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Strawberries are by far my favorite fruit. Lots of other delicious fruits out there, but strawberries are definitely my fave. My children love to have peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on some homemade bread for a quick lunch. I used to purchase jam at the store and unknowingly slather absolute junk all over their bread. The brand I purchased had: strawberries, high fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, sugar, fruit pectin, citric acid. Listed for ingredients.
High fructose corn syrup, seriously? How about strawberries, water, sugar, pectin. That’s it! Four ingredients. All things I can pronounce, all things I can create in my own kitchen. A couple years ago, I tried just a typical sugar strawberry jam. Honestly, we love sweet stuff, and it was WAY too much sugar. So, I’ve opted for a low sugar jam and we love it. If you don’t want to add any at all, you absolutely don’t have to. This recipe will work fine sans sugar, just omit the ingredient and the step.
I can our jam and put it up for the year. Four pounds of strawberries will comfortably yield you 10 half-pints with not much, if any, left over. Never do more than 10 half pints in one session. I usually do two groups. That affords us roughly 20 half pint jars out of 8 pounds of strawberries. This typically lasts us all year. I do can other types of jams, but Strawberry definitely gets used the most. This is what we use, so just adjust accordingly to what you need :).
Low Sugar Strawberry Jam
Ingredients
10 Cups Strawberries equal to about 4 pounds, hulled
1 1/3 Cups Water
1 1/3 Cups Sugar
7 1/2 Tablespoons Real Fruit Low Sugar Pectin
1/4 tsp Butter, this will reduce foaming
Instructions
Prepare waterbath canner, jars and lids.
Hull all the strawberries. Crush them using a potato masher one layer at a time until well crushed.
I went ahead after I crushed them all and used a hand mixer to blend them together a little more. Seemed to help make the jam consistency I was looking for.
Get the rest of the ingredients together.
Combine strawberries and water in an 8 quart pan. Gradually stir in pectin. Add in butter.
Bring mixture to a full rolling boil, over high heat. Stir constantly.
Add Sugar and return mixture to full rolling boil.
Boil 1 minute, stirring constantly.
Remove from heat and skim foam (you shouldn't have much if you added the butter).
Ladle hot jam into hot jars.
Leave 1/4 inch headspace.
Wipe rims and center lids on jars. Tighten bands to fingertip tight.
Place filled jars in canner making sure they are covered by 2 inches of water. Place lid on canner and bring water to a boil.
Once boiling, process for 10 minutes. Turn off heat, take off lid and let jars stand for 5 minutes.
Remove jars onto a towel lined counter and cool. Leave undisturbed for one day. After 24 hours, check lids for seal. Clean and store appropriately.
That’s all there is to it! Easy peasy, and you’ll have a ton of jars of delicious, homemade jam to pull out whenever you need.
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