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Thursday 4 September 2014

Seedless Blackberry Jam

The perfect blackberry jam - seedless, no pips and smooth !  

However, it isn't quite a jelly as you use a setting point to create a spreadable jam, rather than leaving it a bit longer and creating a jelly that sets and wobbles.  If you would like to make jelly, just let it boil a bit longer until your setting point test tells you that it's at 'wobble point'.

This is the ultimate taste of Autumn, and if you make enough of the jam, you can have it all year round.

I adore normal blackberry jam, but I also love smooth jams, as they have that extra special, melt in the mouth sensation...  Although not as good as Galaxy chocolate !


Seedless Blackberry Jam Recipe


Ingredients

6 lb / 2.75 kg  Blackberries
1/4 pint Water
2 Lemons
6 lb / 2.75 kg  Sugar - roughly



Method

1.   Put the cleaned fruit, the water, the lemon rind and lemon juice into a large jam making pan.


2.  Using a potato masher, mash the blackberry mix well, to extract the juice.

3.   For every pound (lb) of blackberries, use 1 lb of white sugar (0.5 kg).  Put the sugar into the pan and stir in thoroughly.  Leave it, well covered to keep tiny winged critters out, for a couple of hours, until the sugar has drawn the juice from the blackberries, and you have much more liquid that when you started.

4.   Simmer gently until the fruit is soft, not too long or it will start to boil and begin to thicken.  Don't let it boil at this point.  You may need to stir it to check for, and prevent, sticking and burning on the bottom of the pan.  Keep the pan lid ON, to prevent any loss of your precious juice via evaporation.


5.   Pour the now sweet mushy fruit mix through a small holed sieve, (or through muslin cloth for extremely smooth).  Return the pip free, seed free, skin free juice to the saucepan (make sure it's cleaned from earlier to remove any stray seeds, insect body parts, bat wings and so on).

6.   Turn the heat up (but not on full) and boil rapidly until setting point is reached. (I use the cold plate in the fridge setting point method).  Remember to remove the pan from the heat each time you do the setting point test, otherwise the test won't be accurate and you'll have a much thicker jam than you maybe intended.

7.   Once setting point has been reached, remove from the heat and skim off any foam etc.


8.   While the jam is still very hot, pour it into sterilised jam pots.  Put the (also sterilised) lids on straight away while the jam is still very hot.  This is so that, when the jam cools and contracts, it will take up less space in the jar.  The shrinkage will create a vacuum at the top of the jar, between the jam and the lid.  This will help to keep the jam long term, as bacteria cannot live in a vacuum (no air, nothing).
Just remember to NOT tip the jars at all, so that you keep the vacuum below any remaining air.


This will make around 8 or 9 jars of jam, depending on jar size.  Well made jam can last for years, and this should be fine for at least 2 years.  Jam tends to thicken with age, but the taste can improve sometimes.


This recipe is excellent for making early Christmas presents, or a gift for a friend.  It's not everyday you can use one recipe to make both blackberry jam and blackberry jelly.

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