The Hungry Hounds is the food blog of Paul and Rebecca Shetler Fast, Country Representatives for Mennonite Central Committee in Haiti.  Learn more about MCC Haiti at their new blog: www.haitimcc.org.

Every year, in the hot months of summer, my Oma would make oven jam. My Opa would buy her bushels of fresh apricots and plums from the farmers markets and she would slow roast the fruit until they caramelized and the juices thickened, creating silky fruit jams that she tucked into layers of her torte cakes for celebrations throughout the year. In the years since she died, I find myself craving the custardy texture and caramelized fruit taste of her jams. I started experimenting with my own oven jams recently, and found them to be simple, fail-safe and delicious. My favorite is this tangy spring rhubarb strawberry jam, with rhubarb fresh from a friend’s garden.

Yield: Slightly more than one 8 ounce (1/2 pint) canning jar

Ingredients:

• 1 pound, strawberries, stems removed, cut in half
• 3 cups chopped rhubarb (about 4 medium stalks), tops and bottoms removed, cut into small 1 inch pieces
• 3/4 cup sugar (can add more or less depending on your preference and the sweetness of your strawberries)

Steps:

1. Heat the oven to 300 degrees.
2. Mix the cut fruit in a medium bowl with the sugar and dump the fruit onto a sheet pan (covered in a silicon baking mat or parchment paper to make for easier clean-up). Distribute the fruit evenly on the baking sheet.
3. Bake the fruit for 60-90 minutes. You are watching to see the fruit juices boil off, but not cooking the fruit so long that the caramelized juices begin to burn and the fruit dries up completely. This jam is very forgiving, so as long as you take care not to burn the fruit juices in the end, you will be fine.
4. Once your fruit has finished cooking, remove the pan from the oven and puree the jam until smooth. You can blend more or less depending on the texture of jam you prefer.
5. Store the jam in the fridge in a covered container for up to 2 weeks. The jam mostly fits, with just a little extra for snacking, in an 8 ounce canning jar.