We waited 5 years patiently to reap the benefits of our Pawpaw Tree. Finally, this year we had an abundance of this tasty tropical tasting fruit. The taste and flavor is a delicious combination of banana, mango and custard apple. Our Pawpaw fruits look a little like mangoes. But anyway who cares how it looks, as long as its tasty and we are able to harvest our own fruits. With so much of abundance, I wanted to preserve this harvest, so I made this easy and delicious Pawpaw jam recipe.
While starting our garden, we were looking for some easy maintenance trees which gives us delicious fruits. And we went a little wild with planting a few. Some of the other trees we planted take longer to fruit. But surprisingly, this year we had a lot of paw paws to harvest. We shared our abundance with neighbors and friends too. For most of our neighbors this was a novelty to try.
Pawpaws are the fruit of the Asimina triloba tree, which is native to the eastern United States and southern Canada. Pawpaws are the northernmost member of the Annonaceae plant family, which consists mainly of tropical and subtropical plants.
They’re considered the largest edible fruit native to North America, measuring 2–6 inches (5–16 cm) and 1–3 inches wide (3–7 cm). The climate in Switzerland is similar to that of North America, therefore, we thought planting them would be great for our food forest. We just had to be patient for this many years to reap the benefit.
We planted 2 trees and one of the trees gave us bigger sized fruits but the other one although younger still produced a lot. My husband and I ate almost 2 to 3 fruits everyday as soon as they ripened. But I still had so much that I made a pawpaw jam to preserve it for winter. I make a lot of jams and have shared recipes regularly on this blog. Check out my other jam recipes.
Tips to make Pawpaw Jam Recipe
- The jam doesn’t need pectin and it sets easily without it if you cook it longer.
- Since, pawpaws are not extremely sweet, I prefer to add enough sugar to preserve it.
- For doing the plate test, set a plate in the freezer. Drop a little of the cooked jam on to the cold plate and tilt it a little, if the jam stops flowing then the jam is ready to bottle.
Tools you will need
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Heavy bottom Pot
Mixing bowl
Wooden cutting board
How to make Pawpaw Jam
Ingredients:
2 Kg of ripe pawpaws pureed
2 cups of water
1/2 cup of lemon juice ( I used the bottled one )
1 Kg of white castor sugar
1 tsp cinnamon powder
2 tsp Vanilla powder
Juice and grated peel of that orange ( Optional )
Method
- Wash and cut the pawpaw. Remove the flesh from the fruit by scooping it with a spoon after removing the seeds.
- Discard the skin of the fruit.
- Mash the pulp using a food mill, immersion blender or a food processor.
- In a heavy bottom large saucepan mix all the ingredients and cook down on low until the mixture thickens.
- This will take about an hour or more depending on the quantity you have.
- Do the plate test. Once the jam sets switch off the heat.
- Fill into sterilized glass jars leaving about 1 cm before sealing the jars.
- Do a water bath canning for 10 minutes.
How long can you store Pawpaw jam?
I am not very sure about this, as this was the first time I had access to this fruit. Generally, all the jams I make store well for a year or even more. Because sugar is the preservative. Although, I recently got a pressure canning cooker, I am yet to try canning jams with it.
What can you use pawpaw jam for and can you eat it raw?
You can add the jam to a smoothie, or pudding and on bread toast.
Yes, you can eat the fruit raw which is what we love the most. Wash and cut into half remove the seeds and scoop out the flesh of the fruit and eat it like a pudding. Make sure they are soft, they usually turn somewhat blackish, but don’t wait too long with it.
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If you try this pawpaw jam recipe and love it, I would love if you come back and gave it 5 stars! Thank you so much for visiting Vial Fair Living – we’re so happy you’re here! I would love it if you can share this recipe using the social media buttons you see next to the post.
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Store in the refrigerator if you are not sure about the canning safety procedures.
You can freeze the pawpaw puree if needed and make small quantities of the jam for quick consumption.
Ingredients
Instructions
Notes
