Homemade Blueberry Preserves without Pectin
I’ve had quite a few people email asking what the lovely looking blue spread was on my recent grain-free white bread recipe, so I thought I’d share it with you! It’s a very simple recipe for blueberry jam that doesn’t use pectin or processed sugar. Just 4 ingredients!
| Ingredients (fills an 8 ounce jar) 3 cups blueberries (frozen and thawed or fresh) 3/4 cup honey (you can use more or less depending on how tart your berries are) 2 tablespoons lemon juice 1 teaspoon lemon zest |
Directions
Place the blueberries in a medium sized sauce pan and crush them with the back of a fork or using a potato masher.
Add the honey, lemon juice, and lemon zest, then bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Stir frequently while the mixture boils for 15-20 minutes and it starts to thicken. The best way to test if it’s done is to put a spoonful in the freezer for 5 minutes. If it won’t easily pour off of the spoon when you remove it from the freezer, then it’s done.
Skim off any foam, then ladle the jam into a sterilized jar.
Store tightly covered in the fridge for a couple of weeks or you can use canning methods to store in a pantry for longer storage.
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Fantastic! I was wondering…could I do the same thing with strawberries?
I think so but I haven’t tried it yet. I plan to soon though because strawberry jam is my favorite!
I was interested to read your recipes for making jam without sugar or pectin, but using honey instead. Please forgive my naivety if I ask whether it would not be possible to make blueberry (or any other) jam without any form of sweetening whatsoever? After all we eat all these fruits raw, perhaps with just a little kefir or joghurt (themselves containing only fermented milk). We have all become so addicted to sugar and its various highly calorific substitutes. I for one am trying to kick the habit, but it seems quite impossible to buy unsweetened jam. Even the best on the market contain concentrated grape juice or the like. Am I looking for a biological impossibility? I’ll never forget the time I tried to make elderberry cordial for summer drinks without using any sugar and ended up with glass fragments all over the cellar floor after all my bottles exploded.
The sugar acts as a preservative (whether you keep the jam in the fridge or in your pantry – if properly canned). Otherwise, I assume the jam would spoil/ferment as quickly as the berries would in your fridge or countertop. If you aren’t looking for longevity, you could certainly just stew your berries.
Strawberries take a little longer and do better in canning, but is defidently possible u have mostly the same steps but u have to add a lot of sugar but it some how still turns out healthier than buying it from the store….. just google how to make strawberry jam!!!!
LOVE IT! Easy and healthy! I’ve always steered clear of making any kind of jams, jellies or preserves because the whole “canning” process just overwhelms me. This seems doable to me! Thanks for sharing!
thank you
going to try some soon!
I love that this uses honey and doesn’t use pectin! I love preserves but don’t love all the sugar in it so this is definitely something I’m interested in making.
It works with a variety of fruits. The way I like to make my blueberry Sauce/preserves is with lime juice instead of lemon and since i don’t like to use sugar/honey, i use liquid stevia and and in some arrowroot for thickening. Delish. If done this with strawberries and raspberries. Except the strawberries have a lot of water so you really have to cook the liquid down.
Wow! I didn’t have blueberries but I had fresh garden strawberries that I needed to do something with. I followed this recipe except that I decreased the honey to 1/2 cup and boiled for 15 minutes. Awesome on my coconut milk ice cream and will make a thin strawberry jam on my grain-free bread I made yesterday. Sweet! Love your recipes!!
This looks lovely. I’d like to try this with blackberries as well!
I make berry jam/jelly using honey and some non flavoured gelatin as well but want to try the arrowroot and stevia recipe…that sounds pretty interesting….love your blog….have had IBD for over 30 years without drugs or surgeries!! Eating right:))
Silly question, but…after it’s finished and ladled into a jar and stored in the fridge…do you have to wait a couple of weeks to be able to eat it or is that just how long you can keep in the fridge before going bad?
I’ve never made jam before, but I’m really eager to try!
You can eat it as soon as it’s chilled! You can actually eat it hot too if you really want, but it won’t be as thick hot.
Okay. Thank you so much!
How long did you process the jars in the canner for this recipe? Thanks!
No one said anything about putting this in the freezer. That would be my preference so I could do more up ahead of time. If there any reason that this wouldn’t work?
I’m sure that would be just fine, this recipe just yields 1 jar and we just go through it fast enough to not need to freeze it.
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I was never a great fan of blueberry jam. I think you just made me change my mind.
Great to hear!!
Hi Danielle,
I couldn`t get this recipe right; I made it just for the Not-A-Grain Bar recipe, and the blueberry preserves hardened as soon as they cooled. How can I keep them spreadable?
Thanks,
Gillian
It should harden when it cools for using with toast etc., but that is why I add the water to it for the bars. Did you do that step and it still was too thick?
I did add some water, but I hadn`t yet looked at the Not-A-Grain directions, so I might not have added 3 tablespoons. I will try again. But regarding use of the preserves for toast, do you store them in an oven-safe jar and then heat them straight from the jar each time?
hi,
Thanks for this. I’m hoping to make damson jam soon. Any adaptations recommended for your recipe? I’ve just ordered grape juice concentrate for sugar-free jam making. do you think this would work in place of the honey? The St Dalfour sugar-free jams are made this way but include pectin.
Thanks,
Sarah
Just made this… YUM!!!! It’s like dessert!
I made this yesterday to fill your not-a-grain bars. I used frozen organic blueberries that we picked locally a few months ago and I added a little over a cup of frozen local peach chunks so that I’d have enough filling for the bars. It was SO good, thank you so much! I do have some jam I had canned with local fruit and honey this summer, but I’m saving that for sandwiches for my little ones, and it was lovely to be able to make the filling hot and fresh to spread on the bars as I made them. I love this recipe and will definitely come back to it for topping pancakes and for more not-a-grain bars. Thank you for sharing it with us!
Definitely doing this recipe this week, as I am a self-avowed blueberry freak….Question….What is “wrong” with pectin …or rather….why should we avoid it?…I am hoping to do this with the liquid stevia/arrowroot option that a reader suggested in the comments…or could I use coconut palm sugar or xylitol or erythritol for sweetening?…I am trying to keep the fruit in the frontline…and avoid the calories and insulin spiking…Thank you in advance for any enlightenment/suggestions?
Oh my goodness! Just took a pan of this wonderful blueberry jam off of the stove and I am in LOVE!!! My favorite store-bought jam is absolutely loaded with sugar so I refuse to buy it anymore. I am a huge fan of a good piece of toast in the morning (whether it be almond flour bread or Ezekiel 4:9 bread) and am soooo excited to finally have a jam that I am thrilled to feed myself and my daughter. THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!!
This is just the recipe I was looking for! I’m glad to find a recipe that uses neither pectin nor white sugar.. gonna try this today. Thanks!
Just gotta throw another comment in here…..it felt like a breakfast for dinner kind of night so I thawed some almond flour pancakes I had in the freezer and put warm blueberries preserves on them. OH MY GOSH! Felt like I had died and gone to heaven the combination was just that good!
We love doing that! I water it down a little to make it more of a syrup consistency
This may sound like I don’t know how to cook, but I do tend to follow recipes so I am concerned about leaving an ingredient out. My body does no do any citrus so can I leave out the lemon and still have a decent jam? TIA…Kathy
Glad you asked – the lemon brings out the natural pectins in the fruit which is what makes it gel up.
So, do you know of anything that I could use? Citric acid in any form gives me hives on the palms of my hands. Thanks
Oh wow sorry! I’m not sure, this was kind of my first time venturing into homemade jam land. I’m sure a quick google search will turn back a bunch of options. You can buy pectin in a packet which most canning recipes call for so maybe that will be your best bet
Wow, I never thought I could make this at home, and SO easy! I only had a little over half a cup of honey and I had ZERO lemons, but I did have some Key Lime Juice- I was desperate… I had no zest either. I went ahead and made it anyway, and let me tell you. I LOVE the flavor! I don’t think I am ever buying blueberry preserves AGAIN. Thank you so much for this wonderful recipe!
Made this with agave nectar instead of honey, and added grated ginger root for added flavor. Simple and tastes great – thank you!