Easy Peasy Strawberry Conserve!

Summer brings and abundance of fruit and when its on special offer in the local supermarket its screaming ''STRAWBERRY CONSERVE!!!"

Well, that's what I saw in front of me when punnets were piled high at only a £1 each!

Now before i get to how easy peasy it is to make, the above picture shows beautifully sliced strawberries ready to be dried slowly in the oven to create my very own dried strawberry pieces I dream of for my cereal. I had read somewhere how easy that was.....

Hmmmm........ oh yes easy, but what I had not estimated was how thin, small and impossible they would be to get off your greaseproof paper once dried! TAKE NOTE!!! - Cut thickly!!!!! Use non-stick trays!!!!

Right, swiftly moving on from a disaster to a triumph!

Strawberry Conserve!

You will need:

450g/1 lb Preserving Sugar

2 tblspoon Lemon Juice

450g/ 1 lb Strawberries

Put the sugar and lemon juice in a pan and stir over a low heat until the sugar has dissolved and turned into a lovely syrup.

If your strawberries are rather large, chop into quarters

Then add these to the syrup and take off the heat, stir around gently and allow to stand for 15 to 30 minutes. The smell at this point is divine and is a good indicator of whats to come!

Return the pan to the heat and cook steadily for 5 to 7 minutes or until setting point has reached.

If you are unsure of when the conserve has set I used the wrinkle test by placing a saucer in the freezer for a bit, then dropped a dollop of conserve on the dish, let it cool a little and gave it a little push with my finger. If it wrinkled it was ready!

Allow the conserve to cool for a time, stir to distribute the fruit and the spoon into hot sterilized jars and seal.

The most important part is to spread lashings on buttered toast and consume with a pleasing murmur! Mmmmmm, tasty!

Enjoy x

Note * I used the recipe from Marguerite Patten - The Basic Basics Jams, Preserves and Chutneys Handbook