Blackberry Jam
With just 3 ingredients, no jar sterilization, and a quick 10-minute water bath, making this blackberry jam with pectin is as easy as it gets. You’ll get perfectly set jam with deep, rich, sweet-tart blackberry flavor.
Craving The Recipe Details?
What it is: A sweet-tart homemade jam made with fresh or frozen blackberries, sugar, and powdered pectin, designed for water bath canning and long-term pantry storage.
Why you’ll love it: Just 3 simple ingredients (blackberries, sugar, pectin) comes together to make 9 half-pints of fresh jam in under an hour. Beginner-friendly directions make preserving easy.
How to make it: Mash blackberries, boil with pectin, stir in sugar, boil for 1 minute, then water-bath can for shelf-stable jars that last up to 12 months.
Living in northern Alberta means accepting certain limitations. Our harsh winters and short growing season make fresh blackberries a coveted luxury rather than a staple I can grow on my homestead.
So when my sister called on Christmas Eve saying “The grocery store has fresh blackberries for a dollar a clamshell!” I nearly dropped my coffee mug! Seconds later I was throwing on my coat, grabbing my keys and running to the car, all while mentally calculating how many batches of jam I could make and how many pints I should buy.
The store’s produce section was busy, other jam-makers clearly having received the same alert through the prairie grapevine. Smiling at each other offering a “you making jam, too?”
This homemade blackberry jam recipe is dedicated to the prairie grapevine.
Jump to:
Canning Safety
Sterilizing Jars:
Everyone and their dog has their own way of cleaning jars, but make sure that you do it. National Center For Food Preservation has clear guidelines about sterilizing jars. The TL;DR is that if you're processing for at least 10 minutes, sterilization is not required - this is why I do not sterilize my jelly jars (and process for at least 10 minutes!)
This recipe follows NCFP sterilization principles for safe canning.
Processing Time:
When water bath canning, you must know your elevation due to the different temperatures at which water boils based on elevation and the length of time food must be held at a certain temperature before it is considered pasteurized. A higher altitude equals lower boiling temperature and longer processing time.
An easy way to find your altitude is to search your town or city on Wikipedia!
| Elevation | Processing Time |
|---|---|
| 0-1,000 feet | 10 minutes |
| 1,001 - 6,000 feet | 10 minutes |
| 6,001 + | 15 minutes |
** Processing time for half pint-sized jars only
Key Ingredients
Blackberries: Always choose high quality, ripe berries. Pick through them to remove any molded, bruised, or damaged fruit, then wash well before use. You can use fresh or frozen berries for this recipe!
Sugar: Granulated sugar imparts sweetness without impacting flavor, so I prefer it for jam recipes where I want my fruit flavor to shine through. It also dissolves easily in the heated jam and helps to preserve the flavor, color, and texture of the jam while also making it shelf-stable!
How To Make Blackberry Jam
Prepare Your Canning Jars:
- This recipe makes 9 half pint (250 ml) jars and does not require sterilization due to the processing time. Prepare your jars, flats, and rings by washing in hot soapy water and rinsing well before setting aside on a clean kitchen towel until you’re ready to use them.
- Fill a water bath canner, and set to boil over medium high heat.
Prepare The Berries:
- Step 1: Gather approximately 3 pounds (10 or so cups) of blackberries.
- Step 2: If using frozen berries, thaw them first. Place fresh or thawed berries in a single layer in a large bowl. Mash well with a potato masher. Repeat; adding layers and mashing until all berries are crushed.
- Step 3: Measure berries and their juice, ensuring you have 5 cups of crushed berries.
Make The Jam:
- Step 4: Place 5 cups of prepared blackberries in a large, heavy bottomed sauce pan. Stir in one 57g package of powdered pectin, and 1/2 teaspoon of butter, optional – but can help reduce foaming.
- Step 5: Bring the berry mixture to a full rolling boil over medium high heat, then stir in 7 cups of granulated sugar.
- Step 6: Stir the jam mixture constantly while it comes back to a full rolling boil – this is a boil you cannot stir down. Boil for 1 minute.
- Step 7: Remove the sauce pan from heat, scoop off any foam if necessary.
Process The Jam:
- Step 8: Ladle hot jam into prepared canning jars leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Wipe jar rims, center a new snap lid on each jar, and tighten bands finger tight.
- Step 9: Transfer filled jars to the prepared boiling water canner using a jar lifter, ensure the jars are covered by 1-2 inches of water, cover the canner and return to a full boil.
- Step 10: Once the water bath returns to a boil, begin to process for 10 minutes (at 0- 6,000 feet above sea level, see section above for canning at other altitudes).
- Step 11: When processing is complete, turn off the heat, remove the lid from the water bath canner, and rest for 5 minutes before removing the hot jars and transferring them to a heat-proof surface to cool untouched for 24 hours.
- Step 12: After 24 hours, remove the screw bands, wipe down the jars, and place them in long-term storage location.
Label Your Jam:
I love to label my handcrafted goodies. I used my Munbyn thermal printer and 2″ round labels for this project. I created the labels in Canva. You can grab an editable copy of the round label file for free when you join the Crave Insiders.
Expert Tips
- I ALWAYS prepare an extra quarter pint jar when I'm making jelly. Just in case I have a smidge less than I expected I have a jar that's ready to go when I can't fill a half pint jar.
- We can eliminate the jar sterilization step in this recipe by ensuring the jam jars are in the water bath canner for at least 10 minutes, so that’s my timings look a little different than other recipes.
- Finger-tight is such a vague term, here's how I tighten my jars: screw the bands on until the jar starts to turn on the counter, then back off about a 1/8th of a turn.
- If you’re using frozen berries like me, allow them to thaw at room temperature before crushing, it’s much easier than smashing frozen berries! Make sure you mash the berries well – this is the key to smooth jams.
- Blackberry juice stains! So don’t wear white, or use a wooden spoon that may never recover from the dye!
Blackberry Jam FAQs
This recipe makes between 8-9 half pints of delicious homemade blackberry jam.
I don’t recommend doubling jam recipes, I find things can go wonky, I recommend just making concurrent batches of jams.
Properly water-bathed jam can be kept in a cool, dark place, for a shelf life of up to 12 months. While the lids may seal for longer, flavor, texture, and color can change in an undesirable way. Even properly processed and stored foods can lose their quality over time, so it’s important to cycle the stock of your canned goods. Degradation occurs more quickly in temperatures above 70f or 21c.
The NCHFP recommends that once you open a jar, refrigerate it and use within 1 month for best quality and flavor. The jam is still safe beyond that, but texture and taste may decline.
No, this blackberry jam is made with powdered pectin and requires the right ratio of fruit to sugar to set. If you're looking to make a lower sugar option, you'll have to choose a sugar free pectin recipe or a low sugar pectin recipe.
Yes! Frozen blackberries work perfectly for this recipe. Thaw them completely at room temperature before mashing (about 2-3 hours), then proceed exactly as written. You may notice slightly more liquid from frozen berries, but the pectin will handle it beautifully.
Tip: Don’t drain the liquid from thawed berries – you want all that berry juice for flavor!
Troubleshooting
Jam Didn't Set?
It happens! Runny jam doesn’t mean wasted effort. You’ve got options.
Wait it out: Give your jam 24-48 hours before assuming it’s failed. Sometimes it just sets slowly.
If it’s still too loose after waiting, choose your adventure:
- Call it syrup: Strain the seeds and use it like blackberry syrup, perfect for drizzling over pancakes, sous vide ice cream, sous vide yogurt, or homemade hard seltzers.
- Refrigerate test: Chill one jar for 24 hours to see if it firms up. If it does and stays firm at room temp, you can just refrigerate the rest as you go. No luck? Move to step 3.
- Fix and reprocess: Per 1 cup of jam, you’ll need 2 tablespoons sugar, 1 tablespoon water, and 1½ teaspoons pectin. Whisk the water and pectin over medium heat until boiling. Add jam and sugar, bring to a hard boil over high heat, and boil for 30 seconds. Pour into clean jars and water bath can for 10 minutes (adjust for your elevation).
Jam Separated:
When your jam sets but the fruit floats to the top and the jelly sinks to the bottom, that’s called separation. I see this happen occasionally, more with often strawberry jam than blackberry, in my experience.
Before you stress, know this: your jam is completely safe to eat and totally fixable.
Quick fix: Just stir the jar before you use it. Everything recombines and you’d never know it separated. This is honestly what I do. It’s the fastest, easiest solution and totally works!
Caught it early? If you notice separation right after pulling jars from the water bath, gently tilt them back and forth for about 30 seconds to redistribute the fruit, then set them upright to finish cooling.
Avoid it next time:
- Use fully ripe fruit, whether fresh or frozen. Underripe berries (sometimes picked early for shipping) have firmer texture and tend to float instead of staying suspended in the jam.
- Measure your ingredients precisely and make sure you’re maintaining a hard rolling boil for the full time specified, this helps everything set evenly.
Pectin Jam vs Pectin Free Jam
When making berry jams, I usually opt for the versions with pectin.
Pectin free jams require twice as much fruit and usually only a cup or so less sugar for the same amount of jam. This means you’re concentrating the flavor and sweetness in the jam and while that sounds great it can be cloying, or excessively sweet and cause the loss of the natural tartness and flavor profile of the berry.
The other downside is that pectin free jams require more cooking to render out the liquid from the berries – they are cooked down by pretty much half. This can result in a less fresh, more “cooked” flavor that lacks the depth and nuance of fresh berries.
Serving Suggestions
Here are some of my favorite ways to enjoy my homemade jam!
- swirled into oatmeal or sous vide yogurt
- smeared on rustic sourdough toast, sourdough discard scones, or no milk biscuits
- spread on pancakes or waffles
- poured over homemade vanilla ice cream
- in delicious pb&j sandwiches
- swirled in my peanut butter and jam sourdough bread
See What Else I’m Canning
If you tried this Blackberry Jam recipe or any other recipe on my blog, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how it went in the comments below. Thanks for visiting!
📖 Printable Recipe
Blackberry Jam Recipe With Pectin
Ingredients
- 3 pounds blackberries, approximately 10 cups
- 1 package powdered pectin, 57g
- ½ teaspoon unsalted butter, optional
- 7 cups granulated sugar
Instructions Start Cooking
Prepare Canning Jars:
- This recipe makes 9 half pint (250 ml) jars and does not require sterilization due to the processing time. Prepare your jars, flats, and rings by washing in hot soapy water and rinsing well before setting aside on a clean kitchen towel until you're ready to use them.
- Fill a water bath canner, and set to boil over medium high heat.
Prepare The Berries:
- Gather 3 lbs of blackberries. If using frozen berries, thaw them before beginning.
- Place fresh or thawed berries in a single layer in a large bowl. Mash well with a potato masher. Repeat adding layers and mashing until all berries are crushed.
- Measure berries and their juice, ensuring you have 5 cups of crushed berries.
Make The Jam:
- Place 5 cups of prepared blackberries in a large, heavy bottomed sauce pan. Stir in one 57g package of powdered pectin, and 1/2 teaspoon of butter, optional - but can help reduce foaming.
- Bring the berry mixture to a full rolling boil over medium high heat, then stir in 7 cups of granulated sugar.
- Stir the jam mixture constantly while it comes back to a full rolling boil - this is a boil you cannot stir down. Boil for 1 minute.
- Remove the sauce pan from heat, scoop off any foam if necessary.
Process The Jam:
- Ladle hot jam into prepared canning jars leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Wipe jar rims, center a new snap lid on each jar, and tighten bands finger tight.
- Transfer filled jars to the prepared boiling water canner using a jar lifter, ensure the jars are covered by 1-2 inches of water, cover the canner and return to a full boil.
- Once the water bath returns to a boil, begin to process for 10 minutes (at 0- 6,000 feet above sea level, see section above for canning at other altitudes).
- When processing is complete, turn off the heat, remove the lid from the water bath canner, and rest for 5 minutes before removing the hot jars and transferring them to a heat-proof surface to cool untouched for 24 hours.
- After 24 hours, remove the screw bands, wipe down the jars, label, and place them in long-term storage location.
Notes
- I always prepare an extra quarter pint jar when I'm making jelly. Just in case I have a smidge less than I expected I have a jar that's ready to go when I can't fill a half pint jar.
- We can eliminate the jar sterilization step in this recipe by ensuring the jam jars are in the water bath canner for at least 10 minutes, so that’s my timings look a little different than other recipes.
- Finger-tight is such a vague term, here's how I tighten my jars: screw the bands on until the jar starts to turn on the counter, then back off about a 1/8th of a turn.
- If you’re using frozen berries like me, allow them to thaw at room temperature before crushing, it’s much easier than smashing frozen berries! Make sure you mash the berries well – this is the key to smooth jams.
- Blackberry juice stains! So don’t wear white, or use a wooden spoon that may never recover from the dye!
Blackberry jam is such a treat! Usually they are far to expensive to buy here in Northern Alberta in quantities sufficient for jam, but when they come on sale, I always stock up for a jam sesh. I love the deeper, more tangy flavor that only blackberry jam can offer.