This is the easiest, most straightforward way of preserving apricots. Not to mention, it is very low-sugar.
And not only apricots, I preserve the cherries and the gooseberries growing in my garden the same way. I love this method because it is so simple; it involves the minimum amount of work and time, and on top of that, it uses just a little sugar.
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Why will you like this recipe?
No sugar bombs in a jar, just a hint of sweetness, giving you the freedom to use the preserves in any way you like later on, not worrying if maybe they are already too sweet or anything.
The fruit softens slightly but keeps its shape and structure; the fruit remains almost as “al dente” as fresh. So all you have to do, actually, is to clean and sterilize your jars, wash and stone the fruit, and boil the jars for about 20 minutes.
I find this method especially suitable during the time when there are lots and lots of fruits growing in my garden, so many that I barely have the time to do more laborious work. For instance, we have this huge cherry tree, which bestows us with extremely large amounts of cherries almost every year. It takes a lot of time and work just picking the ripe cherries off the tree, and there are only so many fresh cherries you can eat or bake in a short period of time.
I do freeze a few bags as well, but I find this method of preserving much better than having to work with defrosted fruit later on. So I preserve a lot of cherries, just as you can see in this post, How to Preserve Cherries. And recently, I thought about preserving apricots in the same way as well.
Recipe ingredients
- Apricots: Fresh ones, bought when in season. And if you have an apricot tree in your garden (or your neighbor or friend does) and your pantry is already full of Simple Apricot Jam, do give these preserved apricots a try.
- Sugar: The best part about preserving apricots yourself is that you can control the amount of sugar you use. Only a couple of tablespoons of apricots per jar will do.
- The preserved apricots will not be sweet but perfect to use in desserts or cakes, where there will be sugar added anyway.
How to use them?
You could use the preserved apricots in any way you would use them when fresh, from eating them as they are to making cake fillings with them.
You could make the Apricot Sauce from last week with these canned apricots, you could chop them into your porridge or müsli or you could serve them over strained yogurt like I did recently.
To make the strained yogurt, have a look at this post: Roasted Cherries with Strained Yogurt. Or another version of strained yogurt is to be found here: Yogurt Bomb with Berries.
I will give you no quantities for this recipe for preserving apricots; there is really no need for that. You will only need fruit, as much as you have, enough jars to hold them, a bit of sugar, and water. The only thing to remember is that you need 2 tablespoons of sugar per jar. That's it!
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How to Preserve Apricots in Jars - Low-Sugar
Ingredients
- apricots as many as you have
- large jars about 800 ml/ 27 oz capacity
- sugar 2 tablespoons for each jar
- water
Instructions
Sterilize the jars:
- To prepare the jars, preheat the oven to 130 degrees Celsius/ 275 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Sterilize: Wash the jars and the lids very thoroughly. Place the jars on a baking tray and sterilize them in the oven for 20 minutes.
- Cook the lids in boiling water for a few minutes. Leave to cool slightly; the apricots and the water will be cold when added to the jars.
Apricots:
- Prepare apricots: In the meantime, clean, halve and stone the apricots.
- Fill jars: Place apricots in the jars with the bulge facing up. Add two tablespoons of sugar to each jar and fill with water. Put the lid on.
Can the apricots:
- Can in canner if you have one.
- If you don't have a canner: Take a large pot, large enough to hold your jars without them touching each other. Place a clean, folded kitchen cloth on the bottom of the pot.
- Arrange the jars on top. Fill the pot with lukewarm water; about ⅔ of the jars should be immersed in water. Don't be tempted to fill the pot with hot water, or the jars, which are filled with cold water, might shatter.
- Can: Bring the water to a boil, then cook for 20 minutes. Take them out of the water immediately (Caution HOT) and place them on a baking tray, for instance.
- Cover them tightly with a blanket or several thick kitchen cloths and leave them to cool slowly until the next day.
- Store: They will keep in the cool cellar or pantry for at least 6 months. I still have cherries and gooseberries I made last year, and they are still good.
Nutrition
David Breen says
The sugar did not dissolve. It is in a layer at the bottom of the jar???
Adina says
It didn't dissolve after canning the jars? That's strange, as it always dissolves when heated. Try to shake the jars gently; see if that helps. If they are properly canned the apricots will still be safe even if the sugar remains at the bottom, maybe less sweet.
Daun says
Adina not Axons!
Daun says
Axons, I will be using smaller jars, 8 or 16 ozs. Do I still use 2 tablespoons of sugar per jar?
Adina says
It's really up to you, if you want them to be sweeter use 2 tablespoons. The shelf life won't be affected in this case.
Valerie says
Well....after 24 hours, I had exploding apriccot juice in the cupboard and they were fermenting big time 🙁 I only used 1 spoon of sugar per jar too 🙁 🙁 Now they are being made into jam.
Adina says
So strange, I never had that...
Patricia says
Hello, I followed your recipe and now have three jars of what look like delicious apricots. The problem is, I can't get the lids off! I have used the kind of preserving jars with the flip lids and rubber seals. Any tips on how to open them?
Kel says
Hi! Excited to try this recipe so that we can have cobbler all year long from our own apricots. New to canning and preserving and I’m wondering if you use water straight from the tap, or boiled or even bottled water from the store?
Adina Beck says
@Kel, I use water from the tap.
Brenda J McMurtrey says
Do you take the skins off of the apricots?
Adina says
Hi Brenda. No, I never did.
Dei says
The apricots I did the other day turned out amazing! Can't wait to try them when it's snowing outside 🙂 Have you tried this recipe with peaches with skins on? Thats my next project.
Thanks for the great recipe.
Adina says
You're welcome, Dei. Peaches work just the same.
Dei says
I am just in the process of doing the water bath with apricots from the farmers market. I can't wait to see how they turn out. I only left about a centimetre of water in the jar so hopefully they do not rise much. I also put water in the pot only 2/3 up the jars. wish me luck!
Adina says
Good luck! 🙂 🙂
Gina says
Hi Adina. Yesterday I made apricot preserve and today jam . Reading some comments now just saw that I should have pushed down more apricots as they have slightly risen,do u think I will have same problem as Julia above wrote? Thank you for great and easy to follow recipes.
Adina says
Hi Gina. Thank you for the feedback. I don't really stuff the apricots in the jars, but I don't leave a lot of headspace either, maybe about 1cm or so. The fruit should be completely covered with water and then it should be fine even if it rises after canning. If there is enough water in the jar, they will not manage to rise above that level. I am so glad you like my recipes. 🙂
Gina says
Also made apricot jam too! Thank you for lovely and easy to follow recipes.