Blueberry-Maple Preserves are a low-sweetener cooked preserve made with Pomona’s Universal Pectin. Pomona’s Pectin contains no sugar or preservatives and jells reliably with low amounts of any sweetener. This recipe was created by Allison Carroll Duffy for Pomona’s Pectin. She says: Blueberries are a favorite fruit and I make a lot preserves with them. So I was especially interested in coming up with a version sweetened with something other than sugar. I thought maple syrup would be a good option and indeed, the maple-blueberry flavor combination is quite delightful. The maple flavor in this recipe does not overpower the blueberry flavor, but rather complements it in a lovely, understated way.
Servings 5 cups
Ingredients
- 2¼ pounds blueberries
- ¼ cup water
- ¼ cup lemon juice bottled
- 1½ teaspoons calcium water see step #1
- ¾ cup pure maple syrup
- 1½ teaspoons Pomona’s Pectin mixed with sweetener
Instructions
- Before you begin, prepare calcium water.To do this, combine ½ teaspoon calcium powder (in the small packet in your box of Pomona’s pectin) with ½ cup water in a small, clear jar with a lid. Shake well.Extra calcium water should be stored in the refrigerator for future use.
- Wash and rinse jars, lids, and screw bands. Set screw bands aside until ready to use. Place jars in boiling water bath canner with a rack, fill at least 2/3 of the way full with water, and bring to a boil. Boil jars for 10 minutes to sterilize (add 1 additional minute of sterilizing time for every 1000 feet above sea level), then turn down heat and let jars stand in hot water until ready to use. Place lids in water in a small pan, bring to a low simmer, and hold there until ready to use.
- Rinse blueberries, then remove and discard stems.
- Place blueberries in a sauce pan along with the ¼ cup of water. Bring the berries up to a boil over high heat, stirring occasionally, and very gently, to avoid crushing the berries as much as possible. Continue to cook the berries, stirring occasionally, just until the berries have softened and have begun to release their juices — about another 1 to 2 minutes. Then remove pan from heat.
- Measure out 4 cups of the cooked blueberry mixture. (If you have any left over, you can use it for something else.) Pour the measured blueberry mixture into a large sauce pan. Add lemon juice and calcium water and stir to combine.
- In a separate bowl, combine the maple syrup and pectin powder. Mix well and set aside.
- Bring blueberry mixture to a full boil over high heat. Add maple syrup-pectin mixture, then stir vigorously for 1 to 2 minutes, still over highest heat, to dissolve pectin. Return preserves to a boil, then remove from heat.
- Remove hot jars from canner and fill jars with preserves, leaving ¼ inch of headspace. Remove trapped air bubbles, wipe rims with a damp cloth, and put on lids and screw bands, tightening bands only to “fingertip tight” (until resistance is met, and then just the tiniest bit more).
- Place jars in the hot water, on the rack inside the canner. (Make sure jars are upright, not touching each other or the sides of the canner, and are covered with at least 1-2 inches of water). Place the lid on the canner, return the canner to a rolling boil, and boil for 10 minutes. (Add 1 minute additional processing time for every 1000 feet above sea level.)
- Turn off heat and allow canner and jars to sit for 5 minutes. Then remove jars from canner.
- Allow jars to cool undisturbed for 12 to 24 hours. Then confirm that jars have sealed. Enjoy your preserves! Or store properly for later use.
April Anderson
Can fresh lemon juice be used? I want to avoid the preservatives in bottled lemon juice.
Shelby Collings
Any lemon juice that is store bought will have the proper pH, but the Santa Cruz brand is our very favorite because it is preservative free!
Talya
I love this recipe! I would like to make a version that is less sugar as well. Could I halve the maple syrup if desired? Or could I omit it and use stevia instead? Thanks!
Shelby Collings
You can certainly use maple syrup instead or stevia in this recipe. Happy jamming!
MaryAnn
I’ll admit the thought of maple syrup was a little scary, but I bit the bullet and did it anyways. The recipe made five 1/2 US pints with enough leftover that I could’ve put it in my yogurt or tomorrow’s oatmeal. I started tasting the leftovers and that was that. lol
The blueberry flavor pops and tastes like fresh fruit. I originally was going to add some cinnamon due to the maple syrup and really glad I didn’t.
This was my first time using Pomona’s pectin and I won’t use any other brand again. My preserves did not look like they were setting up but as the leftovers cooled it gelled perfectly. Thank you for a great product. I will recommend this to my friends and also my GF groups.
Next up the Blueberry Marmalade.
Heather Hannan
Hi when I mixed the pectin with the maple syrup it clumped up and I couldn’t break it up. Did I do something wrong? I took out most of the clumps. Send to have still thickened up fine. Is that okay?
Shelby Collings
Hello Heather,
What a bummer! It should still be fine to consume. Below is some information on the issue, it can also be found HERE.
Why did the Pomona’s Pectin powder clump when I added it to the pan of boiling fruit and what can I do about it?
There are several scenarios that can cause the pectin to clump together when it is added to the fruit mixture.
The pectin was stirred directly into the fruit mixture.
The pectin was stirred into an amount of sweetener below the low end of the sweetener range.
The pectin was not well mixed throughout the sweetener.
The pectin was stirred into a sugar with larger crystals, like turbinado sugar. The pectin may not mix well with these larger crystals.
The Fix: Turn off the heat and fish out the pectin clumps as much as you can. Put ¾ cup up to 1 cup of hot fruit mixture into a cup for immersion blender, or in food processor, or in blender. Add the pectin clumps that you fished out. It is very important to vent the lid (if there is one) to let steam out. Don’t use an enclosed blender that can’t be vented. Blend for a full minute until all clumps are totally dissolved.
Bring pan with fruit mixture back to a boil, add blended pectin-fruit, and stir well. Stir vigorously to break up any pectin clumps still in the fruit mixture. Bring fruit mixture to a full boil. Remove from the heat. Jar and process according to the recipe sheet that comes with Pomona’s Pectin.
Note: For this fix to work, your fruit mixture needs to be a “low-sweetener mixture” — that is, the sweetener that is already mixed in with the fruit has to be within the sweetener ranges on our recipe sheet. The pectin clumps can only fully dissolve in a low-sweetener mixture.
If the sweetener in your mixture is above the sweetener range, turn off the heat and fish out the pectin clumps as much as you can. Put ¾ cup up to 1 cup of boiling water or boiling unsweetened fruit juice into a cup for immersion blender, or in food processor, or in blender. Add the pectin clumps that you fished out. It is very important to vent the lid (if there is one) to let steam out. Don’t use an enclosed blender that can’t be vented. Blend for a full minute until all clumps are totally dissolved.
Bring pan with fruit mixture back to a boil, add blended pectin, and stir well. Bring fruit mixture to a full boil. Remove from the heat. Jar and process according to the recipe sheet that comes with Pomona’s Pectin.
L Dalton
I want to use unsweetened apple juice as my sweetener. Do I need to adjust the recipe? Do I need to make apple juice concentrate first? I read that to make concentrate i need to boil 4 cups of unsweetened juice down to 1 cup. My husband is diabetic so I can’t use the maple syrup..
Shelby Collings
You sure can. You will follow our directions HERE on page 1.
Geneva Bridges
When using frozen blueberries how can you allow to come to room temp before measuring? The recipe says to measure after boiling.
Shelby Collings
We would suggest weighing out 2 1/4 pounds of frozen blueberries and then measuring the 4 cups once it is cooked.
Barbara Lindenberg
I’d like to double or triple the recipe (I have a lot of wild blueberries) and I wonder if this works well in this case? Is it just a matter of doubling all ingredients or do things become a bit different with the pectin and calcium etc.?
Shelby Collings
Hello Barbara,
You can certainly double or triple any of our recipes, each ingredient just needs to be multiplied equally. The only limiting factors are if you have a stove powerful enough to cook all of the jam at the same time, and if you have a canner or canners large enough to process all of your filled jars at the same time. 😊
Keke Murray
I made this following the recipe exactly (I have used Pomona’s for several years) but the set is softer than I’d like. What should I do to improve the set?
Shelby Collings
Hello Keke,
Thanks so much for reaching out! You will want to follow our troubleshooting page, HERE, and it will help you determine where things may have gone astray and how to fix up your preserves to your liking. 😊
mbl
How many cups of blueberries are needed? Thanks!
Shelby Collings
You will need about 2 1/4 pounds of blueberries, then you will measure out 4 cups of the cooked blueberry mixture.
cathleen case
Lemon juice requirements: can it be fresh OR bottled? Does it make a difference? I do know why we need the acid. Thanks!
Shelby Collings
Hello Cathleen,
We recommend using bottled lemon juice because it has a guaranteed pH level.
Happy jamming!
Sylvie
Would I need to alter the recipe in any way if I use frozen berries? Thx.
Shelby Collings
You will just need to allow the berries to come to room temperature before mashing and measuring. All other aspects of the recipe will stay the same.
Happy jamming!