I’ve had this post in my drafts for a few weeks now. It’s about time I posted it!
I have never made blackberry jam before, and I have to say my recipe is so yummy despite that fact! I used to be afraid to experiment with pectin and honey, but not anymore. I look at the basic recipe for the no sugar or less sugar pectin and then follow it…mostly. The fact that honey is liquid makes for some adjustments in the recipe. I usually adjust the amount of fruit within a half cup of the recipe. I do follow the recipe for the most part, but use honey as a sweetener. I always sweeten to taste. Keep in mind, this recipe assumes you have done canning before and does not describe all of the tools needed.
Blackberry Jam with Honey
4 1/2 cups crushed Blackberries – about 6 or 7 6-oz packages
3/4 cups Water or 100% fruit juice concentrate
2 cups Honey (use less honey if using juice concentrate)
1 box Pectin for no sugar or less sugar recipes (Sure Jell is what I used)
Gather canning supplies including clean jars. Wash and crush blackberries. Add water or juice, pectin, and 1 cup of honey. Stir together. Bring to a rolling boil in a large pan. Once boiling, add the rest of the honey. Bring back to a rolling boil and boil for 1 minute. Skim foam if desired. Put jam in jars leaving 1/2″ headspace. Process in water bath canner or steam canner. Check the processing time for your area here.
First gather all of your canning supplies together so you’re ready to process the bottles. You’ll need several small jars (4 oz jars work well, pints are probably too big). I washed the blackberries and processed them a cup at a time for a few seconds in my blender. You can also use food mill (also removes seeds) or a potato masher. You still want some small chunks of fruit because, well, it’s jam not jelly. You can strain the seeds if desired or leave them all in. I needed to get mine done, so I left them all in. I don’t think it matters either way. You’ll have less seeds in your teeth if you remove them though. Measure out the amount of crushed fruit you need and do one batch at a time following the above directions. Since I sweeten the jam to taste, I taste the jam after the first addition of honey, and also after the rest is added (remember it’ll be hot!). I recommend skimming the foam before putting the jam into the jars since it looks better. There may be another reason, but I have never researched it. We save the foam and use it the same day–usually on toast. If the foam sits long enough, you’ll get the heavy jam at the bottom that was removed when the foam was skimmed. My kids love that they get to try it that day instead of having wait for mom to open a bottle of new jam–oh, and so do I!
Let me know if you try it and post a comment on how it turned out! I’d love to hear how it worked for someone else or if you have found any tips to make it better. Have a fantastic day!
