar recipe, so it's good that it makes a larger batch.

What I really was curious about though is the difference in taste between the two jams, so  I spread some of each on a slice of bread.  The full sugar jam is denser than the less sugar jam, I'm pretty sure it's because of all of the sugar in it (and probably because I over-mashed the strawberries a bit on this batch--oops--you don't want to over-mash!).

Can you tell which is which?

The full sugar jam is on the left, the less sugar jam is on the right. 

One of the things I noticed first was the difference in color.  I think the less sugar jam has a more natural strawberry color...but on to the big question...how did they taste?

My four year old and I sampled each of them and it was unanimous--2 votes for the less sugar jam.  I was actually surprised that I liked it better because I thought that it wouldn't be sweet enough for me--I was wrong.  To me it has more of a natural strawberry taste and seems fresher than the full sugar recipe.  This is just my opinion though, your taste buds might tell you something different!  The fact that I liked the less sugar jam better doesn't mean that I won't totally love and enjoy eating the jam with all of the sugar in it that I made!  I still think it tastes really good, just in a different way.

The Sure Jell recipe suggests that you store the jam in 1 or 2 cup plastic containers.   I ended up trying a 1 cup round container, a 1 1/8 cup container, and an 8 ounce wide-mouthed Mason jar.  The plastic containers stack well in the freezer and the glass mason jar will be perfect to put the jam in for gifts.

I took them straight out of the fridge and freezer for the picture.  I promise they aren't dirty--just frosty!

The plastic containers cost less than the glass jars and I suppose would be safer to store in the freezer.  This jam can be stored in the fridge for up to 2 weeks and in the freezer for up to one year. 

This package of 4 mason jars cost just under $4.

So I guess the verdict is.....give the less sugar recipe a try. 

If you don't like it, I'm so sorry and please don't be mad at me! :)

If you've tried both the less and full sugar recipes, do you have a preference? 

 ***Next up I'll show you how I packaged the jam for gifts.  I designed a whole page of printable tags, including one for a teacher thank you and one for a friend, and of course I'll be sharing them with you!  Here's a little sneak peek...

Today's Fabulous Find...Less Sugar Strawberry Freezer Jam 

Summer Camp!

Have you heard about Oopsey Daisy's Summer Camp?  If you haven't, let me be the first to tell you about it! 

Alison at Oopsey Daisy has come up with a brilliant plan to help cure kids summer boredom blues.
Every Friday throughout the summer a guest blogger will share some fun activities that are based on a children's book.  It could be a craft, game, recipe, play date idea, or another fun activity!

Alison started off the 13 week camp yesterday with some creative and fun ideas for a monster play date based on the book Where The Wild Things Are. 

I'm so excited to have been asked to participate in the summer camp series and will be guest posting in July!

The other bloggers participating are:

Craftaholics Anonymous

How Does She?

A Little Tipsy

Creation Corner

Sumo's Sweet Stuff

I Heart Naptime

Kiki Creates

Brown Paper Packages

Lil Luna

Smashed Peas and Carrots

Sugar Bee

Don't miss out on this... click here!

Today's Fabulous Find...Oopsey Daisy's Summer Camp

Make a Paint Stick Soap Box

A couple of years ago I had an idea to make printed ornaments using paint sticks.  At first I didn't know what I was doing, so of course I made some mistakes.   Instead of throwing the ruined ornaments away though I made them into a decorative soap box.  (This was my inspiration when I made the larger paint stick crate recently.)

See?  Here they are!  (I didn't even bother to paint over them.)

(In case you're wondering...the 'believe' ornament was an attempt to scan and print the scrapbook paper and the 'joy' ornament was printed instead of being photo copied and the ink smeared.)

The best part about this soap box is that you can make it for free!  It only takes a couple of 5 gallon size paint sticks to make one.  If you don't already have paint sticks hanging around your house that you can use, you can ask to buy some for a craft at a paint counter.  

How To Make A Paint Stick Soap Box

Here's what you'll need:

2- 5 gallon size Paint sticks
glue (hot glue, wood, Gorilla, whatever you've got that will hold paint sticks together)
staple gun (optional, it's just for looks)
hand saw
paint or stain
stencil (you can make one)

Instructions:

First cut four- 4" lengths for the sides and the bottom of the box, and two pieces that are the width of two paint sticks plus the depth of two paint sticks for the ends (around 3 1/4" to 3 3/8" long if you use Lowe's or Home Depot 5 gallon paint sticks). 

To make the box sides appear to be two pieces, use a hand saw to score four of the sticks down the middle.

Take four of the paint stick pieces and place them together to form a rectangle box.

Glue them together, or if you want, staple the corners together with an electric staple gun.  Be careful to watch your fingers, it's a bit tricky to line up (it helps to use a 2x4).  If the staples don't go in all of the way, use a hammer.

Take the two 4" long pieces for the bottom of the box and glue them in about 1/2" up from the bottom.  (Hot glue works good.)

Paint or stain the box.  (I think I might still rub on some white paint with a rag to make this one look more aged, I just haven't gotten around to it yet.)

For the stencil, either print out the word SOAP onto card stock and cut it out with an Exacto knife (this is what I did), or cut out a stencil with a craft cutting machine if you have one.  The font I used is called 'stencil'.   I used a foam brush to apply the paint and then after it was dry I lightly brushed over it with some brown paint so the white wasn't so bright.  It will also work to rub some stain on over it with a rag.

I added some excelsior in the bottom and two bars of scented soap (items that I had) and was able to make my little soap box without spending any money.  I love it when that happens!   Who knows, you might have everything you need to make one for free too. :)

Today's Fabulous Find....Free Paint Stick Soap Box 

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Mother's Day Subway Art (Revised)

I've revised all of the Mother's Day subway art prints (and even added one in purple) so they can be used for other years and occasions as well.  I'll blame my decision to use the date of this years Mother's Day on all of the prints (the first time around) on the fact that I was rushing to design them in just one day (to post them the next) and was making these big decisions at 3 am.  Never a good idea!  Better late than never though, right? :) 

I have a Father's Day Subway Art print that is nearly finished and will be posting it within a week or so. 

Mother's Day Subway Art with Flower Image

 For Personal Use Only

 

Click here for the original Mother's Day Subway Art post
including information on downloading and sizing.

Embellished Jean Shorts

Look what my 13 year old daughter made!  I couldn't be more pleased. :) 

She asked me last night if I'd like to see what she made and I was so shocked when she showed me these embellished jean shorts.  She designed and made them all by herself while I was in my youngest daughters room sorting through her 'treasures'.   She was so quiet about it that I had absolutely no clue that she was even making anything.

She first took a pair of her old jeans and cut them off into shorts and frayed the bottom edges.  Then she used the jean leg to cut out the layers of flower petals. 

She used a black permanent marker to draw around the edges of the flower and then frayed the edges a bit.  Not a bad idea, right!  After all, permanent marker never comes out of  kids clothes, so why not put it there on purpose for once. ;)

There were only a couple of drawbacks, one small, and one kinda big. 

The small problem is that she used hot glue to glue on the little gems.  They probably wouldn't last long in the dryer, but it would be easy enough to glue them back on with permanent fabric glue. 

The big problem is that when I asked her if she'd go put them on so I could see how they looked....she discovered that the shorts were too tight and they no longer fit her!  I felt so bad!   I guess someone could argue that this is also a 'small' problem (hee, hee).   She's not worried about it though, she said that really she just wanted something to do. :)


Today's Fabulous Find...Embellished Jean Shorts