Blackberry and apple jam recipe
Posted by Fiona Nevile in Jam Jelly and Preserves | 237 comments
It was Anne Mary that pointed out that apple and blackberry jam would be full of blackberry pips.
“They’d get stuck in your teeth and drive you mad. Stick to bramble jelly.”
I love jelly. We make loads of jelly every year. More often than not it is used as a base for a sauce rather than dolloped on a plate of roast lamb or pork.
Imagine my delight when I found this recipe for Blackberry and Apple Jam in my aunt’s ancient handwritten cookbook. As it is sieved there are no seeds and the jam is delicious, spread on hot buttered toast in the morning.
Blackberry and Apple Jam recipe
Ingredients:
- 1k (roughly 2lb) of blackberries
- 350g (12ozs) of apples (eating apples, windfalls are fine)
- Water
- White granulated sugar
Method:
- Core and roughly chop the apples (skin on).
- Put the apples, cores and blackberries in a large preservaing pan or large heavy bottomed saucepan. Add just enough water to cover and simmer until soft.
- Sieve the softened fruit and weigh the sieved pulp (discard the skins and seeds left in the sieve). Add 450g (1lb) of sugar for each 450g (1lb) of sieved pulp.
- Put sieved pulp and sugar into a large heavy bottomed saucepan (or preserving pan) and heat very gently until the sugar has dissolved.
- Bring the jam to the boil and continue to boil very rapidly for about 8-10 minutes until the jam reaches setting point. (What is setting point? See tricks and tips below).
- When the jam has set, carefully pour into warm, sterilised jars, using a ladle or small jug (How to sterilise jars? See tricks and tips below)
- Cover the jars with tight fitting screw-top lids, or waxed disks and cellophane pot covers (waxed disks, wax facing downwards and plastic covers secured with plastic bands).
- Label when cold and store in a cool, dark place, away from damp.
Tricks and Tips:
- Jam “set” or “setting point”:
Getting the right set can be tricky. I have tried using a jam thermometer but find it easier to use the following method. Before you start to make the jam, put a couple of plates in the fridge so that the warm jam can be drizzled onto a cold plate (when we make jam we often forget to return the plate to the fridge between tests, using two plates means that you have a spare cold plate). Return the plate to the fridge to cool for approx two minutes. It has set when you run your finger through it and leave a crinkly track mark. If after two minutes the cooled jam is too liquid, continue to boil the jam, testing it every few minutes until you have the right set. The jam is far more delicious if it is slightly runny. - Sterilising the jars:
We collect jars all year round for our jelly, chutney and jam making sessions. I try to soak off labels and store the clean jars and metal plastic coated screw-top lids in an accessible place. The sterilising method that we used is simple. Just before making the jam, I quickly wash and rinse the jars and place them upside down in a cold oven. Set the temperature to 160c/140c for fan assisted. When the oven has reached the right temperature I turn off the heat. The jars will stay warm for quite a while. I only use plastic lined lids for preserves as the all-metal lids can go rusty. I boil these for five minutes in water to sterilise them. If I use Le Parfait jars, I do the same with the rubber rings.
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I don’t know why someone mentioned the muslin drip method. This method is used for making jelly not jam. It is meant to be sieved to remove the pips, we are making jam not jelly. Yes?
What sort of seive would you advice? I only have small nylon ones.
When is the best time to pick blackberries? August? I know after September they go too acidic apparently and are no good. What apples are best. I need to buy them, so should i go for cooking apples?
Thanks
From late 1950’s well into the 1980’s I seen my mother making blackberry jam with the addition of a few crabapples (high in pectin and great for setting) It was absolutely delicious.
Hi Liam
I’ve not tried blackberry jam so will give it a go this summer. I also have access to a crabapple tree! Thank you.
Hi we had frozen blackberries and wild damsons from foraging in the autumn. Made jam for the first time this weekend and it looks and tastes beautiful. thank you for the recipes.
Hello Virginia
Wow 50lbs of jam! I’ve started to use the mouli/food mill much more for processing as the seive was driving me nuts.
I’m going for rosehip tea (dried rosehips) this year and will post about it soon.
Busy making Autumn raspberry gin atm.
Hello Fiona
Since first trying this recipe in 2007, I have been desperate to make the jam again as it was so delicious. I am very happy to tell you that on Saturday my husband and I made 50lb of this jam from the 19lbs of blackberries I had harvested from our 1.5 acre ‘wild’ garden. It’s such an easy recipe – though sieving that amount of fruit has given me shoulder muscles like an American footballer!!!
Thanks for this great recipe. I also made a litre of your rosehip syrup and have a bottle of sloe gin pickling away!
Hi Ian
Unless you are a really experienced jam maker doubling the amounts increases the setting time. After making jam regularly you get a feel for how the fruit looks when it is coming to setting point. I always make my preserves in small batches since I had to wait for nine hours to get some chutney to thicken đ
Adding the juice of half a lemon to the recipe ammount of fruit would help with the setting and the sweetness.
Thanks for the swift reply, after posting my response I started to follow a recipe for blackberry jelly using 75g of sugar to every 100ml of liquid and as I had 1.8 litres of liquid (I doubled the amounts as I had loads of berries but then saw that you shouldn’t do that,) I weighed all the sugar out but stopped pouring it in as it seemed too much, it didn’t set (I put it in jars anyway)and it seems too sweet there’s jam all up the walls and my wife is a bit angry but I will clear up the big mess all in all not so successful but I will try again and put this one down to experience. thanks ps why does doubling the amounts make setting a problem?
Hi Bryony
The second plum jam in this article is very easy
https://www.cottagesmallholder.com/two-wild-plum-jam-recipes-38
Hi Ian
You didn’t go wrong. Put a bowl on a weighing machine and check the weight then pour in your liquid and subtract the weight of the bowl from the overall weight.
I am confused, I have just followed the recipe and having pushed the boiled fruit through the sieve I am left with a liquid not a pulp, cant be weighed so I will make a jelly and do something else with the mushy stuff left over. Is my sieve too fine a mesh? where did it all go wrong?
Thanks
thanks thats grate i could do with a few more lb of blackberries still to make enough iv put them in 1lbs in the freezer ready to make the first batch can u recommend any other easy jam recipes for the newbies
and what do you do with the juice thats left?
thanks for the help