Blackberry jam recipes with whole berries
Blackberry is a very useful berry, which is a relative of the more common raspberry. Blackberry fruits have a dark color and a dense structure. In addition, these berries are very fragrant. They make excellent homemade preparations. From the article you will learn how to make blackberry jam with whole berries at home.
Fruit preparation
Before you start cooking a delicious dessert, you should pay attention to the selection and preparation of berries.
In order for the jam you prepared to be tasty, appetizing in appearance, and most importantly, high-quality and healthy, you should pay attention to some nuances.
- Choose only ripe fruits. In unripe berries, a rather strong sourness prevails. In addition, the dessert will not have such a pronounced aroma.
- Overripe blackberries are also unsuitable. The berries lose their elasticity, and during heat treatment they crumple and burst. It is simply impossible to preserve their integrity during cooking and mixing. The jam will look like gruel or mashed potatoes with a bone.
- All berries should be carefully sorted out, leaves and green tails removed from the fruits.
- Separate rotten and damaged fruits.
- Pour the sorted blackberries into a colander and rinse under running cool water. Then spread on a towel and let dry.
Preparing banks
Most of the jam is usually prepared for seaming for the purpose of further storage. Therefore, banks must be clean. It is advisable to sterilize them in advance.Wash glass jars thoroughly. For best results, use baking soda when washing. Rinse the jars, put them on a clean towel with the neck down.
Hot steam can be used to sterilize glass containers. Boil water in the kettle, reduce the heat and place the jars one by one on the spout of the kettle. Hot steam treatment time 5–7 minutes.
For steaming, you can also use special nozzle rings for pans. The jar is also placed upside down over boiling water and held in that position with a nozzle.
The second method allows you to sterilize several jars at the same time. To do this, preheat the oven to 180-200 degrees. Place all glass containers upside down on the wire rack. The heat treatment lasts about 10 minutes. The oven heating can then be switched off.
The jars need to be allowed to cool a little: they are very fragile when hot.
Preparing jam
Next, recipes for homemade blackberry dessert with whole fruits will be given.
From fresh berries
This recipe is considered the classic and the simplest. The jam is prepared without additional ingredients. Blackberries and granulated sugar should be taken in a ratio of 1: 1. For example, one kilogram of fruits and sugar.
Blackberries are placed in an enameled container of sufficient volume, sprinkled with sugar in layers. In this form, the fruits should be left for 4-5 hours. During this time, candied berries will give juice.
The container with blackberries needs to be heated and boiled for about half an hour. In the process of boiling, the mass in the pan should be periodically stirred with a wooden spatula or spoon.
After boiling, the berries are allowed to cool, and then heated again.This time, you need to boil over low heat until the volume of jam is reduced by about a third.
Additionally, you can conduct the following test for the readiness of the dessert: take a small amount of syrup with a teaspoon and drip onto a clean plate. When the drop cools down, it should not spread. This will be a signal that the mass has boiled down to the desired consistency.
Pour hot dessert into prepared glass jars, roll up and wrap for several hours until completely cooled. After that, the dessert will noticeably thicken.
From frozen stock
If you didn't have time to make freshly picked blackberry jam, but you have frozen stocks of berries, you can use them to cook a delicious treat.
As in the previous recipe, sugar and blackberries should be taken in equal amounts. Sprinkle frozen fruits with sugar and leave overnight at room temperature. Having warmed up, candied berries will give juice. It must be drained into a separate container and boiled until reduced by about half.
Then, pour the berries with the prepared syrup, mix gently and put the pan on the fire.
After boiling, cook for 30 minutes, removing the foam. Then pour into jars, cork and leave wrapped for several hours. In terms of taste, frozen blackberry jam is in no way inferior to a dessert made from freshly picked fruits.
With the addition of gelfix
Adding gelfix will help to increase the density of the finished jam and preserve the integrity of the berries during cooking. This substance is used in cooking as a gelling agent.
For 1 kg of blackberries and 1 kg of granulated sugar, one bag of this ingredient is required.
Combine all components in an enamel pan, mix, wait for the juice to separate.After that, bring the berry mass to a boil and cook for 5 minutes. Arrange hot thick dessert in jars.
with spices
Dessert can be given unusual flavor notes by using additional ingredients. Blackberries go well with cardamom, cinnamon, vanilla.
When preparing a dessert according to any recipe, 2 minutes before the end of boiling, simply add your favorite spicy spices to taste.
With refreshing lemon zest
The addition of lemon juice stops the process of candied jam and complements its taste with a light citrus note.
Necessary components: 1 kg of blackberries, 1 kg of granulated sugar, lemon.
Sprinkle the berries with sugar and leave for 4-5 hours to extract the juice. After that, mix the mass and heat it on the stove.
While the berries in syrup are brought to a boil, peel the lemon, grate the zest on a fine grater, and squeeze the juice from the fruit.
Add lemon zest to the boiled jam, mix, cook for about half an hour, removing the foam. A couple of minutes before the end of cooking, pour the squeezed lemon juice into the mass. Whole blackberry jam with citrus is ready.
See the next video for the recipe for blackberry jam with whole berries.