sweets Blueberry Jalapeno Jam

[salsalady]

We made this spicy blueberry jam a few months ago at the Making Hot Sauce class and it was a big hit. I made a batch for us at home, gave a few away to the employees, and ate the rest ourselves....and then ran out...

We are fortunate to have a local blueberry farm and Hanks buys cases of fresh frozen blueberries that are available year round.

Recipe for 19 cups jam.

5 pounds frozen blueberries, defrosted
14 cups white sugar (about 6-7 pounds)
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 boxes/4 pouches Certo liquid pectin
2 Tbsp red jalapeno powder

Warm up blueberries until softening, smash up with potato masher or boat motor blender.

Put pectin pouches in a measuring cup or mug to hold the pouches upright, cut tops off to open pouches.

Put the canning flat lids in a sauce pan with water to cover. Bring up to a simmer and turn off.

Add sugar, lemon juice and pepper powder to berries.

Bring up to full rolling boil, stirring constantly with a flat tip spoon or silicon spatula. Boil for 1 minute.

[Jam will foam up, make sure to use a stock pot (about a 2 gallon one for this recipe) tall enough to not boil over. It will also act like a volcano caldera, erupting spouts of molten sugar up, watch your hand!]

Quickly squeeze in the pectin pouches.

Bring back up to full rolling boil stirring constantly. Boil for 1 minute. Turn off heat, ladle into jars. Wipe rim with wet towel, lid, ring, set aside to cool.


Notes- i like to use red colored peppers instead of green colored peppers in sweet jams and sauces. I dont care for the grassy flavor of green chiles in a sweet product.

Feel free to use hotter peppers. Fill a number of jars with the lesser heat jam, then add more hot peppers. I filled about 16 cups of the 2-3/10 heat jam, then added another 2 tsp jalapeno powder to the last 5 cups for a hotter jam.

Jars and rings can be reused. Flat lids should not be reused for canning. They can be reused for dry storage, or things like homemade salad dressing in the reefer.

I prefer using a pepper powder as opposed to flakes. I dont like the gritty texture of flakes and seeds in the jam. Just personal preference.


We ate this on toast, pb&j, with cream cheese and hwheat thins for a snack, is good on ice cream....

 

[ahayastani]

5 # frozen blueberries, defrosted
14 cups white sugar (about 6-7 pounds)
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 boxes/4 pouches Certo liquid pectin
2 Tbsp red jalapeno powder

Is that 5 cups or 5 pounds of blueberries?

 

[salsalady]

5 pounds whole frozen blueberries


When we made it at the class, it measured to a heavy 1/2 gallon/8 cups whole blueberries. Hanks has 5 pound frozen bags, and while it measures more cups that the recipe says, it works and sets up just fine.

 

[salsalady]

I made one batch of pepper and one batch plain. Totaling about 19 pints/ 38 cups total

You can usually safely double the mfg recipe and it will set. More than double and the batches risk not setting. I have done many batches of many flavors double with success.


If a batch doesnt set, it can be re-batched.

Empty all the jars into the stock pot
Wash the jars and rings
Prep new flat lids
Heat jam/ jelly to boiling, Add additional pectin the same amount as the original recipe, rolling boil and jar like the original recipe.