Please read my blog about Blackberry Picking before you head out to pick blackberries!
Ingredients:
1kg Wild Blackberries
1kg Sugar (they always say caster sugar but I find that caster and jam making sugars really expensive, so I use granulated.)
1-2 teaspoons of lemon (The first batch i made with half a lemon and it's set way to hard, like a composite. A bit hard for toast but perfect for porridge.)
First, soak the blackberries for about 2hrs, search through them and remove any bugs/storks/leaves etc. Then put a small china plate in the fridge (I use a side plate.)
I don't always find bugs, but these are the most common ones I've found. After you have soaked them for two hours, pick off any left over stalks, leafs or bugs.
Mix the sugar, lemon and berries into a large cooking pot.
Stir and bring to a boil.
Once you have brought them to a boil, keep at a rolling boil for 10-15 (while stiring.)
Now for the plate test!
Get out your now cold plate from the fridge and pour a small amount (about a tea-table spoon) of the mixure onto the plate. Pop in the fridge for a moment or two. When you tip the plate, does the mixture run? If it runs the jam isn't ready yet. So keep stiring at a rolling boil for another 5-10 mintues and re-run the test. It's ready to jar up, when the mixture doesn't run but stays quite still like jelly.
(The jam on the right with the two berries in, was my first plate test. You can see how much it moved compared to my second test on the left, note the difference in colour too!)
There are many different ways to jar up your jams. I use a mega simple method, which I will blog about next. This amount of mixture made 3 jars (about the same size as a large jam jar.) Keep in mind the longer you have to boil it for the less mixture you will have. So it's guess work knowing how many jars you will get from a batch of berries!
Allow to cool, before touching or eating!
One of my favourite things to do as a family.
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