Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Blueberry Jam made with Honey



I've been wanting to try making jam with honey rather than sugar, and I finally got my chance a couple weeks ago. The overall process is largely the same as traditional jam making, but you use honey (much less) rather than sugar. I also used shredded apple (for the pectin) in this blueberry jam, in order to not have to add pectin to the recipe. This was based on a recipe from the 100 Days of Real Food blog - I followed her method exactly, except I used less honey than she called for, largely because I didn't have enough honey, but it worked out perfectly! In the future, I'll continue using the smaller amount of honey. And I gotta say, I'll probably not go back to using sugar in jam. This is glorious jam - so spreadable, so smooth, so delicious, and made with real honey! Yum!

Blueberry Jam made with Honey
Ingredients:
6 pounds blueberries
3.75 cups honey (I used only 2.75 cups of honey)
1.5 unpeeled apples, grated
1.5 tablespoons lemon juice

1. Rinse the berries and remove any spoiled or severely blemished ones.

2. Add the berries, honey, grated apple, and lemon juice to a large pot over high heat. Once the mixture comes to a boil, lower the heat to medium and allow the mixture to continue to boil lightly for approximately 30 – 60 minutes. The berries will burst and thicken so be sure to scrape the sides of the pot and stir as you go. The longer the jam cooks the thicker the final product will be, although this recipe does not become quite as thick as typical store-bought jam. Mash the fruit with a potato masher once the fruit begins to soften. If foam forms on top of the fruit you can skim and discard if desired.

3. Can using the boiling water method for 10 minutes (which will keep for 1 year), or, if you don't want to can, you bottle these and keep in fridge for 3-4 weeks, if it lasts that long!!!!

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