A Small Batch of Blackberry & Apple Jam

Here we go…with a session of making homemade jam. I have a few blackberries remaining in my backyard bramble patch. How do I use the precious berries? I thought of my mother’s great blackberry jam. Plus, my sister-in-law gifted me a case of 1/2-pint canning jars. Now, you know that you’re a kitchen geek when you get excited about receiving canning jars as a gift! The blackberres are not enough for a batch of “real” blackberry jam, so I’m combining them with apples. It’s a small batch; easy to make at home. Plus, I preserved them using a stock pot with an insert in the bottom for my boiling water bath processor rather than a “real” home canner. Now they are shelf stable.

Springtime in Louisiana brings wild blackberries in sunny patches. My backyard blackberry patch “sprung” up in one of my flower beds which I had not been tending. It was an unintended bonus to being a lazy gardner. I got several nice pickings of the blackberries and still have two cups remaining. I thought about making some delicious blackberry jam.

Blackberry & Apple Jam Recipe

I searched through all my recipe books for jams and jellies and couldn’t find a recipe which used only two cups of blackberries. I decided to concoct my own recipe by adding enough apples to make fruit for a batch of jam, scaling back on the quantities of ingredients as much as possible. My recipe makes 5 jars which are 1/2 pint (8 ounces). The resulting jam tastes great!

Here are the ingredients:

Making the Jam

To make the jam, mash the blackberries and core and dice the apples. I left the peelings on the apples, but if you prefer, peel the apples first.

Cook the apples in 1 cup of water and the lemon juice the stove until the apples are soft and mushy. This takes about 15 minutes. I mashed most of the cooked apples with the back of a wooden spoon.

The blackberries yield one cup when mashed. The soft apples also cooked down, too. I figured that I needed three cups of mashed fruit, so I added enough water to make three cups total of the blackberry and apple mixture.

Jams and jellies are basically a combination of fruit, pectin and lots of sugar. Although most fruit probably has enough pectin naturally so that you don’t need to add more, I’m cautious. I added a box of powdered pectin to my blackbery and apple mix.

There’s a specific way to add pectin when making a jelly or jam.

• Add a small amount of sugar to the powdered pectin and then stir this into the fruit mixture on the stove.
• Cook over high heat. When the fruit and pectin mixture comes to a rolling boil — one which doesn’t stop when you stir the fruit — add the remaining large about of sugar.
• Time and cook exactly one minute — stirring constantly.

• Immediately pour into hot sterilized jars. A funnel made for canning is helpful here.
• Add new rings and seals which you have sterilzed by boiling in a small pot for 5 minutes. I have a handy magnetic gadget for transferring the rings and seals out of the hot water.

Heat Processing the Jam

At this point, the jam can either be stored in the refrigerator — it should keep for several months — or heat processed in a boiling water bath to make it shelf stable.

To process this small batch, I used a tall stock pot with a colander insert. This insert, with holes, allows the boiling water to circulate under, around and on top of the jars. The water should cover the jars by 2 inches.

Bring the water in the stock pot to a rolling boil — one which doesn’t stop boiling when you add the jars. (This can take 15 minutes to 30 minutes, so I get this ready first.) Add the jars of jam, and return to a rolling boil. (This takes a couple of minutes.) After the water is boiling, set the timer for 5 minutes and process.

I have some tongs made for canning, which are handy to use. We’re dealing with boiling water and it is easy to scald yourself, so used kitchen mitt or a durable tongs to transfer the jars in and out of the boiling water.

Remove the jars from the boiling water and set them on a clean towel on a tray to cool down. Check the seals to make sure they are sealed properly. Store any which haven’t sealed in the refrigerator.

We have a small batch of delicious “Blackberry & Apple Jam.”