Recently I jumped at the chance for a new experience when I discovered a “pick your own” blackberry farm fairly close to home and had some spare time just begging to be filled with new adventures. Since I'm originally from a cold weather climate, picking my own berries and preserving them was just not something I had ever had the opportunity to do, so I was excited to give it a whirl.
I researched several options and methods online, tweaked them all a bit to come up with something that I thought would work for our family, since my husband is diabetic and I am not brave enough to try canning the old fashioned way. I decided freezer jam was a great place to start and ran to the store for some small jars and pectin. The rest of the ingredients were already in the pantry.
Yields about 40 oz.
Time 30 min.
Ingredients
3 C. Fresh Blackberries (all black is sweetest)
3 T. Low Sugar Pectin (I used Ball)
1-1/2 C. No Sugar Added Fruit Juice
2 C. Sugar Substitute
Mash blackberries... this ensures that you will have complete yumminess with extra chunky jam.
Add juice to a medium saucepan and slowly stir in pectin until dissolved. Heat to a hard boil and cook for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat.
Immediately add mashed black berries and stir for 3 minutes until well incorporated.
Add sugar substitute and stir until dissolved.
Carefully pour/spoon the mixture into jars. (I’ve seen this stored in small tupperware, glass canning jars and plastic jars). I really wished I had a funnel or smaller ladle as I made a terrible mess and found myself wiping the sticky from the jars over and over.
Be sure to leave at least a half inch of space at the top for expansion and seal the jars tight.
Keep them at room temperature for several hours, but not overnight. I left mine for 5 hours and then put them in the freezer.
Hint: I was told never to attempt to double the recipe as it will mess up the pectin process and your jam will be watery. I decided not to tempt fate so I made 3 separate batches in order to fill all my little jars. Still, from start to cleanup I was only into it about an hour.
