Blueberry Jelly

Blueberry jelly has a crystal clear look and a pleasing purple color, the essence of blueberries without any of the seeds or skins. It’s a guaranteed upgrade for a PB&J, it would be lovely layered into a lemon cake and it’s a hit  spread on scones or English muffins for breakfast or brunch. Warm it slightly and the pectin that sets it will melt, and you can use it as a blueberry syrup for topping pancakes!

This recipe is a good introduction to boiling water canning for beginners. If you’d prefer not to use a boiling water canner, pack the finished jam into clean jars and store them in the fridge for quick usage or gifting.

Ingredients for Blueberry Jelly

• Blueberries: Big or small, cultivated or wild, heady in-season blueberries are the basis for this plum-hued jelly. Wash them first, but don’t worry too much about removing those tiny stems that sometimes cling on to the fruit. The fruit solids will be strained away anyway.
• Water: Simmering the blueberries in water infuses it with deep color and fruit flavor that acts as the base for the finished jelly.
• Sugar: Granulated sugar acts as a preservative, both amplifying the sweetness of the blueberries and carrying their flavor in the finished preserve. The combination of the sugar and pectin together causes the gelling action of jelly.
• Liquid fruit pectin: Fruit pectin, sold in the canning aisle in supermarkets and some hardware or general merchandise stores, is a powdered version of a compound that occurs naturally in apples and citrus fruits. It reacts with the cooking sugar and blueberry liquid to thicken the mixture, helping it set to a jelly texture and not a syrup one.

Directions

Step 1: Cook blueberries and strain

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Place blueberries in a Dutch oven and crush slightly. Add water; bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium; cook, uncovered, for 45 minutes. Line a strainer with four layers of cheesecloth and place over a bowl. Place berry mixture in strainer; cover with edges of cheesecloth. Let stand for 30 minutes or until liquid measures 6 cups.

Editor’s Tip: A handheld potato masher is a great tool for lightly crushing the blueberries!

Step 2: Add sugar and pectin to blueberry juice

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Pour juice back into Dutch oven; gradually stir in sugar until it dissolves. Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring constantly. Stir in pectin. Continue to boil 1 minute, stirring constantly.

Step 3: Ladle the jelly into jars

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Remove from heat; skim off foam. Ladle hot mixture into six hot sterilized pint jars, leaving 1/4-inch headspace. Wipe rims. Center lids on jars; screw on bands until fingertip tight.

Step 4: Process the jars

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Place jars into canner with simmering water, ensuring that they’re completely covered with water. Bring to a boil; process for 5 minutes. Remove jars and cool.

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Blueberry Jelly Variations

• Add some spice: Infuse blueberry jelly with a baking spice aroma by adding a whole cinnamon stick, allspice berries, star anise pods or green cardamom pods to the fruit mixture as it cooks. Using a cinnamon stick instead of ground cinnamon infuses the jelly with cinnamon’s warmth without muddying the clarity of the finished jelly.
• Add a splash of almond or vanilla: Layer in a sweet aroma by adding a splash of almond or vanilla extract to the blueberry juice mixture when adding the sugar.

How to Store Blueberry Jelly

Once the jars of jelly have cooled completely, verify that the lids of each jar have formed a seal. Remove the canning rings, label and date the jars and store them away from sunlight in a closed cabinet. It’s important to store the jars without canning rings so you can easily tell if a seal has failed when you use them in the future. If you have a jar or two that doesn’t form a vacuum seal, they’re still safe to eat, but must be stored in the refrigerator and consumed within a few weeks.

Can you freeze blueberry jelly?

You can freeze jelly as you might a freezer jam, but the freezing process can weaken the action of the pectin to thicken the jelly and once defrosted it might be more runny, more like a blueberry syrup, as a result.

How long does blueberry jelly last?

Canned fruit preserves are quite stable. For the brightest color, enjoy it within a year, but as long as the seals on the jars are in good condition, canned blueberry jelly is good for up to two years.

Blueberry Jelly Tips

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What’s the difference between liquid and powdered pectin?

Both liquid or powdered pectin can be used to set different types of preserves. A key difference is at what point in the recipe they’re added to the fruit mixture. Powdered pectin is added to the unheated crushed fruit or to the sugar, which is then added to the fruit before heating. Liquid pectin is typically added to the already hot cooked fruit and sugar mixture immediately after removing it from the heat.

Can you substitute powdered pectin for liquid pectin?

It’s typically not advised to interchange liquid pectin for powdered, but if you’re in a pinch you can do it. Whisk four tablespoons of powdered pectin (to replace two packets of  liquid pectin) into the sugar before you combine it with the blueberry juice. If you wait to add powdered pectin to the hot liquid it will clump and may not work as well to set your jelly.

Can you make blueberry jelly using frozen blueberries?

Absolutely! And freezing blueberries in summer to transform into jelly once it’s cooler outside is a smart way to hit pause on harvest season. Substitute eight cups of frozen blueberries for the fresh ones in this recipe. No need to defrost them before cooking them in water, and don’t worry about mashing them either. The freezing process will break some of the cell walls inside the blueberries and help them release juices without manually crushing them.