David Lebovitz’s No-Recipe Cherry Jam. Yowza!

Between David Lebovitz and Dorie Greenspan, I could easily spend three hours a day, seven days a week at the gym.

Sigh.

Back in June, David blogged about a simple “recipe” for cherry jam. Being a sour cherry fanatic (it rivals my obsession for passion fruit), I found a couple quarts at my local farmers’ market and got to work.  I didn’t stress, I didn’t worry if it would gel.  I knew that, at worst, I could use it as a topping for ice cream or yogurt.

Making a small batch of jam is the way to go – it sets more quickly, and does not try my patience. For the most part, I followed the directions, but cut up the lemon rind, tied it in a muslin bag, and let it cook with the cherries. I added a couple drops of almond oil at the end.  And, unlike my orange marmalade, I did not overcook this batch of jam.

At first, I thought it wouldn’t gel at all, but as the jam cooled on the counter, it thickened nicely, though it was still a “soft” set. Of course, I couldn’t find my canning lids, but I’m not worried. You see, I predict that we will rapidly consume this jam. Why? This stuff is out of this world! In the photo at the top of this post, I added it to some organic yogurt, in keeping with my optimistic philosophy that healthy stuff would cancel out all the sugar or fat, as the case may be.

For more posts on cherry jam, check out these bloggers:

Wandering Knits
The Amateur Gourmet
Real Baking with Rose