Blackberry is a valuable berry with a low calorie content and an original sweet and sour taste. As a horticultural crop, it began to be grown in Russia only at the end of the 19th century. The fruits of the shrub can be eaten fresh or cooked on their basis unusually aromatic and tasty jam.
Blackberries are a common berry that is grown in home gardens and harvested in the forest. It contains a large amount of vitamins, mineral compounds, fruit acids, antioxidants. Its use in food lowers blood pressure, has a beneficial effect on the work of the cardiovascular and urinary systems.
Blackberry jam is a healthy delicacy that not only has a rich taste, but also improves digestion, reduces fatigue, and improves immunity. There are many options for making jam, but in all cases it turns out to be unusually tasty.
Classic Blackberry Jam
For the preparation of delicious and thick jam, you can use both garden blackberries and forest ones. In this case, the forest berry should be preferred, since it is much more aromatic and healthier. Garden hybrids may not have a pronounced taste, so you should definitely try the berries before buying. To prepare aromatic and thick jam, you will need:
- blackberries - 1 kg;
- sugar - 1 kg.
Sort the fruits carefully. Damaged, wrinkled, rotten, overripe berries are not suitable for making jam. Unripe blackberries should also be set aside, since the dessert turns out to be absolutely not tasty from them and they do not boil down during processing.
Put the berries in a colander and rinse, drain the water. After the fruits have dried a little, transfer them to an enamel bowl or a saucepan of a suitable size, cover with sugar. Let the berry brew for at least 30 minutes. During this time, she should start up the juice.
Place the blackberries and sugar on the stove and simmer for about 30 minutes. Remove the foam periodically. Stir the jam quite often with a wooden spoon or spatula. Readiness is easy to check if you carefully put the minimum amount of it with a spoon on a saucer. Well-cooked jam shouldn't run.
If you want the treat to be thicker, you can cool the boiled blackberry and boil it again. You do not need to add water at the beginning of cooking, but if there is little juice released, you can pour a few tablespoons of water into the pan. But the more liquid is added, the more diluted the jam turns out and this does not in the best way affect the taste characteristics.
Sterilize glass jars. To do this, hold them over steam for 5 minutes. It is very convenient to use a special nozzle on the pan with a hole for the neck of the can. You can sterilize jars in the oven. Beforehand, they should be well washed, and then put in the oven on the grill with the lids down. Increase the temperature gradually, first setting the mode to 50 ° С, and then increase to 100 ° С. Sterilize at 100 ° C for 15 minutes. It is enough to dip the lids into boiling water for a few seconds.
Arrange the cooked delicacy in sterile jars and cover with sterile nylon lids. Keep it cold. Better to remove the workpiece to the basement.
Jam, cooked according to the classic recipe, can be prepared with the addition of raspberries. The ratio of berries can be determined independently, focusing on your taste.
Blackberry jam can be cooked with other fruits and berries. The original delicacy is made with orange and lemon. For 1 kg of berries, add 1 citrus fruit. First, it is recommended to remove the zest from lemons and oranges using a very fine grater. The zest can also be used for cooking.
Blackberries go well with black and red currants, cherries and gooseberries.
Blackberry jam "five minutes"
The "five-minute" jam turns out to be especially tasty and as healthy as possible. With a reduction in the cooking time and an increase in the duration of the preparatory period, the berries do not boil over, they remain dense. To prepare the blank you will need:
- blackberries - 1 kg;
- sugar - 800 g;
- citric acid - 3 g.
Sort the berries carefully, remove the stalks, all damaged fruits, as well as twigs, impurities. Dry the blackberries by laying them out on a flat surface, and then put them in a saucepan in layers, sprinkling with sugar. Cover the dishes so that nothing gets into it and let the berry brew for 5-6 hours. During this time, she should start up the juice. It is impossible to increase the duration of infusion, since fermentation processes can begin.
Boil the jam for about 5 minutes, carefully removing the foam. Add citric acid after cooking, mix everything well and pour the jam into sterile jars, close with sterile capron or metal screw caps.
Blackberry and apple jam
Apple and blackberry jam has a tart and slightly sour taste. To prepare it you will need:
- 1 kg of blackberries;
- 1 glass of water;
- 1 kg of sour apples (sweet and sour can be used);
- 1.5 kg of sugar;
- 1 lemon;
- some cardamom;
- 100 ml of any berry liqueur.
Rinse the apples, peel them, remove the core and cut each fruit into 8-12 pieces. You should get thin slices. Sort the blackberries well, rinse.
Place the apple slices in a saucepan, add a glass of water and blanch for 10 minutes. During this time, they should completely soften. Squeeze the lemon juice into a saucepan, add the blackberries and cook for another 10 minutes. From time to time, you need to remove the foam from the surface.
Add sugar, half a teaspoon of cardamom to the fruit and berry mixture, boil for 10 minutes, removing the foam. Add liquor last. After that, boil the jam for another 2 minutes and pour into sterile jars, cover with nylon lids, and after cooling, put it in a cold place.
Blackberry jam
You can make a very tasty jam from blackberries, which can be used well as a filling for pies and cookies. You can just drink tea with it or smear it on bread. This thick dessert is prepared without the addition of agar, gelatin, or other gelling agents. In order to cook it, you need:
- 750 g blackberries;
- 1 kg of sugar.
Sort the blackberries, rinse and drain. Pour the berries into a saucepan, add sugar and cook over low heat until the berries soften. This may take 20-30 minutes.
Let the berries cool slightly and rub them through a small strainer. There will be little waste. Put the saucepan with the berry mass on the fire again and boil until thickened (about 40 minutes). To check if the jam is ready, you need to moisten a spoon in it and drip it over the sugar. If the drop remains on the surface and is not absorbed into the sugar, you can turn off the stove and pour the jam into the jars. Remove the finished jam in a cool place. After a while, its consistency will resemble dense jelly.
Blackberry jam with plums
With the addition of plums, blackberry jam is especially tasty and aromatic. To prepare it, you need the following ingredients:
- blackberries - 2 cups;
- plums - 3 glasses;
- sugar - 3 cups;
- a quarter of a teaspoon of citric acid;
- half a teaspoon of cinnamon;
- a few carnation buds.
Plums for this recipe are suitable with dense pulp, small in size. Before making jam, they need to be washed and pitted. Sort out the blackberry, remove the stalks, rinse. Put the berries in a saucepan and cover with sugar, add cinnamon, clove buds. Mix all the ingredients well, put the pan on the stove and simmer over low heat until the first boil. Boil for 2 minutes and remove from heat, let cool plum-blackberry mixture. Repeat the procedure 2-3 times.
After the last cooking, add a little citric acid to the jam and mix well with a sterile wooden spoon. Citric acid acts as a preservative. Pour the jam into sterile jars and close with sterile nylon lids or screw-thread lids.
This method of cooking homemade preparations is good because you do not need to spend a lot of time on boiling. In between heat treatments, you need to cover the pan with a lid so that foreign impurities and products that can cause fermentation do not get into the jam.
Blackberry jam with gelatin
To make the blackberry jam thick, but without prolonged cooking, you can add gelatin to it. To prepare such a blank you will need:
- 2 kg of blackberries;
- 2 kg of sugar;
- 1 tsp lemon zest;
- half a bag of gelatin;
- vanillin on the tip of a knife.
Sort the blackberries, rinse, dry and put in a saucepan, add a little water and boil for 10 minutes until the berries soften. Rub it through a sieve, then put it back in a saucepan, add sugar, lemon zest. Boil for 10 minutes.
Dissolve the gelatin in warm water to swell and after about 15 minutes add to the jam along with the vanilla. Boil the mass for another 10 minutes and pour it into sterile jars. Subject to all conditions and recommendations, the finished jam will be stored in a cool room for about 1 year. If you pour it into cans that have not been sterilized, such a blank must be kept in the refrigerator for no more than 6 months.
Ready-made blackberry jam can also be stored in the freezer by pre-packing it in freezer containers or even ice cube trays. It is very convenient to use this storage method if jam is needed as a filling for pies or to complement desserts.
Blackberry jelly
You can also make delicious jelly from blackberries, but in this case, squeeze the juice from the berries, grated through a sieve. You do not have to boil it to soften it, but grind it with a blender, then squeeze the juice, pour it into a saucepan and add sugar. 0.5 liters of juice should account for 0.4 kg of sugar and 7 g of gelatin.
Boil the juice with sugar in a saucepan for 10 minutes, then add the swollen gelatin and after 2 minutes remove from heat, pour into molds and put in the refrigerator or freezer.
Blackberry jam without heat treatment
During heat treatment, many vitamins are destroyed. If you want to make delicious and the most healthy jam, you can simply grind the blackberries with sugar. Black currants will give the workpiece a richer taste. To prepare goodies you will need:
- 1 kg of blackberries;
- 1 kg of black currants;
- 2, 5 sugar.
Sort the berries, remove impurities, stalks from blackberries, and then rinse, dry and chop with a blender or scroll through a meat grinder. Add sugar, mix well and arrange in jars. You can store such a workpiece only in the refrigerator.
