French Date Jam Recipe
Make French date jam with just three ingredients! An easy recipe using traditional methods, perfect for beginner home jam makers.
Servings: 4 8 oz/230 ml jars
Calories: 815kcal
Equipment
- 3.5" Paring Knife
- Kitchen Scale you need to weigh your dates to get the recipe right.
- Jam Pan (copper) or large stainless-steel pan.
- Hand Blender
- Candy Thermometer to check setting of the jam.
- 4 8 oz Canning Jars or 230 ml.
- Silicone Spatula To help you scrape out all the jam from the pan.
- Wettex Absorbent Sponge To clean jars if you made a mess.
Instructions
- Cut open your dates and take out the seeds. Discard the seeds. Slice each date into smaller chunks and weigh them.4 cups Dates
- Cut open lemon or lime, squeeze and collect the juice. Keep the lemon halves, you will need them.2 Lemon
- Place sliced dates, lemon/lime juice, water, and sugar into a large jam cooking pan. Mix it all well.4 cups Dates, 2 cups Sugar, 2 cups Water, 2 Lemon
- Leave to macerate (infuse) for about 12 hours or overnight so that the dates soften and infused with the lime and sugar.
- The next day, take the heat to your stove top and keep over a medium heat setting until you get to a rolling boil.
- Reduce the heat and keep over a lower heat setting to cook down the date jam. This takes about 20 minutes, and you will need to stir frequently so that nothing sticks to the bottom of the jam pan. The jam is done when it appears shiny and the fruits are cooked, sticky and thick.
- Take your pan from the heat and remove the lemon halves to discard them.
- Blend your jam with a hand blender to the desired consistency. It can be smooth or chunky, you get to decide.
- Do a final test to see if the jam is set with a thermometer or with an ice-cold plate. In general, date jam will turn out thicker, so you won't really have to worry that much about the setting of the jam (setting = shelf life). The thermometer setting temperature is 220 Fahrenheit/105 Celsius and for the ice-cold plate, drop some hot jam on it and the jam will cool instantly, revealing its true consistency. Move around the plate, if it doesn't run, it's set. You can do both tests or either one.
- Pack set jam into sterilized clean jam jars and fill up to the top. Close the jar with a lid and turn the hot jar upside down to create a vacuum in the jar (increases shelf life). Clean jars with you made a mess. The jars can be turned back upright once the jars are not that hot anymore.
Notes
800 grams or 4 cups compressed dates = 28.2 oz.
Makes about 4×8oz/230 ml jam jars.
Tip: In France, we pour a few drops of some liquor into the lid to kill remaining bacteria. This is optional, and you can use rum or vodka or distilled schnapps. The alcohol is then poured away, or you can drop it over your jam if you like.
Nutrition
Serving: 230g | Calories: 815kcal | Carbohydrates: 215g | Protein: 4g | Fat: 1g | Saturated Fat: 0.1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 0.1g | Sodium: 11mg | Potassium: 1041mg | Fiber: 13g | Sugar: 194g | Vitamin A: 27IU | Vitamin C: 29mg | Calcium: 76mg | Iron: 2mg
