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Learn how to make homemade blueberry jam with or without sugar, and blueberry jam with spices. Stock your pantry by prepping and canning!
The flavor of blueberry jam is tasty enough to eat off the spoon. It has a little bit of sweetness combined with a slightly acidic flavor and is full of vitamins and nutrients. Whether you grow them in your garden or bought them in a store, canning blueberries couldn’t be simpler.
The fragrant jam is the main star of this article. Blueberry jam, with or without sugar, combined with spices, cooked into an irresistibly sweet mixture is the perfect treasure for all taste buds.
There are many recipes for blueberry jam, but here we’re bringing a few simple, classic and quick ways to make blueberries into a jam and enjoy this irresistibly sweet and fragrant pleasure as soon as possible.
Homemade Blueberry Jam
Although blueberries are most delicious as fresh fruit, picked in the woods, they are equally delicious in processed products such as jam, jellies, juice, syrup, marmalades, or liqueur. Recently, an increasing number of plantations have appeared on which various varieties of blueberries are grown in order to make them as available for sale as possible.
Blueberry harvesting begins when the fruits take on a recognizable blue color. Depending on the variety, harvesting is done from May (early varieties) to August (late varieties) 3 – 7 times in 5 – 8 days because blueberries do not ripen at the same time.
The ideal time to harvest is early in the morning, before sunrise, or in the evening after sunset. The petioles are harvested by hand or using special combs so as to not damage the fruits. After harvesting, blueberries are stored in a basket with openings so that the fruits have constant air or in small shallow containers. Their disadvantage is that they do not tolerate transportation well, so they need to be immediately frozen and stored until processing or sale.
Blueberries are also available in stores, frozen or fresh. If you decide to buy fresh blueberries, you need to pay attention to the appearance of the fruit. You will recognize the freshness of the fruit by its “haze” and blue color. It is also very important to note that blueberries are the least perishable of other berries, such as strawberries, raspberries, or blackberries, and that is why they are a very rewarding fruit.
Recipes
With their sweet taste and irresistible smell, blueberries are, in addition to fresh consumption, excellent for the preparation of jams. Below you’ll find three classic recipes to prepare this delicacy.
Blueberry Jam With Sugar
If you are looking for the perfect jam recipe, this recipe is for you. Easy to prepare, ideal to eat, imbued with the scent and taste of sweet blueberries with an irresistible lime or lemon, this recipe is pure perfection. From this amount of ingredients, you will get about 1 kg of jam. If you don’t have or don’t like lime, you can replace it with lemon.
Ingredients
- 1.2 kg of blueberries
- 400 g of sugar
- 2 limes
Preparation
- Place the blueberries, sugar, and grated lime zest in a large saucepan and heat over medium-high heat until boiling, then reduce the heat and continue cooking, stirring occasionally.
- Cook the jam for 20 – 40 minutes, depending on how thick you want the jam to be.
- 5 – 10 minutes before the end of cooking, add 2 tablespoons of squeezed lime juice.
- When the jam is cooked, pour it into hot sterilized jars, close them with lids and turn them upside down.
- Leave the jam jars wrapped in a blanket or towel overnight to cool and store them in the pantry or basement for up to 6 months.
Blueberry Jam Without Sugar
If you like blueberry jam, but you are not a fan of sugar or your health condition doesn’t allow you to consume it, we bring you a healthier version of the jam recipe without sugar. The amount of jam obtained from these ingredients is about 1 kg.
Ingredients
- 1 kg of blueberries
- 100 g of honey
- 3 g of cardamom
- 250 ml of water
- 2.5 g of cinnamon
- lemon juice and zest
- a pinch of salt
Preparation
- Clean, wash and drain the blueberries. Put them in a pot, add lemon juice and zest, pour water, and cook for 15 minutes on low heat.
- Add honey, spices, and salt and continue cooking for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Towards the end, try the jam, and if you are not satisfied with the sweetness, add more honey.
- When the jam is ready, remove the lemon zest from it and pour it into hot sterilized jars and close them with lids immediately.
- Wrap the jars with a blanket or towel and leave them to cool overnight, and then store them in a cool, dark place until you’re ready to eat it.
Blueberry Jam With Spices
As with any dish, spices will add their charms to the jam. Irresistible aromas of cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg will make this jam even more attractive and delicious. From this amount of ingredients, you will get about 900 ml of jam.
Ingredients
- 1.2 kg of blueberries
- 250 – 300 g of sugar
- 1 teaspoon of cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/2 a lemon (only juice)
Preparation
- Wash and dry the blueberries and put them in a large pot
- Add sugar and let it boil over high heat.
- Reduce the heat to medium, add lemon juice and spices and cook until the jam starts to thicken (about half an hour).
- You will know that the jam is cooked when you pull the spoon in the middle of the pot and see a trail behind it.
- Fill hot and sterilized jars with hot jam and immediately close them with clean lids and let them cool overnight.
- Store the jam in a cool and dark place and use it as soon as possible.
Storage
The most important thing in the preparation of jam is, along with fruit, jars. In order for the jam to be poured into them without the risk of spoilage, they must be thoroughly washed and sterilized. After pouring the jam, close them well and turn them upside down and let them cool. Store the jam on the shelves of your pantry or in dark and cool cellars, where unopened can stand for up to a year.
If you opened the jar and did not eat all of it, store it in the refrigerator and use it as soon as possible.
Tips & Tricks
If you use very sweet blueberries to make jam, reduce the amount of sugar so that the fruit does not lose its aroma.
Regulate the thickness of the jam by the length of cooking, but keep in mind that blueberries have a large amount of pectin and therefore thicken quickly. The best method of checking the thickness of the jam is to use a small spoon to scoop out the mixture onto a saucer and leave it to cool. If the mixture thickens, the jam is cooked, and if it is thin, continue to cook it.
If you can’t buy or pick fresh blueberries, and you have frozen ones in your freezer, you can also make them into jam. All that is needed is to heat them gently with sugar so that they thaw and continue with the preparation according to the recipe.
How To Use Blueberry Jam
Although the most delicious choice for eating jam is on a piece of fine bread with butter, there are a number of other delicacies with which jam goes well.
Use it in yogurt along with oatmeal and serve it as a breakfast meal or just pour it over waffles along with peanut butter. You will receive an extremely rich meal full of vitamins and energy for the rest of the day.
If you are a fan of cheeses, the jam will serve you well as an addition to them, especially with cheeses with noble mold that have a pronounced taste and aroma, and jam brings balance to them with its sweetness.
However, jam is best combined and used in the preparation of desserts. Whether it is a filling for pancakes or a coating for biscuits, filling in croissants, buns, or rolls, the blueberry jam will enrich its taste and scent.
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