Easy Mango Quick Jam (or any other fruit you have leftovers of!)

 I apologize for my phone that takes pictures sideways without me noticing...

Ingredients:
-1 mango, very finely diced
-1/2 C sugar
-couple drops of vanilla
-couple drops of lemon extract (or some zest if you have lemons)
-2 shakes of ginger

I refuse to ever make something mango without ginger.  I am just saying.

 Anyway, I put the mango in my pan before turning it on.  I used a dead ripe, ripest of ripe, wrinkling quality ripe, mango.  It was delectably juicy.  I poured in my sugar, heat still not on, and stirred it all around to get the sugar stuck on the mango and in all the juicy goodness.  This way, I avoided needing to use water and/or my sugar burning.

You can also go ahead and add the extracts and spice directly after.  Turn the heat on to medium or just a little higher, and start stirring.

Stir and heat for about 10 minutes, I mashed around while stirring to break some of the chunks down. You still (in my opinion) want some of the chunks in there just as you would with preserves.

After the ten minutes of heating and stirring, transfer to a mason jar and pop in your fridge when it cools a bit.  I put mine in a pint jar and before I spooned out 4-6 spoonfuls this morning for toast it was much fuller than the picture.  What can I say, I had big bread for toast this morning...

Excuse my photos being of not as great quality, my phone is having some issue.  The jar is on my window sill to get some better light in...didn't really help. :P

I think this would be fantastic on English muffins, especially a whole or honey wheat variety. 

Mango to me is like the butter of the fruit world, it is really rich and is actually not overly sweet, even when it is wrinkly-ripe.  It is versatile and can be used in a lot of savory dishes as well as desserts (much like an avocado, but with a more mass appeal flavor). 

Just make sure that you get a mango that is really soft.  A hard mango is not ripe.  If it sets in your fridge so long it starts to get wrinkly, this is a perfect recipe!

I see no reason why this could not be done with other fruits as well.  My main issue with jams and jellies and canning in general is multiple:
1) I have a small apartment and a lot of carpet and I really don't want to take on numerous bushels of peaches or similar.

2) Buying enough fruit to make an army of jars full can be pricey, and I am on a college budget.

3) I have a grand total of 4 feet of counter space, plus a 3 foot kitchen island...not a lot of real estate for canning.

And finally,

4) It takes me a good long while to get through one jar of jelly...much less 50.

I am a somewhat stringent breakfast eater of eggs (usually scrambled) and some multigrain toast with a little butter each morning.  I am very systems oriented, and not the best morning person that ever walked the earth, so a routine fits me just fine.  On the weekends I do occasionally go for something more of a splurge, but I just prefer the land of salty in the morning.

I really hate wasting fruit. There are so many things that you can do even with fruit that is a little past prime on ripeness, case in point bananas used in bread recipes.  This is a simple way to extend its usability.  This jam can also be used for macaron filling, donuts, cookies, anything else where a traditional jam would come in handy.

Spread over a cheesecake...

Things to think about!

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