My mother-in-law has the most fantastic garden and her raspberries bushes are full of fruit right now. We intended to pick enough for one batch of jam but this is what we ended up with just a tad bit more. And by “tad,” I mean “lots.”
Most jam recipes call for almost twice as much sugar as fruit and that drives me crazy. I mean, I want to taste the fruit, not the sugar, thank you very much. We used Sur-Jell Low Sugar Pectin…it’s my favorite.
We usually have to borrow water bath canners but my husband bought me a pretty new one the other day:
So, here’s Low Sugar Raspberry Jam, step-by-step:
1. Fill your water bath canner about half full and put it on the stove.
2. Wash seven jars, rings and lids. Good for you if you’re re-using jars, but make sure to get new lids. Jars and rings can be used over and over again but lids need to be new in order to get a good seal.
3. Crush your berries one layer at a time using a potato masher. You need 5 cups.
4. Measure 4 cups sugar into a separate bowl. Take 1/4 cup sugar out of that bowl and mix it with the pectin in another bowl.
5. Put the sugar/pectin mixture and the fruit into a large pan on the stove
6. Stir until it comes to a full rolling boil. A “full rolling boil” happens when you’re stirring and it keeps boiling.
7. Add the sugar and boil for exactly one minute, stirring constantly. Yes, it makes a mess and you might popped.
8. Take it off the heat and let it sit for 5 minutes. When the timer goes off, spoon the foam off the top. Save this to eat with saltines later. <—This is my favorite part of the whole process :)
9. Ladle into jars. I usually use half-pint jars. I think they’re pretty – and the perfect size for gift-giving.
10. Use a wet paper towel to clean the tops of the jars. Put the lid on the jar and screw the ring on. You’re almost done!
11. Carefully put the jars into the water bath canner. As soon as it starts boiling, set the time for 10 minutes.
12. When the timer goes off…you’ve made jam! Using your tongs, take the jars out of the canner and set them on a towel. Listen for the lids to seal – you’ll hear a nice loud “pop!”
I LOVE rasberries. Your stove looked similar to mine when I was making strawberry jam once. Actually….they boiled over and I ruined a burner or two!!
Great blog! Keep up the good work.
Hi, i used your recipe with only a few changes: i had 8 cups of crushed raspberries, i added the juice from 1 lemon, and i used no sugar pectin and only 1.5 cups of sugar and got AMAZING jam! I took some to work and everyone is raving about how it is not too sweet and not too tart! It really is lovely and I owe it to your simple recipe! Thank you!
This recipe looks super simple! I’m going to try and make raspberry jam for the first time. I could not find the low sugar pectin you used but I was wondering if I used regular pectin if I could still use this recipe? Thanks!