The farm where I picked peaches also had blackberries and because I’m a big berry fan I picked a container of them to make something with. Initially I thought I’d make ice cream but I ran out of time to do that. So I decided to make some jam instead because my dad really likes berry jam. In fact blackberries grow wild in my folks backyard so he often picks and eats them in the summer.
I looked at a few recipes but most of them used packaged pectin which I’m not a particularly big fan of if I can avoid it. Also I really only had enough berries to make 1 pint jar. So I needed to find a small batch recipe. Lastly, some jam recipes use WAY too much sugar IMHO. You can’t just use less sugar on a whim you need to find a recipes which works or the jam won’t set. I have often have an issue with setting when I make apricot jam because I don’t like to use a packaged pectin or a ton of sugar. Since how I often use jam doesn’t require the jam be super set, I just go with the flow and take the consistency I get.
After some internet searching I found a recipe I like which was really close to the amount of berries I had. Then it was math to reduce the recipe for the 3 cups of berries I have. Which mean
- 3 cups blackberries
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1 1/2 tbs of cornstarch
- 1/2 tsp lemon juice because extra is ok (the math is 1/4 tsp + 1/8 tsp but who has an 1/8 tsp?)
I mashed the berries and although I’d prefer it be a seedless jam I didn’t sieve it. I don’t have a sieve the right size to remove the seeds without losing all the pulpy goodness. Cook down stirring frequency for closer to 20 minutes than 10. I’m a big fan of the chill a plate and smear on it to test consistency methodology.
Final product all fit in a wide mouth pint jar which I hot water bath treated so I can store it til I see my folks. I’m optimistic it set decent but I won’t be able to tell til the jar completely cools.
