Blackberry or Bramble Jelly Recipe

Blackberry (Rubus fruticosus) jelly is an incredible taste sensation. Smeared liberally on hot toast with lashings of butter, the flavour is sinfully delicious. This blackberry jelly recipe is a doddle to make.

Step 1

Pick 4lb of blackberries. This should take less than 20 minutes if you do it with a friend or family, and find a bumper crop.

Step 2

Wash and drain the fruit.

Step 3

Take out your preserving pan (an essential piece of kitchen equipment, especially if you’re going to be preparing wild preserves on a regular basis). Put the blackberries into it.

Step 4

Add the juice of 2 lemons, 1/2 pint of water.

Step 5

Now simmer your blackberry jelly mash for 1 hour.

Step 6

Grab your jelly bag straining contraption, and strain the blackberries until they stop dripping.

Step 6b

Towards the end of the juice straining, sterilise some jars by washing in hot soapy water, rinse, then put in an oven at 175F, and leave for 25 minutes.

Step 7

For every 1 pint of juice you extract, measure out 1lb of sugar.

Step 8

Add the sugar to the blackberry juice, and heat the juice on low, stirring all the time until the sugar has dissolved.

Step 9

Then simmer for 1 hour, until the liquid has reached “setting point”. Setting point is when you can put a little bit of the juice on a plate. Now push your finger through the juice. If the juice doesn’t automatically fall back into itself, and stays at the point you pushed it to, then it’s ready to bottle. IMPORTANT: Make sure you don’t over simmer the juice as you might end up with toffee!

Step 10

Pour your blackberry jelly juice into your hot sterilised jars.

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  1. I made Hedgerow Jelly by adding Elderberries, Bullace and Apples to the Blackberries. Bullace have high levels of pectin so are worth freezing for future use during the year.

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  2. Easiest way to strain the fruit is to drape muslin over a plastic (or non-reactive metal) colander sat on a deep bowl or pan, tip the fruit in and clap a dinner plate on top to keep out flies. So much easier than using any of the special contraptions I have tried!

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  3. Fantastic year for blackberries, I will be making loads. As a winter treat try this;
    Heat crumpets in a toaster then smother with salted butter and put under a hot grill until the top caramelises, spread bramble jelly and eat immediately

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  4. All the wonderful leavings (“the mark”) left over after straining, I put into a jar and top with brandy, then stash in the cupboard—a couple of months later there’s a delightful bramble brandy to sip as the weather turns cold. This really motivates my husband in the berry picking. Same process goes for the leavings from making elderberry syrup too!

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  5. I want to make sugar free.
    Has anyone replaced the sugar with Stevia (sweetener) & will the Stevia amount need to be decreased?

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  6. I make this recipe every year religiously, all year round actually. When it is blackberry season, I pick loads, so much that I have bought another chest freezer just for wild fruits. It tastes excellent on a slicr of freshly baked Irish soda bread.

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  7. I make this most years but with a 1: 75 fruit Juice to sugar ratio. My jam making is not very scientific, my draining contraption is an upturned chair on the kitchen table with the cloth ties to it’s legs.

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