This recipe is written to be made with Pomona’s Universal Pectin.
Chris Wilson of LunaGrown Fine Gourmet Jam, who created this wonderful recipe, says: “This jam is great for a romantic picnic. It makes a wonderful pairing with Swiss cheese, a sharp white cheddar, or a feta goat cheese. It can also be accompanied by fresh pears and apples, served with a Cabernet and some brown bread. The flavor of the chocolate will increase as the jam sets, so depending on your palate you might taste only a hint at first.”
Notes
Chris’s advice: always boil an extra jar!
Ingredients
- 1 pound blueberries about 3 cups
- 1 pound raspberries about 3 cups
- 2 1/2 cups unsweetened apple juice About 4-6 apples if juicing your own
- 4 teaspoons calcium water see step #1
- 2 Tablespoons lemon juice bottled
- 3 cups sugar divided
- 4 teaspoons Pomona’s pectin powder mixed with sweetener
- 2-3 Tablespoons organic chocolate flavoring we like Flavorganics brand.
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 jars, lids, and bands. Place jars in canner, fill canner 2/3 full with water, bring to a boil. Turn off heat, cover, and keep jars in hot canner water until ready to use. Place lids in water in a small saucepan; cover and heat to a low boil. Turn off heat and keep lids in hot water until ready to use.
- Pour apple juice into jam pot. Do not skim off foam or strain.
- Add rinsed fruit to jam pot. Add calcium water and lemon juice and mix well.
- Measure 1 cup of the sugar into a bowl. Thoroughly mix pectin powder into sugar. Set aside.
- Bring fruit mixture to a full boil. Skim off foam. Add pectin-sugar mixture, stirring vigorously for 1 to 2 minutes to dissolve the pectin while the jam comes back up to a boil. Skim off foam.
- Add the remaining 2 cups of sugar, stirring well as you add.
- Add chocolate flavoring and stir well.
- When mixture returns to a full boil, remove it from the heat and skim any foam
- Important Note: If you have skimmed foam along the way, there should be very little on the top of your batch. If you continue to stir with your ladle once heat is turned off, any foam (jam bubbles) will dissipate on its own.
- Fill hot jars to ¼” of top. Wipe rims clean. Screw on 2-piece lids. Put filled jars in boiling water to cover. Boil 10 minutes (add 1 minute more for every 1,000 ft. above sea level). Remove from water. Let jars cool. Check seals; lids should be sucked down. Eat within 1 year. Lasts 3 weeks once opened.
Donna
Can I use allulose (a sugar alcohol) in stead of the 3 cups of sugar? If so, would I use the same amount, more, or less?
Shelby Collings
Hello Donna,
You sure can! You will follow the conversion on the back of your allulose package.
DebO
Could you make a chocolate banana jam?
Shelby Collings
Hello Deb,
We would not recommend using banana in this jam, as it is a low acid fruit, and hard to adjust for a shelf stable jam. You could always replace the strawberries with banana if you are okay with freezing your jam instead of water-bath canning your jam!
DebO
Can you use cocoa powder instead of chocolate flavoring? If so how much for a rich chocolate flavor?
Shelby Collings
You sure can! We would recommend using 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted in place of the flavoring and increasing the lemon juice to 1/4 cup.
DebO
This did not gel much for me. It jelled when putting it in the fridge to chill thoroughly, but when placing back on the counter at room temperature it lost its gel again. It tastes great, not gritty.
I added 1/2 cup of cocoa powder instead of 1/3 cup because it was not chocolatey enough after removing from the heat. Also used 1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon lemon juice, as it made me nervous adding additional cocoa powder from what you suggested.
The label of the apple juice used states it is from concentrate but does not have sugar in the ingredients. Just apple juice from concentrate and ascorbic acid vitamin C.
The recipe says to add the berries to the apple juice. I used all raspberries,, measured by weight precisely, no other fruit with it. The recipe does not provide measure by volume for the berries for mashing, only weight of 1 lb., approximate 3 cups before adding to the apple juice. Is there a step missing here that the berries should be mashed and measured by cups?
The recipe also uses a total of 3 cups of sugar. I mixed the pectin with the 1 cup sugar well, and the remaining 2 cups as instructed. Trying to find answers in your Troubleshooting, thought I read somewhere that a maximum of 2 cups of sugar can be used per recipe?
It’s difficult to figure out where it went wrong when there is no specific measurement for finished amount of juice and berries.
Thanks.
Shelby Collings
Hello there,
All of this sounds like you did things just right! Based on your description of your jell, it just sounds like you need more pectin. It could be that your raspberries were a bit more juicy, or there was a bit more liquid in your batch than anticipated. We would guess that an additional 1/2-1 teaspoon of Pectin would do the trick.
Suz
May I interchange berries for this recipe, say…strawberries and blueberries or raspberries and strawberries?
Shelby Collings
You sure can!
Dawn Emerson
What guidelines for proportions can you supply for making a lime Jelly? I have a bumper crop of Bears Limes on the tree, and have a great recipe for conventional lime jelly with microplaned zest, but it uses about 6 cups of sugar for 2 cups of fresh juice, with conventional pectin.
Mary Lou Sumberg
Hi Dawn,
We have a recipe for Lemon Jelly on the website. Go to recipes, click on Recipe Cards, on the left side of the page, or scroll down to the bottom, to Recipe Card #3 and click on that recipe card to see the lemon jelly recipe.
You can substitute lime juice for the lemon juice. You can add lime zest if you’d like.