Apricot Jam

Apricot Jam
© Denzil Green

Apricot Jam can be used as a spread on toast, as a filling in between cakes, or as a glaze on baked goods or meat.

Apricots are a low-pectin fruit, so if you make the jam without added pectin the jam will be very soft, sometimes even almost pourable. You can firm up the jam a bit by using up to 25% underripe fruit — but that’s not a particularly helpful hint if you don’t have access to a tree. Most people add pectin. A few people cheat, adding pumpkin to stretch out the apricots.

Commercial apricot jams and preserves are always going to have a fuller apricot flavour than what you can make at home. For whole apricots to survive the shipping to your grocery counter, they have to be picked underripe, before the flavour is fully developed (the flavour will not develop any further once the fruit leaves the tree.) Apricots that are going to commercial production can be left on the tree longer letting the full flavour develop. If you happen to have an apricot tree in your background, then of course you can get your fruit fully ripe.

Sachertorte, the famous Viennese cake, uses apricot jam. Apricot jam is also often used to stick the layer of marzipan onto Christmas cakes.