Mother's Day Apricot Jam

Apricots always appear in stores around mother’s day, so that is when I make this refrigerator jam. I celebrate the day by slathering this jam on a thick slice of buttered toast and eating it while lingering over a book at the table.

It’s best with really good, ripe apricots, but you can make it work with almost anything. If I’m feeling ambitious, I’ll pick up apricots from several different sources just to add to the complexity of the flavor, sweet and tart.

The vanilla bean is the secret ingredient here. If you look closely, you’ll see thousands of tiny vanilla bean seeds suspended in the finished jam. It provides a comforting sweetness to counteract the tartness of the apricots. Also, it is extremely satisfying to split a vanilla bean in half and scrape out the fragrant paste with your tiny paring knife.

Ingredients

1/4 cup water
1 1/4 cup sugar
2 pounds apricots, skin on, pulled apart, pitted and divided
1 vanilla bean
Juice from 1/2 of a lemon

Instructions

1. Take a large, heavy pan and stir the sugar into a quarter cup of water. Bring to a boil, and then turn down the heat and simmer until all the sugar has dissolved and it is a clear syrup (1-2 minutes). Add half your apricots and cook slowly until they start to soften and break down (around ten minutes).

2. Add the rest of your apricots and the vanilla bean and simmer until you are happy with the texture and the thickness (anywhere from 10-30 minutes). Make sure to stir and keep an eye on the heat. There is no coming back from burned jam.

3. Take out the vanilla bean, split it in half, and scrape out the seeds and paste. Stir vanilla paste into the jam and add the juice of half a lemon. Cook for a few more minutes and then store in the refrigerator for a few weeks. It also freezes well so you can have this sunny jam in January.