Ellis Cameron: ‘Tis the season to be jolly…

I know it’s only the start of December, but I’m getting a little Christmassy already. If you’re feeling a bit Bah! Humbug-y already then I’d suggest you stop reading now.

I think I’m mostly in a Christmas mood because it KEEPS SNOWING! Granted, the uneasy, incredibly slidey walk home when the snow has frozen into ice is of course, not at all nice. But there is something rather lovely about watching snow fall outside.

I’ve also got cracking on making little Xmas pressies. As per usual, I really like making presents, as I feel it’s a really nice, personal thing to do. It means you’re giving someone something a bit unique and special, as it’s homemade. Even although me and my friends don’t really do presents at Christmas, as everyone’s usually a bit skint, I always like to make them a little something. This year, me and Mark have been working on homemade jam. It’s actually surprisingly simple to make, and as you can use jam for everything from croissants to toast, it’s a bit of a versatile gift, and of course you don’t have to eat it in a hurry.

The recipe I’ve been working off is very basic, but effective. I’ve been making strawberry, blueberry and raspberry jam, so for each 100g of berries, you need 100g of sugar. We made the 3 different jams at separate times, so for each recipe use 300g raspberries/blueberries/strawberries and 300g granulated sugar. With the teeny jars we bought, (110ml) it makes about 4 jars per 300g of berries and 300g of sugar.

To make the jam:

1. Place 300g sugar in an ovenproof pan and warm in a 120°C oven for 15 minutes.

2. Place 300g berries in a large stainless steel saucepan.

3. Bring to a full boil over high heat, then mashing berries with a potato masher. Boil for 1 minute, making sure to continuously stir the mixture.

4. Add the warm sugar and return to the boil

5. Boil until mixture will form a gel – which takes about 5 minutes – to test, dip a cold metal spoon (a tea spoon will do) into the fruit. Lift up and turn on its side. The jam is ready when the drips of jam are thick, and two drops run together before falling off the spoon.

6. Ladle the jam into sterilized jars.

We then put labels on the jars, (which mum had picked up at a car boot sale the previous weekend) which read ‘Merry Christmas’ on the front and ‘Love Elly and Mark’ on the other. Simple, yet gorgeous. Plus it’s a lot of fun to make!

Another thing I’m hoping I’ll be trying out soon are these gorgeous Christmas pudding cupcakes.

Ellis Cameron, Young in Argyll correspondent

The photographs accompany this article are by Ellis Cameron.