STRAWBERRY VANILLA JAM

Steps:

• Put all fresh cut strawberries and vanilla been in a plastic gallon bag with 1 cup sugar and set overnight in the fridge.
• The next day, there should now be some juices in the bag along with the strawberries. Put the sugar/strawberries/juice in pan, take out vanilla bean. Cut bean in half down the center. Scrape out seeds and put into pan with strawberries. Discard bean pod. Stir in remaining sugar, lemon zest and add butter.
• Bring to full rolling boil (a boil that doesn't stop bubbling when stirred) on high heat, stirring constantly.
• Take off heat. Stir in pectin. Return to full rolling boil and boil for exactly 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Skim off any foam with metal spoon.
• Take potato masher and mash strawberries to the size you want in jam. Let this cool for 5/10 minutes, so that all the fruit will not rise to the top in jars.
• Ladle immediately into prepared jars, filling to within 1/4 inch of tops. Wipe rim clean.
• Apply lids, then rings and tighten rings to fingertip tightness.
• Process in boiling water bath for your altitude time.
• P.S. Tips: A. If using fresh strawberries, they can be crushed before cooking/boiling. But I like chunky jam and I have found that the strawberries melt during the boiling time if I mash them first. So I prefer to do this after boiling. This way I have more control of the final fruit size B. In summer we freeze lots of strawberries for me to make jam in fall for xmas baskets. Once they are unfrozen there is juice already, so I skip the overnight process. C: Just an FYI, If you use store bought bagged frozen strawberries, since they are cut more then half and are not fresh they break down even faster during the boiling time. D. You can also make this with low sugar pectin or no sugar recipes, just follow the fruit/sugar qty's on the pectin boxes instructions.