Homemade Strawberry Jam

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Easy to make homemade strawberry jam with brown sugar and no artificial preservatives!

Homemade Strawberry Jam - - No artificial preservatives, fresh, healthy, pectin free, easy, recipe, home cooking | happyfoodstube.com

Strawberries are in season here in Spain and I couldn’t resist but buying some when we visited our local market last week. Well, by some I mean 1 kg of them. I couldn’t wait to get home and make jam out of them. It was my second time making this sweet treat.

I decided to make my own jam the moment I saw the percentage of fruit used to make one jar of jam. When I go to the shop and check labels on any jam, I hardly find some that contain over 55% of fruit per 100g. So I have just started my canning career.

Homemade Strawberry Jam Ingredients - No artificial preservatives, fresh, healthy, pectin free, easy, recipe, home cooking | happyfoodstube.com

Well, not really but I figured it’s nice to have some homemade jars ready when needed! This way I can also regulate the level of sugar in it as well as using natural pectin from lemons to help thicken my jam.

Homemade Strawberry Jam Cooking - No artificial preservatives, fresh, healthy, pectin free, easy, recipe, home cooking | happyfoodstube.com

When talking jams I bet 1kg of fruit is not much but it’s plenty for the two of us and it keeps us going until I find other fruits I would like to can! Other important thing is that I don’t sterilize the jars after they have been filled with jam.

This is mostly because I know we are going to use the jams pretty fast so they don’t even have time to go off!

Homemade Strawberry Jam Jars - No artificial preservatives, fresh, healthy, pectin free, easy, recipe, home cooking | happyfoodstube.com

Now I’ve seen many recipes for canning jams and most of them contained a lot of sugar (and by lot I mean really a lot). I didn’t like it.

I reduced the sugar rapidly and I had no problem with getting nice thick jam that is still very sweet.

 Homemade Strawberry Jam - No artificial preservatives, fresh, healthy, pectin free, easy, recipe, home cooking | happyfoodstube.com

If you are looking for more preserving and canning recipes, check these out:

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Homemade Strawberry Jam with Brown Sugar

Easy to make homemade strawberry jam with brown sugar and no artificial preservatives.
Prep Time10 minutes
Cook Time35 minutes
Total Time45 minutes
Servings: 2 Jars (250 ml/9 ounces)
Author: Julia

Ingredients

  • 2.2 pounds Strawberries (1 kilograms)
  • ½ pound brown Sugar (220 grams)
  • Lemon

Instructions 

  • Wash, drain and hull the strawberries. Cut them into small pieces.
  • Place a saucer in your fridge.
  • Take your largest pot and throw the strawberries in. Stir vigorously for 5 minutes (medium heat). At this stage the strawberries should be mushy.
  • Add sugar and juice of 1½ lemon. Cook until the jam has thickened (30-35 minutes), stirring regularly (better more often than less – don’t leave the pot unattended).
  • Take the saucer out from the fridge. Spoon some jam onto it. Let it cool down before checking for its thickness by making a line through the jam (use your finger). If the jam fills the space (the drawn line) then you need to cook it longer. If it doesn’t, you are ready to fill your jars.
  • Pour/spoon it into sterilized jars leaving about 0.4-inch/1-cm free from the top. Seal with lids and turn up-side down. Let it set for 30 minutes.
  • Half hour later: turn the jars back and check the lids to see if they are properly sealed. If you tap/push down the lid, it shouldn’t pop up and down. If it does, it is not air-tight. If this happens to you, simply put the jars in your fridge and eat within a week. The rest of the jars will last for a few more weeks (if you don’t eat them earlier, that is).

Pre-Sanitizing Your Jars & Lids:

  • Sanitize your jars & lids by washing them in warm soapy water and subsequently boiling them in water bath for 15 minutes. Using tongs, transfer the jars and lids onto a clean kitchen towel turning them up-side down.

Notes

Important: Air-tight sealed jars should last for several weeks, if not months. I advise you to follow current safety standards for canning fruits (jar & lid sterilizing + 10 mins water bath in boiling water once the jars are filled and sealed) especially if you want to can large quantities and you also want to keep your jams for several months. I don’t use water bath for extra safety-sterilization simply because I only can in small quantities and we eat our jams very fast (within 1-3 weeks).

Nutrition

Calories: 55 kcal (3%), Carbohydrates: 14 g (5%), Sodium: 3 mg, Potassium: 93 mg (3%), Fiber: 1 g (4%), Sugar: 12 g (13%), Vitamin A: 5 IU, Vitamin C: 30.6 mg (37%), Calcium: 18 mg (2%), Iron: 0.3 mg (2%)
Course: Condiment
Cuisine: International
Did you make this recipe? I’d love to hear how it turned out! Leave a comment and rating below or tag me on Instagram @happyfoodstube.
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4 Comments

  1. Hi I followed your apricot recipe, and enjoyed it. I wanted to follow your strawberry jam one, but was wondering if you can substitute brown sugar for regular sugar?