Jam Recipe for Something Sweet and Full of Fruit

I know this is totally not the appropriate time of the year for this post, but I’ve been promising this one for a while – so here it is. It’s a super sweet, full of fruit jam recipe. And, if you can get hold of your favourite fruit, a really cute Christmas prezzie idea as well. This is a surprisingly easy recipe, and requires pretty much no effort, so you can whip this one out in an afternoon.

Oh boy, do I love blackberry picking! And earlier in the year I had an abundance of blackberries coming through my kitchen. I may have mentioned my Grandma’s overgrown garden, and a big part of that is bramble. It seemed a waste to not pick the actual fruits off, but I ended up with about 3kg of the bloody things. So I had to find a way to get rid of them quick.

A quick Google brought up jam recipes as a way to offload bulk amounts of fruit, so it was perfect. There are loads of recipes to choose from, but I found the BBC GoodFood recipe that worked a treat, and has made its way onto my saved folder.

Ingredients:

1.8kg blackberries

1 1/2kg jam sugar (with pectin)

1 lemon

Knob of butter

Method:

The night before your planning to make your jam, place the blackberries in a large bowl, then sprinkle all the jam sugar on top of them. Cover with tin foil, and leave at room temperature – I put mine on top of the fridge. This helps the sugar to start its dissolving, meaning it lessens the chances of overcooking. The next morning give the contains a quick stir together, then leave until you’re ready to start the jam-making.

Before you do anything, pop a small plate in the freezer. You’ll need this to check if the jam is ready to be jarred up.

For the jam, take the biggest saucepan you have (wide-based), and tip the berry mixture in. Stir in the lemon juice, and start heating the mixture on a low heat. Keep stirring the mixture like this until all the sugar is dissolved. Bring to the boil, and leave for 5 minutes – make sure the mixture doesn’t boil over or stick to the pan and burn. Turn off the heat and remove the pan from the hot hob.

To test whether the jam is ready, take a spoonful of the mixture and drop it onto the plate from the freezer. Let it cool for a few seconds, then push it with your finger. If the mixture wrinkles it means it’s ready. If it doesn’t (and just moves around your finger as a liquid), return to the heat and switch the heat back up for another 2-3 minutes. Continue this process until it’s ready, removing the pan from the heat each time you do the wrinkle test.

Once it’s ready, skim off any scummy topping, and stir in a knob of butter to the jam. Leave the jam for at least 15 minutes so that it’s completely cool, then carefully dispense it into the jars. Add labels and lids, decorate the jars if you want to, and then move to the fridge to store.

All The Extras…