This Crock Pot Blackberry Vanilla Jam is an easy method of making berry jam without slaving over a hot stove for a long time while the jam cooks down. The crock pot does most of the work and you get to enjoy the results. It has become one of my favorite jams.
I had refrained from canning and making jam for several months, but when berry-picking time came around, I just couldn’t resist any longer. The jam-making bug hit and it was time to make some blackberry jam. So one Saturday, I talked my oldest sister into going to our favorite farm to get some blackberries and peaches. We each got a gallon of blackberries. I ate most of the berries, but I did manage to save enough for this blackberry jam and some for another canning project. You’ll have to stay tuned to find out about that one.
I’ve made blackberry jam a few times so I wanted to do something different this time. I decided to do it in a crockpot. I made apple butter in a crockpot with great success so I wondered how it would work with blackberries.
I went to one of my favorite places for inspiration – Pinterest, of course and found this Crock Pot Blackberry Jam recipe from Repeat Crafter Me. Sarah has some really cute downloadable recipe cards for this jam so you’ll want to check out her post.
Sarah’s crockpot jam is refrigerated, but I wanted to can it for shelf storage so after cooking it in the crockpot, I took it a step further and canned it using the water-bath-canning method. I also enhanced the flavor by adding a couple vanilla beans. My family had enjoyed the vanilla strawberry jam so much that I thought adding a vanilla bean would be a nice touch for the blackberry jam as well. Turns out, I was right! I really enjoy blackberry jam but the touch of vanilla puts it over the top as far as I’m concerned.
Crock Pot Blackberry Vanilla Jam
Adapted from Crock Pot Blackberry Jam and Crock Pot Maple Apple Butter
Makes: 3 to 4 Eight ounce jars
Ingredients:
- 2 pints blackberries, rinsed and drained *
- 2 cups sugar
- 1-2 vanilla beans
- 3 tablespoons lemon juice
* I used 2 pints of blackberries measured by weight (using kitchen scales) not volume (measuring cups). But you can use 2 pints from the market to make things easy.
Directions:
Gently mash the blackberries in a bowl with a potato masher. They should still be a little chunky.
Transfer the crushed berries to a crock pot and add in the sugar, lemon juice and vanilla beans. You can slit the bean and scrape out the pods if you like. I just split them and placed them in the crockpot.
Cook on low for 2.5 hours, stirring twice. Remove the lid and cook on high for 2-3 hours. When the jam is thickened discard the vanilla beans and ladle into canning jars.
The jam didn’t thicken as much as I would’ve liked in the crockpot so I transferred it to a regular pot and brought the jam to a rolling boil while the jars and lids were being sterilized.
Here is my mise in place. Oh yeah! That’s for bread making, but having everything ready and in it’s place works really well for jam making too.
Once the jam reaches the boiling point and passes the cold plate method (i.e. the jam doesn’t run), ladle it into 8 oz jars (leaving 1/4-inch headspace), wipe the rims with a clean cloth, add the lids and rings, and process the jars in a boiling-water bath for 10 minutes.
Refer to the instructions at the National Center for Home Preservation.
Turn off the heat, remove the canner lid, and let the jars rest in the water for 5 minutes. Remove the jars and set aside for 24 hours. Check seals, then store in a cool, dark place for up to 1 year.
It has been a while since I participated in the Can It Up! Challenge hosted by Hima at All Four Burners so I’m pleased to submit this blackberry jam for the July challenge. It felt good to be canning again.
Happy Canning!
Cathy
Anonymous says
How much does a pint weigh actually ?? Seriously, some of the weights vs volume recipes can be very confusing.
Cathy W. says
I agree it is confusing at times. This is where Google comes in handy. Since I bought a gallon of blackberries and the recipe called for 2 pints, I did a Google search to find out how much a pint of blackberries was.
The answer on one forum was that you’ll need 16 oz of fruit measured by weight not by cups. I looked at another reference and it says that a pint of fruit or vegetables is usually referred to as a “dry” pint and should be measured by volume. A pint of blackberries in this case would be 1 1/2 cups. I guess you can take your pick. I used the weight measurement and it seemed to work for this recipe.
Anonymous says
I noticed that you didn’t use any pectin for this Jam….it still set up without the pectin?
Cathy W. says
Blackberries have natural pectin so yes it will set. However, it was not as thick as I wanted after cooking in the crock pot so I transferred the jam mixture to another pot and let it boil until it was the thickness I desired. It turned out really nice. This is one of my favorites!