easy homemade refrigerator apricot jam

i love apricot jam.. it brings back such fond memories of my childhood.. every may we would all go outside and pick apricots and then my dad would make jam all afternoon.. we would have jars and jars of it.. i would wait patiently until it was cool enough to eat.. i can remember it being night and after dinner making a piece of toast and sitting in the backyard with my feet in the pool enjoying my toast with slighly warm apricot jam.. such a great memory..

the first year we moved into the house we live in now we had an apricot tree and i made over 40 jars of apricot jam.. the following year the tree died *super sad face*  however, as luck would have it... a few weeks ago tina called and said her tree was bursting with apricots and there was no way she could use them all.. so pete and i went over and brought home 3 large bags of apricots.. i immediately made jam.. i also made apricot chopped bbq pork, recipe here.. and buffalo apricot chicken wings (recipe to come), apricot chutney (recipe to come also).... i was inspired for the jam by this recipe here.. i saw it on pinterest and since i hadn't made it in 10 years i decided to go with someone elses recipe.. i chose not to "can" mine in the traditional sense..that whole canning process scares the bajeebies outta me.. ha so i made refrigerator jam.. it will keep in the fridge about 6 months to a year..but seriously it won't be around that long.. i made 12 jars and i am already down to 6..



easy refrigerator apricot jam

prep time: 20 minutes
cooking time:
servings: 12 - 16 oz. jars

ingredients:

2 lbs. of apricots (about 8 to 9 cups)
3 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 cup water
juice of 1 lemon plus zest

halve the apricots and remove pits..cut apricots into chunks.  in a large heavy bottomed pot over medium high heat combine apricots, sugar and water, bring to a boil, stirring constantly.. for about 10-15 minutes..

then turn the heat to medium low..cook until thickened.. about an hour.. half way into it add your lemon juice and zest.. you'll know its done when it coats the back of a spoon.. also as the apricots cook, you can skim off the foam with a spoon and save in a clean glass jar.. it settled into an incrediable syrup..(if you don't want to skim the foam you don't have too) your looking for the jam to become 2 or 3 shades darker and smooth and thick with some chunks..

remove apricots from heat and ladle into clean sterilized jars.. when they become room temperature, put the lids on and then place in the fridge.. after a few hours it will be ready to serve..it's so dang yummy you might not be able to wait the few hours.. i do think next time i am going to add either a jalepano or chipolte peppers for some kick, but only to half the batch..