Simple blackberry jam is the best way I know to stash away a little bit of summer for the rest of the year. We made a refrigerator batch with wild picked blackberries, but this easy jam recipe can be canned or frozen for longterm storage using fresh or frozen berries.
Blackberry jam is the queen of jams
Blackberries have always been my favorite berry, their flavor is the boldest, and the color is stunning. Blackberries grow all over the US all year round, so you can usually find them at your supermarket, even off season. But making a big batch of blackberry jam (bonus points if you pick wild berries) with seasonal berries is a great way to make the taste of summer last all year long. You can make a small batch for the freezer, or water bath can it.
This recipe is the simplest imaginable, in fact it comes straight from the back of the pectin box! It makes a nice, sweet/tart jam that I’ll be enjoying on toast for many months to come.
Canning jam doesn’t have to be complicated
If you’re new to canning, a recipe like this one is perfect for you! All you need is some berries, sugar, a package of pectin, and a few easy to find pieces of equipment. Here’s what I recommend in terms of equipment to get started:
- Clean glass canning jars and lids
- A deep canning pot (a large, tall kitchen pot will work)
- A canning funnel for filling your jars is super useful
- A rack for the bottom of the pot to set your jars on (this is so they won’t rattle around and bounce against the bottom of the bot as they boil)
- Jar lifter made for canning, or a sturdy, large pair of tongs to remove the jars from the boiling water
- Some clean rags for wiping the rims of your jars and setting the hot jars on to cool.
For complete instructions for water bathing canning jam visit Pickyourown.org.
What’s your favorite way to use homemade jam?
Super delicious jars of jam are pantry essentials for me, here are a few of my favorite ways to use them:
- On a cheese plate: fruit jams go well with so many different kinds of cheese. I would also love this blackberry jam with a warm baked brie.
- Swirled into yogurt or oatmeal
- As a filling for sandwich or thumbprint cookies (no, it’s not too early to be thinking about holiday baking!)
- As a flavoring for frosting
- Or a layer cake filling
- In a super simple cocktail
- Filling a shortbread tart or bars
- In an epic pb&j sandwich.
But even with all the varied ways I use jam in my kitchen these days, there’s not much that’s more satisfying than a thick slice of homemade bread slathered with butter and a generous layer of homemade jam. My Easy Dutch Oven Bread is perfect for toasting.
Fall jams and spreads ~
- French Apple Jam
- Cardamom Fig Jam
- Crockpot Cranberry Apple Butter
- Mulled Cider Jelly
- Easy Mulled Cranberry Jelly
Blackberry Jam
Ingredients
- 2 quarts blackberries, (about 8 cups)
- 7 cups granulated sugar
- 1.75 ounces SureJell powdered pectin , (yellow box)
Instructions
- Measure out your ingredients. My blackberries were small wild ones, so I did not crush them first, but if you have larger berries or do not want discernible pieces of fruit in your jam, crush them first with a potato masher or a similar tool. You should yield 5 cups of crushed fruit from 8 cups fresh berries.
- If you are planning to water bath can this recipe, make sure you prepare all of your equipment and jars for canning ahead of time. I link to the method I like to use in the notes below.
- Add the berries and the pectin to a large heavy bottomed stock pot and stir to combine. Make sure your pot is relatively tall, as the mixture will expand and sputter when it comes to a boil.
- Bring the berries and pectin to a rolling boil. This means that the boiling does not go down when you stir it. You may notice foam forming on top, you can either ignore it or skim it off with a spoon and discard it.
- Once the mixture has come to a rolling boil, add the sugar and stir to combine everything well.
- Bring everything back up to a rolling boil, and pay careful attention to it once it gets to that point. Continue to boil for exactly one minute more, and then remove from the heat.
- Fill your jars (again, refer to the instructions linked below if you are planning to can this jam for longer term storage), cap them, and either proceed to water bath can them, or leave them to cool at room temperature until they are cool enough to transfer.
- If you did not water-bath can your jam, keep it in the fridge for up to 1 month, or the freezer for up to 1 year.
Never discard the jam foam!
I have a large family in Iowa and when we get together to make jam it is a multi-generational, multi-day, and sometimes multi-kitchen, process. We will pick, process and freeze a variety of fruits for several years and them make it all in one go.
Jam foam is skimmed off only to improve the look of the final jarred product. If you don’t care if there are white swirls, leave it in. Or better yet, collect all the foam from different batches of jam in one bowl and EAT IT! After all, jam foam is just jam that has boiled and thickened enough to trap bubbles.
Jam foam is best fresh, but if there is enough, I seal it in jars. I started doing this as an adult while living in Illinois and taking the jarred foam home to share the bounty with everyone – there was never enough to do this when we were kids, especially with fresh bread on the table. But there is another reason I do this.
When my sister was at Yale University, she had several ‘city kid’ friends who would come during summers for a ‘farm visit’. The first year it was just curiosity about how and where my sister grew up, which was vastly different from their backgrounds. Truly fresh eggs, freshly picked fruits and veggies, meat raised on the farm and aged at the butchers – they even helped with chores. One of the favorite activities was making jam and they all took some home carefully packed in their bags.
One of her friends could not get over eating jam foam on bread fresh from the oven. He told the story to his family, relatives and other college friends. He came to the farm several times and one time we sent him home with a jar of jam foam. Then it became a fun surprise to send him some jam foam each time we made jam. He now works in TV news. The last time we sent him jam foam and jam, he opened his package on air during the 6:00 news and told the story of making jam and eating the foam on fresh bread. He even opened a jar and shared some with the crew. He sent us a copy of the video, so we saw him wax nostalgic about his ‘summers on the farm’.
The moral of the story – eat the jam foam!
Wow, you taught me something new J!!
Substitute raspberries or do you prefer another recipe for them? Thanks! love you site.
Hi Barbara, yes, raspberries will work in this recipe. I checked SureJell to make sure it would be safe for canning.
Blackberry jam is my favourite! Wonderful on homemade bread. Thank for sharing the recipe, Sue!♥️
I’ve made this recipe for Christmas gifts for 4 years now and they’re a hit every time! I cut the sugar to 4 1/2 cups for personal preference. For me, this makes about 9 pints after I sift out about half of the seeds.
So glad you love this Bri, thanks for the review!
Sue I have been making blackberry jam for years and a few years ago tried the less sugar version. It has become our favorite. Not only is it less sugary, the flavor of the blackberries really stands out more.