ClearJel: Another FAVORITE Ingredient

Pin It Now! I promised to move on to breads, but we haven't finished with my secrets for making nearly "All-Fruit" jam.

Another FAVORITE ingredient is the commercial thickener known as Regular Clear Jel .

Oh baby, you really want to use Regular Clear Jel because it's specially made for canning - no matter what granular sweetener you choose to use.  

• Instead of using Sure-Jell pectin, clearjel(s) require less sweetener, pectin needs 5-7 cups sweetener.
• With clearjel(s) you can use much less, normally about 2-3 cups table sugar - depending on the fruit you use (i.e. RIPE strawberries or ripe peaches need far less sweetener, than apricots need).
• Clearjel(s) set up faster, with a clearer and softer consistency (GREAT as dessert fillings too!). 
• You can even purchase both Regular and Instant clearjel, at great prices from my blog's Amazon store, that I'm slowly building.

Regular Clear Jel is wonderful modified food starch for canning jam, and works best when added with some granular sweetener (i.e. Whey Low D is my personal favorite fruit based sweetener) in any recipe that ordinarily calls for table sugar. Here's a link for some terrific, tried-n-true jam recipes, using regular clearjel.

I've canned with regular clearjel, making the recipes (tried-n-true, as written) and also substituting Whey Low D nearly "all-fruit" jams, along-side vs. the table sugar counterparts. When I get a chance, I'll post some apricot jams (side-by-side later on) for you to see, as you'll note the WLD nearly "all-fruit" jams are brighter and prettier than the table sugar jams. Perhaps due to caramelizing, from canning process, from the table sugar? Just the same, the WLD nearly "all-fruit" jams taste even better, imagine that, than the original sugary ones!

For more helpful info, on the subject of clearjel(s), go to my cooking site's MFS Chart (aka: modified food starch). Plus an article, I've written for Wikia, mostly about Instant ClearJel, which another, wonderful type of thickener.

I mainly do use Instant ClearJel 90% of the time, within my baking - as opposed to my canning, BUT that's whole other TOPIC, which I will just love to teach you about. You will LOVE it too!

Note: Instant ClearJel is NOT recommended for canning jams or pie fillings - but ICJ is just fabulous for freezer jam - which you'd want to use about 3 Tablespoons ICJ, per 5 cups of crushed fruit, plus 2 cups granular sweetener.

Be sure to comment, sharing with us whether you've used these products too, or if you have questions. Using either sort of clearjel is not a science, but oh how I prefer using them over pectin or other thickeners!