blueberry jam recipes

Blueberries are a berry with amazing healing properties, which, unlike its sisters, cranberries, lingonberries and cloudberries, grows not only in the north, but also in the south, in the Caucasus mountains. Blueberry jam for the winter can be prepared in many unique ways: no cooking, no sugar, no water. It goes well with many fruits and other berries. The recipe for thick blueberry jam for the winter is the dream of many housewives, because the berries contain a lot of juice and a delicacy prepared according to standard recipes often turns out to be liquid, almost like compote. Further in the article, some secrets of making such a thick dessert and preserving it for the winter will be described.

Benefits of blueberry jam

Blueberries are an incredibly healthy berry. It contains large amounts of vitamins C, A, E, PP and group B, rather rare minerals such as selenium, manganese, sodium, magnesium, iron, chromium, zinc, sulfur and phosphorus, as well as many organic acids – succinic, cinchona, oxalic, tannins. The presence of melatonin helps fight cancer cells and normalizes sleep.

Its most important healing property is considered to be a positive effect on vision. Regular consumption of blueberries increases visual acuity and the ability to see in the dark. The berry normalizes ocular circulation and restores retinal cells.

In addition, blueberries are capable of:

• alleviate the condition in diseases of the upper respiratory tract;
• prevent the formation of blood clots and improve the condition of the cardiovascular system;
• help with both diarrhea and constipation, due to the normalization of digestion processes;
• help with heartburn;
• support the body’s strength in anemia and liver diseases, rheumatism and gout;
• improve concentration and memory.

All these properties of berries are completely transferred to blueberry jam, if you cook it correctly, without subjecting it to too long heat treatment. It should only be remembered that each product, including blueberry jam, can bring not only benefits, but also harm.

Calorie blueberry jam per 100 grams

The calorie content of blueberry jam is determined by the amount of sugar used in different recipes. If the calorie content of pure blueberries without added sugar is 44 kcal per 100 g, then for jam prepared according to the traditional recipe, this figure is already 214 kcal per 100 g.

How to make blueberry jam

Blueberry jam, like any similar dessert, can be cooked in a variety of ways. You can cover the berries with sugar and leave to form juice. You can prepare sugar syrup of different concentrations and cook blueberries in it. You can create sugar syrup with water, or you can use blueberry juice.

But it should be remembered that thick blueberry jam according to any of the recipes is difficult to obtain if water is used in its manufacture.

The density of the resulting jam is determined, surprisingly, also by the shape of the dishes in which the dessert is prepared. It is best to prepare blueberry jam in a flat and wide basin or large bowl. In this case, the surface area from which water will evaporate during the boiling of the jam will be maximum. And with the maximum evaporation of the liquid and the jam has more chances to become thick.

How to prepare berries

If blueberries are collected on a personal plot of land or in the forest on their own, or donated by acquaintances or friends who picked them on their own, then you should not worry about the purity of the berries once again. And if there is such an opportunity, then in this case it is better not to wash the berry at all, but only carefully sort it out, removing leaves, twigs and other possible plant debris.

After all, after each washing, it is recommended to dry the blueberries thoroughly to avoid getting excess moisture into the jam.

On this, the actual preparation of blueberries for processing can be considered completed.

How much sugar to add to blueberry jam

The amount of sugar used plays a decisive role in making the blueberry jam thick. The traditional ratio of blueberries to sugar is 1:1. But for a real thick jam, this is not enough. Experienced housewives recommend adding 2 kg of sugar per 1 kg of blueberries. In this case, blueberry jam will thicken easily and will be able to be stored in winter even without spinning in a cool room, but its taste may turn out to be too sweet.

As an alternative, you can suggest trying adding 1,5 kg of sugar per 1 kg of blueberries. The jam will be quite thick and not cloyingly sweet.

How long to cook blueberry jam

Finally, the last factor that directly affects whether blueberry jam will be thick is the duration of its cooking. Prolonged cooking for an hour or more can increase the density of the finished dish, but will drastically reduce its nutritional value. In order to take full advantage of the healing properties of blueberry jam, you should not cook it for more than 5-10 minutes at a time.

To create the density of jam, use other methods.

Recipes for blueberry jam for the winter

This article describes in detail only those recipes with which you can easily get a delicious blueberry jam for the winter of a rather thick consistency.

Blueberry jam five minutes

This five-minute blueberry jam recipe for the winter is the most traditional when it comes to such a healing berry as blueberries.

You need:

• 1 kg blueberries;
• 1,5 kg of granulated sugar.

Manufacture:

1. Blueberries are covered with 750 g of granulated sugar and left for 10-12 hours (overnight) for impregnation and juice extraction.

   

2. In the morning, the secreted juice is carefully drained, the rest of the sugar is added to it and they begin to heat using a small fire.
3. After boiling, remove the foam and boil the syrup until the sugar is completely dissolved for at least 10 minutes.
4. Blueberries are carefully placed in boiling syrup and boiled for no more than 5 minutes over moderate heat.
5. In a boiling state, five-minute blueberry jam is laid out in sterile jars and twisted with simple metal lids for the winter.

Thick blueberry jam

There are several additional tricks on how to get a particularly thick blueberry jam.

Easy Blueberry Jam Recipe

According to this recipe, thick jam for the winter is obtained by observing some technological tricks.

You need:

• 1 liter of blueberries;
• 3 cups of granulated sugar.

Manufacturing will not take much time, but will require vigilant attention throughout the process:

1. Blueberries are sorted out, freed from garbage. If necessary, even rinse, then dry thoroughly, freeing from excess moisture.
2. Berries fall asleep in a container with a thick bottom. This condition is necessary, especially if large batches of jam are prepared at once, since water will not be used in the cooking process.
   Attention! For small volumes, it is possible to use an ordinary enameled bowl, subject to constant presence near the stove and continuous stirring.
3. Pour 1 cup of granulated sugar into a bowl, mix well and turn on a very small fire under the container.
4. From this point on, the berry mass must be constantly stirred, preferably with a wooden spatula or spoon, in order to control the dissolution of sugar.
5. At some stage, it will become obvious that the berries have released juice. At this point, it is necessary to increase the heat and make sure that the sugar does not stick to the walls of the dishes even more intensively.
6. Soon there will be quite a lot of juice and the fire can be made maximum.
7. After boiling, you should wait exactly five minutes with a fairly intense gurgling of the workpiece and again pour the next glass of sugar into the bowl.

   

8. While stirring the jam, do not forget to periodically remove foam from it.
9. As soon as the jam boils for the second time, exactly 5 minutes are again detected, not forgetting to systematically stir the jam.
10. After the allotted time, add the last third glass of sugar, stir it thoroughly and again wait for the start of the next boil.
11. After waiting for it, they finally let the jam boil for the last 5 minutes and turn off the fire.
12. Thus, all excess liquid that appeared on the surface due to the addition of sugar was evaporated by boiling three times.
13. Hot jam is poured into jars and rolled up for the winter. Since in the cooled state it will already be a very thick mass.

From the amount of ingredients presented in the recipe, you end up with one 750 ml jar of thick blueberry jam and a small rosette for food.

Blueberry jam with pectin

For those who can’t afford to use too much sugar in their jam but want to enjoy a thick blueberry dessert, this winter recipe is here. The addition of pectin allows you to save all the vitamins and even the aroma of fresh blueberries, while the consistency of the jam will be so thick that it will rather resemble jam.

You need:

• 1 kg blueberries;
• 700 grams of sugar;
• ½ bag of gelfix (pectin).

Manufacture:

1. Blueberries are sorted, rinsed as needed and slightly dried.
2. With the help of a pusher, some of the berries are crushed. For the same purposes, you can use an ordinary fork.
3. Sugar is added to the berries, mixed and the container with them is heated.
4. Bring to a boil, add half a bag of gelfix, mix thoroughly again and remove from heat.
5. Delicious blueberry jam is ready.
6. For storage for the winter, it is distributed in sterile jars and hermetically sealed.

Thick blueberry jam with apples

Another way that you can quite easily get a thick blueberry jam for the winter is to use natural pectin, which is found in large quantities in apples.

You need:

• 1,5 kg of apples;
• 150 ml of water;
• 1,5 kg blueberries;
• 1,5 kg of granulated sugar.

Manufacture:

1. Apples are peeled from the core with seeds, cut into small slices.
2. They are poured with water and boiled for 10-15 minutes until soft.
3. Then cool and rub through a sieve.
4. Blueberries are kneaded with a wooden spoon, mixed with apple mass and placed on fire.
5. Cook for about 15 minutes after boiling.
6. Add sugar, mix and boil the fruit and berry mass for another 10 minutes.
7. Lay out in hot jars.

Blueberry liquid jam

The proposed recipe cannot be unambiguously called a liquid version of blueberry jam. It is very original, first of all, in terms of the composition of the components and the resulting workpiece after cooling can be quite classified as a thick jam. But cooking will not take too much time, and no one will doubt the healthiness of harvesting for the winter.

You need:

• 1 kg blueberries;
• 1 glass of natural honey;
• 2 Art. l. roma

Manufacture:

1. Blueberries are sorted, washed under running water and dried on a paper towel.
2. Dried berries are kneaded in a bowl until juice appears.
3. The bowl is placed on a small fire and honey is gradually introduced into the berries – one spoon at a time, and constantly stirring.
4. After all the honey has dissolved in the berries, the jam is boiled for another quarter of an hour.
5. Then turn off the fire, pour in the rum and pour the finished dish into sterile jars.

Blueberry jam with whole berries

To keep the blueberries in the jam whole, there is a special technique. Dissolve 1 tsp in a glass of boiled cold water. table salt. Blueberries cleaned of debris are immersed in water for 12-15 minutes. After that, the berries are thoroughly washed under running water and dried.

You need:

• 800 g blueberries;
• 1000 d Sahara.

Manufacture:

1. In an enameled bowl, pre-treated in saline and dried blueberries and half the dose of sugar prescribed by the recipe are mixed.
2. Оставляют миску в прохладном месте на несколько часов.
3. During this time, the berries will secrete juice, which must be drained and placed on fire in a separate container.
4. After boiling, the remaining sugar is added to the juice and, after waiting for it to completely dissolve in the syrup, boil for another 3-4 minutes.
5. Then allow the resulting syrup to cool to room temperature.
6. Carefully add blueberries to the syrup, mix.
7. Put on a slow fire, heat until boiling and boil for 5 to 10 minutes.

Frozen blueberry jam

Frozen blueberry jam turns out no worse than fresh blueberry jam, especially if you add interesting additional ingredients in the form of blackberries and ginger to it.

You need:

• 500 g of frozen blueberries and blackberries;
• Xnumx g of granulated sugar;
• 100 g of ginger.

The manufacturing process itself is very simple and takes a minimum amount of time:

1. Defrost, sort and rinse the blackberries.
2. Defrost and puree blueberries.
3. The rhizome of ginger is rubbed on a fine grater.
4. Mix blackberries, grated ginger and blueberry puree in one container.
5. Fall asleep with sugar and insist for about an hour, mix.

   

6. Heat the mixture over medium heat and after boiling, cook over low heat for another 5 minutes.
7. They are laid out in sterile jars, hermetically sealed for the winter.

Blueberry jam in a slow cooker

The consistency of blueberry jam cooked in a slow cooker differs from the traditional one in the direction of density. At least for this reason, it is worth trying this recipe for the winter.

You need:

• 1 kg blueberries;
• 1000 d Sahara.

Manufacture:

1. The berries are sorted out from debris and washed if necessary. But in this case, they must be dried on a paper towel.
2. Prepared blueberries are put in a multicooker bowl, covered with sugar and mixed.
3. Turn on the “Extinguishing” mode lasting from 1,5 to 2 hours.
4. They are transferred to dry and clean jars, hermetically sealed for storage for the winter.

Raspberry and blueberry jam

The combination of blueberry jam with many other berries is very successful. The taste and aroma are more saturated, and the useful properties of the finished product increase. So the recipe for blueberry and raspberry jam turns out to be simple, but very useful.

You need:

• 500 g blueberries;
• 500 g raspberries;
• 1 kg of sugar.

Manufacture:

1. Raspberries and blueberries are sorted out, freeing them from garbage.
2. Combine them in one bowl and grind with a blender, mixer or wooden crush.
3. Add sugar to the puree of berries, mix and begin to slowly heat up.
4. Constantly stirring the blueberry-raspberry jam according to the recipe, bring it to a boil and cook for 10 to 15 minutes until it thickens slightly.

According to a similar recipe, you can easily make blueberry jam with other berries: strawberries, strawberries and currants.

Blueberry jam with lemon

Lemon complements the blueberry jam in this recipe with an amazing citrus flavor.

You need:

• 1 kg of blueberries;
• 1 lemon;
• 1,5 kg of sugar.

Manufacture:

1. Чернику перебирают, очищают от мусора.
2. The lemon is scalded with boiling water, the zest is peeled and the juice is squeezed out.
3. Blueberries are partially crushed with a wooden pusher.
4. Then combined with chopped zest and lemon juice.
5. Fall asleep with sugar, mix and infuse for about an hour.
6. Heat over moderate heat until boiling and boil for 3-4 minutes, removing the foam.
7. Set aside until completely cool.
8. And again boil for about 10 minutes.
9. Hot jam is distributed in sterile jars, corked for the winter.

Blueberry jam with orange

Exactly the same technology is used to prepare delicious blueberry jam with a set of ingredients from the citrus family.

You need:

• 1 kg blueberries;
• 2 orange;
• 1 lemon;
• 1,5 kg of granulated sugar.

Blueberry Banana Jam

This very unusual recipe allows you to combine seemingly completely incompatible ingredients in one dish – fruits and berries from almost opposite climatic zones. But the result is a very tasty and quite thick jam.

You need:

• 1 kg peeled bananas;
• 300 g blueberries;
• 3 Art. liter. lemon juice;
• 300 d Sahara.

Из такого количества компонентов выходит 3 банки по 0,4 л готового варенья.

Manufacture:

1. Blueberries are mashed with an electronic (blender) or manual (fork, pusher) tool.
2. Do the same with peeled bananas.
3. Mix banana and blueberries in one bowl, pour over lemon juice, sprinkle with sugar.
4. Heat over medium heat to a frank boil and remove the foam several times.
5. The jam is boiled for a total of up to 15 minutes and immediately laid out in prepared sterile jars.

Terms and conditions of storage

Hermetically sealed jars of blueberry jam can be stored in a cool place without light for two to three years. If there are exceptions to this rule in individual recipes, they are mentioned in the description.

Conclusion

The recipe for thick blueberry jam for the winter is easy to choose from a whole series of suitable options described in the article. Blueberries are a very plastic berry and you can experiment with it indefinitely, adding more and more new ingredients. One has only to remember the basic principles and rules for obtaining a thick and healing preparation from this wild berry.