Blackberry and apple jam recipe
Posted by Fiona Nevile in Jam Jelly and Preserves | 237 comments
It was Anne Mary that pointed out that apple and blackberry jam would be full of blackberry pips.
“They’d get stuck in your teeth and drive you mad. Stick to bramble jelly.”
I love jelly. We make loads of jelly every year. More often than not it is used as a base for a sauce rather than dolloped on a plate of roast lamb or pork.
Imagine my delight when I found this recipe for Blackberry and Apple Jam in my aunt’s ancient handwritten cookbook. As it is sieved there are no seeds and the jam is delicious, spread on hot buttered toast in the morning.
Blackberry and Apple Jam recipe
Ingredients:
- 1k (roughly 2lb) of blackberries
- 350g (12ozs) of apples (eating apples, windfalls are fine)
- Water
- White granulated sugar
Method:
- Core and roughly chop the apples (skin on).
- Put the apples, cores and blackberries in a large preservaing pan or large heavy bottomed saucepan. Add just enough water to cover and simmer until soft.
- Sieve the softened fruit and weigh the sieved pulp (discard the skins and seeds left in the sieve). Add 450g (1lb) of sugar for each 450g (1lb) of sieved pulp.
- Put sieved pulp and sugar into a large heavy bottomed saucepan (or preserving pan) and heat very gently until the sugar has dissolved.
- Bring the jam to the boil and continue to boil very rapidly for about 8-10 minutes until the jam reaches setting point. (What is setting point? See tricks and tips below).
- When the jam has set, carefully pour into warm, sterilised jars, using a ladle or small jug (How to sterilise jars? See tricks and tips below)
- Cover the jars with tight fitting screw-top lids, or waxed disks and cellophane pot covers (waxed disks, wax facing downwards and plastic covers secured with plastic bands).
- Label when cold and store in a cool, dark place, away from damp.
Tricks and Tips:
- Jam “set” or “setting point”:
Getting the right set can be tricky. I have tried using a jam thermometer but find it easier to use the following method. Before you start to make the jam, put a couple of plates in the fridge so that the warm jam can be drizzled onto a cold plate (when we make jam we often forget to return the plate to the fridge between tests, using two plates means that you have a spare cold plate). Return the plate to the fridge to cool for approx two minutes. It has set when you run your finger through it and leave a crinkly track mark. If after two minutes the cooled jam is too liquid, continue to boil the jam, testing it every few minutes until you have the right set. The jam is far more delicious if it is slightly runny. - Sterilising the jars:
We collect jars all year round for our jelly, chutney and jam making sessions. I try to soak off labels and store the clean jars and metal plastic coated screw-top lids in an accessible place. The sterilising method that we used is simple. Just before making the jam, I quickly wash and rinse the jars and place them upside down in a cold oven. Set the temperature to 160c/140c for fan assisted. When the oven has reached the right temperature I turn off the heat. The jars will stay warm for quite a while. I only use plastic lined lids for preserves as the all-metal lids can go rusty. I boil these for five minutes in water to sterilise them. If I use Le Parfait jars, I do the same with the rubber rings.
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Loved to see your recipe. A lot of those old recipes are lost. My mother used to make this jam when we were young. We spent weeks picking blackberries and I still make it to her original recipe (same as yours). For setting I add some unripe berries too. I even included rasberries in my jelly last year and adds a lovely flavour. Can you freeze this jelly as I have made a lot this year and don’t want it going to waste. What’s your experience with freezing jams!
my fiance’s mum brought us some apples off her tree so we took the kids and picked some blackberries while searching for crumble recipies we found this one for jam ! i always thought it was hard to make jam ! but thanks to you we have made our first batch ov apple and blacberry jam and the best bit is no pips thank-you love tracey,chris and the kids xx
Hello,
I have just made your jam, it was the first time I made jam and it came out lovely, not too sweet, just the way I like it.
Thank you so much, I will be making it again and also trying a little elderberries in there too.
Can you tell me if I can use apples with any fruits to make jam? I have a few bags of chopped rhubarb in my freezer and a friend who has a massive cooking apple tree, who supplies me with apples every week this time of year, and I would like to use up this fruit too?
Hello Hedley
Apologies I meant sieved pulp. I’ve updated the recipe! You also weigh the sieved pulp to determine the amount of sugar.
As I have both blackberries and apples in the garden (and lots of empty jam jars) I Googled for a jam recipe and found yours.
One thing puzzles me. After weighing the pulp to determine the amount of sugar required, you say ‘Put pulp and sugar into a large heavy bottome saucepan . .’
I thought the pulp was discarded?
I’ve made blackberry and apple jelly several times (wild blackberries and crab apples from a tree in my garden). An interesting variation is to add a handful of elderberries as well – this gives a quite unique and delicious flavour. As the elderberries are quite strong, don’t use too many. I would suggest no more than one fifth of the weight of the blackberries.
I’m intrigued by your aunt’s labour-saving recipe, though we like out jam chunky rather than puréed. Here’s two more tipes from friends. 1) Let the prepared fruit, sugar and any water sit overnight before making the jam, it softens up hard fruit like apples and pears in advance, so less cooking. 2)For little or no stirring, put the water into the preserving pan first, then the sugar, then the fruit; when the froth billows, just flatter it down with a wooden spoon and cook on. Plus, I always add at least half a squeezed lemon while I’m preparing fruit, if only to preserve the original colour. I’m also a great believer in freezing fruit. Not only does it relieve the toil in a glut, but you can make interesting combinations with stuff that doesn’t ripen at the same time!
Just realised through reading other users comments that it was the weight of the sieved pulp I should have used for calculating the amount of sugar! Oh well,fortunately I guessed about right, but next time (and there will definitely be a next time) I’ll know better.
Thanks again.
I live 11 miles outside Birmingham, hardly a rural area, and this evening, my 10 year old daughter and I decided to go out to our local park where we picked half a kilo of blackberries in the rain. We picked up some cheap British apples at our local Lidl on the way home and we set about making jam to your recipe. Obviously we had to reduce all the quantities accordingly, and we spent the next hour or so messing about in the kitchen. I have made damson jam many times with great success and my daughter adores it, but I wasn’t sure what luck we would have with this recipe.
Well we had a little trouble because I added too much water, I had to boil the jam for quite a while to reduce it down, and I had to make an educated guess at the amount of sugar as a result. We only managed to make one jar with our booty, but what a taste! We have all tried the blackberry and apple jelly on a piece of buttered crusty bread and we are in agreement that it is the best jam we have ever tasted, so sharp and fruity, better by miles than anything that you could buy in a shop. Also it is so easy to make, particularly now I am familiar with the method.
Who would have thought that four ingredients would make such an enjoyable preserve? Thank you so much for sharing this recipe, I have printed it off and pinned it to my noticeboard with my other favourites.
I’m sure that my daughter will cherish this as one of her childhood memories – trudging through the mud with her nutcase of a dad on a wet September evening to pick blackberries and just a short while later tasting such a delightful jam!
What could be nicer?
Thank you for the recipe. Lovely jam! We went out blackberry picking on Monday evening, picked a whopping 2.2kg of berries, and then made the jam (it was a long night).
I wasn’t quite sure how much water to add – it was about a litre for the weight of berries (was that too much?) Still, the jam set well, and was quite nice with new potatoes as well as delicious on toast!
Louisa asked about sealing. After washing and sterilising the jars and lids, fill jars to the brim and apply lids immediately (don’t apply wax disks as well as lids). The liquid will shrink as it cools, creating a vaccuum.