Strawberry jam
 

Good evening! :wave:

I'm looking for something easy to make, with strawberries,.to spread on top of some cloud bread. I was thinking of cooking some strawberries with water and erythritol, perhaps add some chia seeds. Will it work? I'd like to keep it super low carb and all I'm asking is that it reminds me a bit of strawberry jam, or coulis. Thank you for your ideas! I've never made anything like that.

I searched for a jam recipe on here, but couldn't find one. So I googled and found a LC friendly berry/chia jam recipe off site:


https://www.gnom-gnom.com/paleo-keto-chia-jam/


That recipe is for raspberry jam. They say it will work with other berries, but you might need to adjust the ingredient amounts, or cooking time for the desired results.



I'm not wild about chia, but I know it thickens liquids readily. If you're used to working with chia that's probably the way to go to get good results.



I'm used to working with xanthan gum as a thickener for gravies and sauces, so if I were making a LC jam, I'd probably use some xanthan instead of the chia. Xanthan can be kind of tricky to work with to get the desired thickness without any lumping though. For sauces, I usually make a roux from the xanthan and some olive oil, then pour that into the hot liquid and whisk it until thickened. If I'm trying to thicken a lot of liquid (such as for a gravy) I find it works best to sprinkle the dry xanthan gum over the hot liquid, and use a stick blender to incorporate it, increasing the speed of the stick blender until the mixture thickens enough. (A food processor might work too, although you wouldn't want to risk pouring really hot liquid into a food processor) For the amount of jam that recipe makes, it would probably take about 1 tsp of xanthan to fully thicken it, but I'd start with a smaller amount and add more if needed, so that I didn't accidentally end up with it thick enough to slice. :lol:

What little I can offer is that chia sucks up the liquid well, so well we use for a variety of uses. I have no experience using it in a hot jam. Perhaps mash the berries and mix it cold. A fresh jam flavor. Unless you prefer the cooked flavor better.

Hi. Are you looking to make a large quantity, or single serving? There are some pretty simple freezer jam recipes that are sugar-free.

For single servings, I like to make a 'sauce'. I'll thaw some berries in the microwave, then gently heat them in a sauce pan on the stove with some butter until some of the water cooks out. I usually eat it warm, but I bet it would refrigerate and make a nice spread. You could add sweetener, but I don't usually bother.

When I fancy serving jam, I just put ripe strawbs into a little pan with a tiny amount of water, cook them a few minutes, mashing them down when soft enough. I find strawbs taste sweeter when cooked so I don't sweeten them. I do the same with rasps and might add a little stevia to taste. Mine always gets eaten within a few days, so I just store it in the fridge. It's so quick to make that there's no need to make a big batch. I guess it would freeze OK, but I just freeze the raw berries.

My go-to sweetener is stevia, but stevia is noticeable if too much is used, so if I wanted to make it a bit sweeter, I'd add a small amount of a second different sweetener - e.g. Splenda, eurythritol, etc.

Whenever I think of strawberry jam I think of that scene in Soylent Green where Edward G. Robinson brings Charton Heston the fixings for a real beef stew, and a spoon with residual jam on it.

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Thank you all for the suggestions!

I think I'll try to follow the idea of getting some frozen strawberries and cooking them like you say, ~kirsteen. I just want a small amount and I want to keep it simple.

I've finally made it. I've just taken 5 frozen strawberries and put them into a cup and into the microwave. About 2 to 3 minutes later (my microwave power is only 700 W), there was a lot of liquid in the cup and the strawberries were soft, the smallest ones already losing shape. I've added erythritol and mixed well, using a fork to crush the fruit, then put it into the freezer to quickly cool it down. And I had my jam. The consistency was kind of runny, but with the crushed fruit inside. Perfect for me. I put it onto some keto waffles (coconut flour, egg, erythritol, butter, lots of cinnamon and almond milk). It was oh so satisfying!

I wasn't impressed with the erythritol, though. It took a lot to sweeten it. I wanted it really sweet. Next time I'll add some stevia, so I can use less erythritol.

Tomorrow I'll use this strawberry concoction to make gelatin. Sometimes I make lemon gelatin, but I want to experiment with the strawberries for a change. Perhaps add some heavy cream and make it into a sort of strawberry panacota.



I'm so happy it worked!

I'm glad you liked it!

The gelatin you're describing, I make that often. I cheat and use Jello brand SF mix, but I don't see why it wouldn't work with your own mixture of gelatin and sweeteners. My mom used to make that when we were kids, except it was ice cream she added. I like how it forms two layers once it's refrigerated. Feels a lot fancier than it really is. :cool:

Sweeteners. Ive learned from other recipes that using several AS in a recipe creates a better flavor profile.

Also, stay aware of how sweetness diminishes once we are not over-feeding it. That's a good thing.

I've read this and today I've made a coconut cinnamon mug pudding, I've mixed different sweeteners and... wow! No weird flavors, no aftertaste. Thank you for the tip!

If anyone is interested, I call it pudding, because I add a lot of heavy cream and the end result is quite moist.. Coconut, heavy cream, baking powder, egg, cinnamon and 3 different sweeteners to test what Ms Arielle said. I can't give quantities, because I don't measure, but I don't think it makes much difference. Lots of heavy cream, so it's quite wet when it goes to the microwave.

I bought a jar of "sugarless strawberry jam" yesterday
It looked like jelly
Didn't taste like strawberries

I also bought gluten free English muffins
Bore no resemblance to any English muffin I have ever eaten
Looked more like some kind of generic yellow muffin
Essentially tasteless

2 foods that will go in the garbage disposal today.