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Home » Blog » Guest Post: Honey Sweetened Blueberry Jam (from Food in Jars)

Guest Post: Honey Sweetened Blueberry Jam (from Food in Jars)

 Updated: September 23, 2019    Marisa McClellan    145 Comments

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This post is by Marisa McClellan, creator of the popular blog Food in Jars. Marisa is a food writer, canning teacher, and dedicated farmers market shopper who lives in Center City Philadelphia. She is the author of Food in Jars: Preserving in Small Batches Year-Round and Preserving by the Pint: Quick Seasonal Canning for Small Spaces. Find more of her jams, pickles, and preserves (all cooked up in her 80-square-foot kitchen) on her website, Food in Jars.


Honey Sweetened Blueberry Jam from Food in Jars at 100 Days of #RealFood

I am so delighted to be here sharing my small batch recipe for Honey Sweetened Blueberry Jam. Most people think that making jam has to be a giant process that takes all day, uses multiple pounds of sugar, and dirties every utensil in the kitchen. But there’s another faster way that it can be done with honey in place of sugar, and it’s endlessly delicious.

Honey Sweetened Blueberry Jam from Food in Jars at 100 Days of #RealFood

The secret is in the small batch, cooked in a low, wide pan like a frying pan or a high sided skillet. The pan creates a lot of surface area, which means that you can cook the moisture out of the fruit more quickly and create a nice, solid set rapidly and without the amounts of sweetener that are typically called for in jam making.

Honey Sweetened Blueberry Jam from Food in Jars at 100 Days of #RealFood

You start with a quart of blueberries. If you’re going by weight, it’s an even 1 1/2 pounds. Wash them well and then tumble them into a low, wide pan. You want to pick one made from a non-reactive metal like stainless steel, enameled cast iron, or anodized aluminum. Use a potato masher (or employ a small child to help!) and mash the berries.

Add 2/3 cup of honey (if you have a kitchen scale, plunk the pan right on top of it, zero out the weight, and pour in 8 ounces of honey). Stir in the juice from half a lemon, put the pan on the stove and bring it to a boil. Once it boils, you cook the fruit for about ten minutes until it thickens. You can tell that it’s done when you can draw a line through the jam with your spatula and the space stays open for a moment.

Honey Sweetened Blueberry Jam from Food in Jars at 100 Days of #RealFood

Once it’s done, you have two choices. You can funnel it right into a jar, let it cool, and then stash it in the fridge for immediate consumption. It will keep there for three to four weeks. Or, you can divide it between a couple clean, hot jars, apply new lids and rings, and process them in a boiling water bath canner to make the jars shelf stable. If you do go through this extra step, know that the jars don’t have to be sterilized before filling. They just need to be clean and hot. The boiling water bath will serve as the sterilization step just fine.

I like to use an asparagus steamer as a tiny batch canning pot because you can stack a couple wide mouth half pints right inside the wire cage and it doesn’t take much time or energy to bring to a boil. However, any stock pot will do, as long as you slip a rack under the jars (like a round cake cooling rack or even a dish towel or layer of mason jar rings will do) to keep them from rattling against the bottom of the pot. A pasta pot with straining insert makes a really good canning pot. If you’re looking for more detail about setting up your own canning post, I have a post on my site that details the process.

Honey Sweetened Blueberry Jam from Food in Jars at 100 Days of #RealFood

This same technique will work with nearly all fruit (except apples don’t do well when treated like this), but do give it a try with strawberries, or later in the summer with apricots, nectarines, or plums. You can also vary the flavorings. As you’ll see, the batch I made was quite basic, but you can add a little spice, a bit of vanilla bean, or even a sprig of fresh mint or basil (just pull it out at the end of cooking).

Honey Sweetened Blueberry Jam
5 from 20 votes

Course: Sides
Cuisine: American
Keyword: healthy desserts
Dietary Restriction: Dairy Free, Egg Free
Category: Freezer Friendly

Active Time: 1 hour 10 minutes
Total Time: 10 minutes
Servings (Adjust to suit): 2 pints
Calories: 621 kcal
by Marisa McClellan of Food in Jars

Print

Small Batch Blueberry Honey Jam on 100 Days of #RealFood

Ingredients

  • 1 quart blueberries, approximately 1 1/2 pounds
  • 2/3 cup honey
  • 1/2 lemon, juiced

Instructions

  1. Pour the berries into a low, wide, non-reactive pan and mash.
  2. Add the honey and lemon juice and stir to combine. Let the mixture sit until the honey begins to dissolve.
  3. Place the pan on the stove and bring to a boil. Cook, stirring regularly, for 10 to 12 minutes, until the jam thickens.
  4. To make the jam shelf stable, pour it into clean, hot jars. Apply lids and rings and process in a boiling water bath canner for ten minutes.
  5. When time is up, remove jars from the canner and place them on a folded kitchen towel and let them cool.
  6. When the jars are room temperature, check the seals. If the lids have gone concave and don't wiggle at all, they are sealed.
  7. Any unsealed jars should be refrigerated and used within a few weeks.
  8. If you don't want to process the jam, just pour it into a jar, let it cool, and put it in the refrigerator.

Recipe Notes

We recommend organic ingredients when feasible.

Nutrition Facts

Nutrition Facts
Honey Sweetened Blueberry Jam
Amount Per Serving
Calories 621 Calories from Fat 18
% Daily Value*
Fat 2g3%
Saturated Fat 1g6%
Sodium 10mg0%
Potassium 460mg13%
Carbohydrates 164g55%
Fiber 12g50%
Sugar 141g157%
Protein 4g8%
Vitamin A 255IU5%
Vitamin C 60.8mg74%
Calcium 42mg4%
Iron 2mg11%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

 

FAQ

Q: Can I make this recipe with fruits other than blueberries?
A: Yes! However, blueberries have a good deal of pectin naturally, so you may have to cook other fruits a bit longer in order to get a satisfyingly thick consistency.

Q: Can I make this jam with frozen fruit?
A: Yes! Defrost the fruit fully before combining it with the honey. Take note that it may need an additional minute or two of cooking, because frozen fruit will release more liquid than fresh.

Q: Can I skip the boiling water bath process and just freeze this jam?
A: Yes! Funnel it into freezer containers and leave about an inch of space up at the top to allow for expansion. Let the jam cool to room temperature before placing the containers in the freezer. If you choose to freeze in glass jars, make sure that you use jars that have straight sides, as there’s less risk of breakage that way.

Q: Can I double or triple this recipe?
A: I don’t recommend it. The reason this jam works so well without any additional pectin has everything to do with the small batch size. If you increase the volume in the pan, that makes it harder for the fruit to cook down efficiently. If you have a very, very large, wide pan, you can try a double batch.

If you want to make much larger batches of honey sweetened jam, I recommend looking into Pomona’s Pectin. It’s a natural product that allows you to get a really satisfying set with any sweetener. There’s a really terrific cookbook called Preserving with Pomona’s Pectin that will give you all the detail you need.

Q: Can I use something other than lemon juice?
A: For those of you who can’t have citrus, try using a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar in place of the lemon. It will balance the flavor in the same way.

Q: How much does this recipe yield?
A: You should get between 2 and 3 half pints from a batch this size. The yield will vary a bit depending on how much water is in the fruit and how long you cook it.

Q: Can I reduce the amount of honey?
A: Yes. However, know that the honey isn’t just a sweetener when you make jam. It also plays a role in helping the jam set up. So if you reduce the honey, you may have to cook it a bit longer to get it to be truly jammy. And of course, the yield will be less because you’ve reduced the total starting volume.

Q: Can I use agave instead of honey?
A: Yes! Agave will work just as well.

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About Marisa McClellan

Marisa is the creator of the popular blog Food in Jars. Marisa is a food writer, canning teacher, and dedicated farmers market shopper who lives in Center City Philadelphia. She is the author of Food in Jars: Preserving in Small Batches Year-Round and Preserving by the Pint: Quick Seasonal Canning for Small Spaces. Find more of her jams, pickles, and preserves (all cooked up in her 80-square-foot kitchen) on her website.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Holly

    August 17, 2019 at 8:26 pm

    I just made this with fresh picked blueberries. Giving some to friends who love blueberry jam, but I had to try it, too. Blueberry jam has not been a favorite of mine…but this…well…wow!

    Reply
    • 100 Days Admin

      August 19, 2019 at 12:14 pm

      So glad to hear you love it. Hope your friends enjoy it, too. – Nicole

      Reply
  2. Brandi Schepers

    July 5, 2018 at 12:19 am

    Hi there! Would this recipe work well for Saskatoon berries? Just wondering about the seediness and taste of them for it:)

    Reply
  3. Tamara

    June 9, 2018 at 4:40 pm

    Cooking with honey is toxic. Heating honey kills all the nutrients and heating changes the nature of the honey causing it to become like glue in the gut, causing digestive issues. It does not matter how clean or real a food is if it is not prepared properly it can cause issues within the body. A cook book called Wise Traditions tells why and how to properly prepare real food for max nutrition.This site does A good job of show casing real food but does not do a good job on showing how to properly prepare it.

    Reply
    • Saneda Deborah

      August 4, 2018 at 1:06 am

      Heating raw honey above 40 degrees Celsius is not considered toxic by mainstream medical sources. It can destroy many of the beneficial nutrients and enzymes fund in raw honey, but consider that most grocery store honey has been pasteurized above this heat.. It is considered considered toxic by Maharishi Ayurveda, a controversial system of alternative medicine, one not generally accepted by Western scientists. When raw honey is heated or aged, it creates 5-Hydroxymethyl-2-furancarboxaldehyde (HMF).

      HMF has been reported to have negative effects on human health, such as cytotoxicity toward mucous membranes, the skin and the upper respiratory tract; mutagenicity; chromosomal aberrations; and carcinogenicity toward humans and animals. Many food items sweetened with high fructose corn syrups, e.g. carbonated soft drinks, can have levels of HMF between 100 and 1,000 mg/kg.

      Conversely, HMF, which is converted to a non-excretable, genotoxic compound called 5-sulfoxymethylfurfural, is beneficial to human health by providing antioxidative, anti-allergic, anti-inflammatory, anti-hypoxic, anti-sickling, and anti-hyperuricemic effects.

      HMF is present in many of our foods, from garden onions, tomatoes, numerous plant species, tobacco, processed foods, and coffee – and the levels in these foods are generally higher than found in honey that has been treated. However, the levels necessary for these effects to be significant are unclear. One article I found from the NIH said “Hence, no relevance for humans concerning carcinogenic and genotoxic effects can be derived. The remaining toxic potential is rather low.”

      A more recent article states that there is. not enough research at present to determine a safe daily intake of HMF. Chem Cent J. 2018; 12: 35. However,
      Published online 2018 Apr 4. doi:  10.1186/s13065-018-0408-3

      A final note on honey in general – honey can be contaminated with heavy metals such as lead, arsenic, mercury and cadmium. Honey produced from the nectar of Rhododendron ponticum contains alkaloids that can be poisonous to humans, while honey collected from Andromeda flowers contains grayanotoxins, which can cause paralysis of limbs in humans and eventually leads to death. I think that as with any food, moderation will keep you safe here. It would appear that some cooked honey is not as bad for you as some coffee and a sugary roll. And the honey we get in the US is generally not going to be collected from the above mentioned plants – but if in doubt – ask your honey retailer. Likely,in the latter instance, someone would have been the canary in the coal mine and no honey from that source would be sold.

      Reply
      • Tamara

        August 4, 2018 at 8:07 am

        I am fully aware and educated in all the info you provided. Because of my knowledge it does bother me that so many people think they are getting healthier by using grocery store honey and also cooking with honey. Some people even buy the very good quality raw honey then destroy it by cooking it thinking they are doing something that adds to their nutrition, when in fact they are in essence ending up with food that is sweetened with nothing no different than white sugar. Just want people to realize this cooking honey method is not any healthier than sugar.

        Reply
    • Ann Balough

      July 2, 2018 at 4:21 pm

      This is myth. Toxic= nerve agent. Honey is primarily glucose & fructose. Heat will not damage it! In fact honey does not spoil. Ever.
      this is basic organic chemistry/food science.

      Reply
      • Tamara

        July 3, 2018 at 9:31 am

        Not a myth. If you do your research you will find out. There have been studies done to prove it is unwise to cook with honey. Check out Ayurveda, Weston A. Price,Wise Traditions all of these along with many other scientific studies will explain why. Besides heating honey kills all the beneficial enzymes giving it no nutritional value making it no different than white sugar. Why spend all that money on expensive honey then kill all benefits by heating. There are wiser sweeteners to cook and bake with as all real foodies know.

        Reply
  4. Lisa Gilchrist

    October 4, 2017 at 3:11 pm

    Can the fruits be strained to make a more jelly like spread?

    Reply
    • Marisa

      October 10, 2017 at 2:25 pm

      It won’t set up if you do that. Jellies need additional pectin because they don’t have the fiber of the fruit playing a role in creating the set.

      Reply
  5. Dolly

    September 8, 2017 at 3:38 pm

    I am trying to revert to a Whole Foods plant based diet. Would organic pure maple syrup work like honey for this process ?

    Reply
  6. Cindy Dutcher

    July 27, 2017 at 3:34 pm

    After cooking the berries down and adding honey and lemon juice, do you funnel or strain before putting in jars. I plan to do the shelf preservation compared to refrigerator.

    Reply
    • Marisa

      August 2, 2017 at 10:35 pm

      This is jam, not a jelly. No straining is required.

      Reply
  7. Tammy

    July 8, 2017 at 3:09 pm

    My boss bought me 10 pounds of fresh Michigan blueberries as a surprise. I decided I wanted to make jam for him as a thank you. He is diabetic and 7 cups of sugar in jam recipe is a no go for him. This jam was perfect. It set up wonderfully and has an amazingly fresh blueberry taste to it. I was thrilled to see this recipe and wanted to thank you for it.

    Reply
  8. Alice Sprague

    June 29, 2017 at 10:27 pm

    Can I seal with paraffin?

    Reply
    • Marisa

      June 29, 2017 at 11:15 pm

      No. That is not a safe or reliable method of sealing. It is not a technique that should ever be used these days.

      Reply
  9. SOFY

    April 7, 2017 at 10:24 pm

    I want to make this jam .
    It says if we heat honey it is not good and also its natural uses will die
    Can we add honey after the fruits are done

    Reply
  10. Oana

    September 30, 2016 at 11:55 pm

    Can I blend the fruit instead of mashing it? Or roughly chop it in a food processor?

    Reply
    • Marisa

      October 4, 2016 at 3:34 pm

      Pulsing it gently in a food processor works. Take care not to pulverize the berries though, as that breaks up their natural pectin.

      Reply
  11. Lori

    September 21, 2016 at 11:21 am

    Can I use lemon juice from store instead of fresh squeezed for blueberry jam? If so how much?

    Reply
    • Marisa

      September 21, 2016 at 1:39 pm

      Sure. You’ll want about 1 1/2 tablespoons bottled lemon juice.

      Reply
  12. Allison

    August 31, 2016 at 10:41 pm

    Thank you for this recipe! Was a great way to use surplus berries

    Reply
  13. Dena

    July 25, 2016 at 8:12 am

    I made one batch of this with blueberries and another batch with blueberries and a few peaches added in. I also made a batch of just peach. They all turned out great! I loved the flavor and there was no icky aftertaste like you get with commercial jam or jelly. My friend is on a very restricted diet due to an autoimmune disorder, but she can eat this because of the simple ingredeints of blueberries and honey from my back yard. Thank you for sharing!

    Reply
  14. Marvin

    July 17, 2016 at 6:22 pm

    I am very displeased about how this recipe only made 2 1/2, 8 ounce Mason jars. It was a waste of my time for such little outcome. :(

    Reply
    • Chet

      July 24, 2016 at 3:04 pm

      Wo. It said “small batch” right up front.

      Reply
      • Marvin

        July 27, 2016 at 12:05 pm

        “Small Batch” usually means about 4 not 2. Why not just use a different recipe that takes the same amount of time for a bigger outcome. It is just rediculous who only makes 2 1/2 small jars at one time. I don’t know about you but I do not have so much time where I can do this 10 more times in one day.

        Reply
  15. Sharla

    July 6, 2016 at 6:05 pm

    I saw that you said agave would work. Is it the same amount as the honey?
    I made a honey batch today and it tastes great! Set up really well. I pureed my berries as I don’t like chunky jam. That probably helped with the pectin/setting!

    Reply
    • Marisa

      July 6, 2016 at 8:13 pm

      Honey and agave are interchangeable.

      Reply
  16. Leanne

    July 6, 2016 at 3:08 pm

    I used maple syrup instead of honey and found that I needed to boil it down 15 minutes instead of 10.

    Reply
  17. Sandra

    July 2, 2016 at 11:01 am

    Would you need the two grated apples for rhubarb jam?
    And do you have a guess on the proportion of rhubarb to honey? Or maybe the substitution of the sugar for honey?

    Otherwise, I’ll experiment. I can always use it as a topping instead of a jam. And we enjoy adding our fresh jams to plain yoghurt rather than buying to over sweet pre made fruit yoghurts.

    Thank you.
    Thank you.

    Reply
  18. Larissa

    July 1, 2016 at 7:50 pm

    I like to use Chia seeds instead of pectin in my jam.

    Reply
    • Marisa

      July 1, 2016 at 9:33 pm

      Jams thickened with chia seeds are not safe to can in a boiling water bath.

      Reply
  19. Asl

    June 18, 2016 at 1:52 pm

    I was just wondering if I can make this recipe using white granulated sugar instead of honey? Thanks! :D

    Reply
  20. Sherri

    June 9, 2016 at 12:22 pm

    Do you have a recipe to can blueberries with honey. Not jam just the whole berry?
    Thanks
    Sherri

    Reply
    • Marisa McClellan

      June 10, 2016 at 2:57 pm

      There is a recipe to do just that in my new book, Naturally Sweet Food in Jars.

      Reply

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