Habanero Pepper Jam

I grew a habanero plant in a deck planter this summer which produced many peppers! I searched online for habanero jam recipes, because I had the idea in my mind of serving this with cream cheese and crackers. I started with the recipe I found on AllRecipes, and I made minimal adjustments to the recipe. Following are my results and suggestions.

Serving suggestion: whole-grain cracker topped with
neufchatel cheese (reduced fat cream cheese) and habanero jam

I made only a small batch of this jam for two reasons: I wanted to make sure it would turn out with the changes I made, and I wanted to make sure we liked it. We liked it so well, I will be making this again next week!

Ingredients 

• ¾ cup cider vinegar
• 1⅔ cups Truvia - If you want to use sugar, you will need about twice as much. See original recipe with sugar in the AllRecipes link above.
• ½ to ¾ carrot, shredded - I used more than ½ of a medium size carrot
• ¼ large red bell pepper, minced
• 6 or 7 habaneros, minced and seeded - I started with 6 and then added another half while it was on the stove; I think I will just use 6 next time!
• 3 oz. liquid pectin

Diced bell pepper, habanero, and shredded carrots

Directions

Bring cider vinegar and Truvia to a boil in a medium saucepan on the stove. Add shredded carrot and minced bell pepper; heat to boiling, and then simmer 5 minutes, stirring as needed.

All ingredients after boiling on stove

Add minced habaneros and simmer another 4 to 5 minutes. Add liquid pectin, and bring to a rapid boil. Boil rapidly another 5 minutes. 

Let cool, and then place in a tightly sealed container and store in fridge. An empty and clean glass jam container would be perfect for this.

My favorite way to serve this jam: place an 8 oz. brick of low fat cream cheese on a serving plate, top with jam, serve with whole-grain crackers.

Enjoy, and feel free to share this post!