Simple and delicious Blueberry Jam recipe made with just 4 ingredients: Blueberries (fresh or frozen), sugar, lemon, and vanilla. It's bright, sweet, bursting with blueberry flavour, and perfect for beginners with barely any prep, and no pectin or special equipment necessary.
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We're BIG JAM FANS over here, and nothing can beat homemade jam. It's surprisingly easy to make, and when summer fruits are plentiful, I love nothing more than grabbing my heavy saucepan and whipping up a batch.
Last year, I made fig jam with figs from the trees in my garden, and this year, it's the turn of the blueberry.
Thick, sweet, fragrant, and brimming with fresh blueberry flavour, this easy homemade blueberry jam is perfect for smearing on freshly baked sourdough, English muffins, buttery scones, warm toast or biscuits.
It's also amazing sandwiched between cake layers, on New York Cheesecake, in cookies and pastries, or dolloped onto creamy rice pudding, yogurt or pancakes.
Mel x
Ingredients
Here is what you need at a glance, along with some important ingredient notes & substitution ideas:
- Blueberries - You can use fresh or frozen blueberries. When using fresh fruit, choose fruit that is ripe but not overly squishy and ripe. Very ripe fruit contains less pectin, so the jam won't set as well. You can throw some really ripe blueberries into the mix, just make sure they don't make up the majority.
- Sugar - Essential for sweetness, jammy texture, and setting. The sugar used must be granulated white or cane sugar. See the FAQs if you are wondering which sugars are vegan. Note that if you reduce the amount of sugar, the jam will be runnier and not as "jammy". It also won't keep as long.
- Lemon juice - An essential ingredient when making homemade blueberry jam without added pectin. The lemon's tartness and acidity brighten and balance the jam’s sweetness, while the acid activates the pectin that is naturally present in the blueberries. The citric acid present in lemon juice also helps prevent bacteria from growing, so preserves the jam, giving it a longer storage life. Without the lemon juice, the texture will be off, the jam won't set properly, and it won't keep as long.
- Vanilla - While not essential, it really complements the blueberries. I love the depth it gives this jam!
Let's Make Blueberry Jam!
Can't wait to make it? The full printable recipe is below, but first, let me walk you through the steps to set you up for success in your kitchen. I recommend watching my recipe video if you're more of a visual learner:
1 - Add everything except the vanilla to a large, heavy, heavy-bottomed saucepan.
2 - Put the lid on and bring to a boil. Boil for 2 minutes, then remove the lid, and turn the heat down enough to keep a steady simmer for about 35 minutes.
IMPORTANT - Boiling sugar is incredibly hot. Use caution when stirring.
3 - Test if it's done by dropping a small spoonful of the jam onto a plate that has been in the freezer. Leave it a couple of minutes to cool, then swipe your finger through it. If the line through the middle fills back in, your jam is not ready, and you need to simmer it for a bit longer. If the line stays defined and clean like in my picture or my video, then the jam is ready, and you can take it off the heat.
4 - Stir the vanilla through the jam, then spoon it into clean jars and immediately screw the lids on tight. The jam should last about 3 weeks in the fridge, but if you sterilize the jars, it will last for about 3 months when refrigerated. It can also be frozen for a year (be sure to use freezer-safe jars).
How To Sterilize Jars
If you don't sterilize your jars, the jam should easily last for a couple of weeks in the fridge, but it will keep well for a couple of months if you do sterilize the jars. To do this, either run clean jars and lids through a sterilize cycle in your dishwasher with no detergent and time it to end when your jam will be ready, or fill a large pot with water, submerge clean jars and lids in the water, ensuring they are completely covered. Bring to a rolling boil and boil for 10 minutes (at sea level). Add 1 extra minute for every 1,000 feet above sea level. Use tongs to remove jars and place them upside down on a clean dish towel until you are about to fill them.
Recipe FAQs
Here in Canada, the 2 biggest sugar producers, Rogers and Red Path, don't use bone char to process their sugar, so they are vegan-friendly ( I have personally confirmed this with them). In the UK and Europe, sugar is also naturally vegan. If you are in the U.S, you need to be more careful, but all organic sugar is vegan, and common brands including Wholesome Sweeteners, Kirkland Organic Cane Sugar, Trader Joe's, Bob's Red Mill, Florida Crystals, Billington's, Michigan Sugar Company, Imperial, Now Foods, and In The Raw are vegan-friendly.
Yes, you can use plastic containers, but unlike when using mason jars, it's important to let the jam cool until lukewarm before pouring it in. Jam gets ridiculously hot and will cause your containers to melt or warp if you don't. Stored in plastic like this though, it will only have a refrigerator life of about 3 weeks, so freeze any excess.
All fruits have different pectin levels so I cannot guarantee that this recipe will work as well with other fruits. It's quite likely that the sugar and lemon juice quantities would need to be adjusted.
Yes, cooking times will vary depending on your altitude. I am at sea level where jam sets at approximately 104ºC (220 °F). At higher altitudes, the boiling point is lower. As a general rule of thumb, it decreases by 2°F (1.1°C) for every 1000 feet of elevation.
Recipe
Easy Blueberry Jam
Author:WATCH HOW TO MAKE IT
Ingredients
- 9 cups (3lbs or 1360 grams) blueberries ,(fresh or frozen)
- 2½ cups (500 grams) granulated white or cane sugar
- 1 medium lemon , zest & juice
- 15ml (1 tablespoon) vanilla extract
INSTRUCTIONS
- Put a clean side plate/saucer in the freezer before you begin making the jam.
- Add the blueberries and sugar to a large heavy-bottomed saucepan.
- Zest the lemon. Add it to the pan. You can either use a potato peeler to peel off strips or grate it finely. Strips are a little difficult to spot later if you want to remove them, but they become sweet and delicious, so I tend to leave mine in when I jar the jam.
- Cut the lemon in half and juice it. Add the juice to the pan.
- Put the lid on the pan, turn the heat to medium-high and bring to a boil. The lid traps the steam, creating some liquid to get things going. Once it reaches a rolling boil, remove the lid and set a timer for 2 minutes. Keep it boiling very vigorously for those 2 minutes (important), then turn the heat down to a steady, gently bubbling simmer.
- Simmer for 30 to 40 minutes with the lid off, stirring every 10 minutes or so (not with a metal spoon), so it doesn’t catch. It’s important that it keeps simmering so the pectin is released from the blueberries. Boiling sugar is incredibly hot. Use caution when stirring the jam so you don't accidentally splatter it and don't use metal utensils.
- The jam should take approximately 35 minutes, but the cooking time will vary depending on your elevation, the pan used, and the heat applied to it. It's hard to tell if it's done just by looking at it, so I recommend testing the jam for the first time after about 30 minutes of cooking.
- To test it, remove the very cold plate from the freezer and spoon a small amount of hot jam onto it. Leave for a couple of minutes to cool, then swipe your finger through the middle of the jam on the plate. If it's ready, a clean track that does not fill back in will be created (see my picture in the post above). You'll also probably see some wrinkling on the surface of the jam. If it's not quite ready and the track fills in, rinse the plate and put it back in the freezer, then simmer the jam for another five minutes and test again. Repeat until it passes the test.
- Once ready, turn off the heat. If you used strips of lemon and want to remove them, do it now. Some might have dissolved.
- Add the vanilla and stir to combine, then ladle the jam very carefully while very hot into clean jars. Leave some space at the top of each jar (especially important if you are freezing or canning the jam). Allow to cool on the counter, then store in the fridge for up to 3 weeks, or in the freezer for up to a year (be sure to use freezer-safe jars). If you sterilize the jars before adding the hot jam, it will keep for about 3 months in the fridge.
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