Key Lime Pie Martini Jam

I've never worked with limes. I've never made a marmalade. And, although I've added vanilla, schnapps's and chambord to certain fruit jam recipes, I've never created my own recipe. From scratch. How hard could it really be? Twice as much fruit as sugar, boil until you reach the gel point, do the plate test, can...

Little did I know the secret to my jam would be in how I prepared the juice.

I started with a bowl of key limes.

And made juice. I decided to try slicing the limes thinly while removing the seeds, just like this recipe described. This worked famously.

Next, I boiled the slices with five cups of water for about 30 minutes. After letting it cool a bit, I tasted it. The juice was extremely bitter and pithy tasting.

So I started over. This time I sliced all the rinds off the limes.

Cooked the fruit with another five cups of water to extract the juice.

Then, I tasted the juice. Much better. So I made a key lime pie martini. Once I had my drink to taste the jam against, I was good to go!

Key Lime Pie Martini Jam

2 cups of key lime juice

3 cups of pineapple juice

3 cups of sugar

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

1/4 cup triple sec

1/2 cup citrus or vanilla vodka

Mix fruit juices and sugar in a large pot and bring to a boil until gel point is reached. Remove from the heat. Add the vanilla, triple sec, and vodka. Pour into jars and seal in a hot water bath for 10 minutes.

I've been enjoying the jam on homemade bread since Sunday. It is a touch bitter but it's growing on me. I think I may try mixing it with cream cheese and eating it with graham crackers.