Strawberry Jam 3 Ways for Freezing or Canning

 

Looking for an easy sugar free strawberry jam recipe to meet your family’s needs? I’ve got you covered! Here you’ll find 3 sugar free strawberry jams using 3 different kinds of pectin: Ball Freezer Pectin, Certo Liquid Pectin, or Pomona’s Pectin. You’ll find options for canning or freezing.

Trim Healthy Mamas: please note that Ball Freezer Pectin is not THM friendly due to the fillers in the pectin. I’m including this recipe in this post because it’s so easy and it’s a good option for folks who aren’t following Trim Healthy Mama but still want an easy sugar free strawberry jam that is much healthier than normal.

 

 

Homemade strawberry jam was always a fixture in our house growing up. There was always a partially eaten container of it in the fridge for toast or PB&J. When company came Mom would make homemade bread, and we would always get a new container of jam out of the freezer and scoop it neatly into matching stemmed glass jam cups.

Grandma made jam too. Hers was a little runnier and a little sweeter, with chunks of strawberry in it. It paired beautifully with her favorite seedy whole grain toast and some butter.

It’s amazing how many memories can be contained in something as simple as strawberry jam. I knew I wanted my children to have strawberry jam memories too, but I wanted a sugar free option! Stipulation: it has to taste like Mom’s. And thus began some extensive strawberry jam testing….

 

 

Ball Freezer Pectin

• Readily available from Walmart
• Not THM friendly due to the fillers in the pectin
• 4 simple ingredients
• No cooking required – you’ll only need a whisk
• May not be entirely reliable since this type of pectin usually needs sugar to set (That being said, it’s always worked for me.)
• Really good flavor! Tastes like my mom’s jam. The set is on the softer side compared to the other recipes in this post.
• Meant for freezing, not canning

 

Is Ball Real Fruit Instant Pectin the same thing as Ball Freezer Pectin?

Answer: to my knowledge, yes. (Note that this is instant pectin, not classic pectin.)

“You’re correct- our RealFruit™ Instant Pectin is specifically intended for use in freezer or non-cook jams. BallⓇ Instant Pectin is formulated to be used for freezer jam only and should not be used for cooked jam recipes.”

Source

 

Note: as I said above, this option may not be entirely reliable since this type of pectin usually needs sugar to set. You CAN find Sure Jell pectin at Walmart or a local grocery store that is made for use with little or no sugar. This isn’t on plan for THM either due to fillers, but it would probably be more reliable than the pectin that I used. (I just wanted to use what I had on hand.) I have not personally tried it and you may need to make adjustments to the amount/process if using a different type of pectin. Most pectins come with instructions and tables about how much pectin to use for how much fruit, so you should easily be able to make up your own recipe. You can use my recipe below as a guide for how much sweetener to use for how much fruit.

 

 

Certo Liquid Pectin

• Readily available from Walmart
• THM friendly
• Cooked
• Added beef gelatin for a firmer set
• Based off of some jam recipes in Trim Healthy Future but with my own tweaks
• Good flavor with a nice set
• Meant for freezing, not canning

 

 

Pomona’s Pectin

• Purchased online (a little goes a long way!)
• THM friendly
• Cooked
• The pectin is activated by calcium (which comes with the pectin) instead of sugar
• Good flavor with a nice set
• Meant for canning or freezing

I did experiment with an uncooked freezer jam recipe using Pomona’s Pectin, but to my surprise I ended up preferring the cooked version so I’m not including the uncooked recipe here. Things just didn’t dissolve as well in the uncooked jam recipe.

 

 

My favorite way to eat strawberry jam:

Toast! With butter or peanut butter.

Shown here on some of my toasted homemade sourdough experiments. The jam itself is a THM Fuel Pull so can go with any fuel type. Butter or natural peanut butter with sprouted or sourdough bread will give you a THM Crossover unless you stick with just 1 teaspoon of added fat. OR make your own peanut butter using defatted peanut flour for a THM Fuel Pull option that can be used generously with your THM E carb source without “crossing over.”

 

Other ways to use sugar free strawberry jam:

• On waffles
• On ice cream
• On baked oatmeal
• In yogurt

 

 

Tips for making sugar free strawberry jam

In general it’s not good to make large batches of jam. CLICK HERE to find out why. I’ve included instructions about this at the top of each recipe card below.

Don’t make substitutions unless you’re familiar with the products and know how they work – pectin is finicky.

Smooth vs chunky: I just pureed my strawberries for a very smooth jam since a) that’s what my mom does, and b) it’s easy, but feel free to use mashed strawberries instead if you prefer a chunkier jam. I imagine it will set the same way but haven’t tested it.

Shelf life: I’m no expert so I can only speak from personal experience, but frozen or canned jam should last for up to a year. Once opened and transferred to the fridge it’s best when used within a few weeks, but may be fine beyond that. As long as it smells fine and isn’t moldy I would personally probably use it, but use your own common sense on that.

Store all opened jams in the fridge.

What pan should I use? I like to use a wide shallow saucepan for making jam because it comes to a boil quickly, but you also have to watch that it doesn’t boil over because that happens FAST and makes a big mess. I keep the lid on most of the time because hot fruit purees really spatter.

Blending pectin: when blending pectin into fruit puree to dissolve it, do NOT add the pectin to the blender first. It will clump down around the blades and is very hard to clean out. Don’t ask me how I know. I like to drizzle the pectin in through the hole in the top of the blender while the blender is running at low speed to prevent clumps. Obviously be very careful when blending hot liquids! Keep the blender vented but cover the vent hole with a kitchen towel to prevent splattering.

 

 

What sweetener should I use to make sugar free jam?

Typically sugar is needed to activate pectin, but the recipes below are formulated to work without it. (With the exception of the Ball Freezer Pectin option, which is a bit more of a gamble, but it’s always worked for me.) With that in mind, you should be able to use your favorite granulated or powdered low glycemic sweetener to taste! 

That being said, I’ve only tested these recipes with THM Super Sweet Blend, which is a combination of stevia + erythritol, so that’s all I can vouch for at present.

I like THM Super Sweet Blend because it is fairly concentrated (and therefore affordable) but has a more balanced sweetness than pure stevia. THM Gentle Sweet or monkfruit sweetener would probably work as well, but you’ll need more since they’re not as concentrated.

 

Always sweeten to taste to make sure you end up with a jam that you like!

I did not have trouble with the Sweet Blend crystallizing in the jam, but if you use another granulated sweetener you may want to make and freeze a small test batch to test for this. (Powdered sweeteners probably won’t have this issue.) 

Also keep in mind that xylitol inhibits freezing (which is why I use it in my ice cream recipes), so it may not be the best choice for freezer jams. I’m not sure if that property would decrease the “freezer life” of the jam or not. If someone has thoughts on this, please comment below!

A pinch of salt serves to balance out the sweetness. I usually use salt to round out alternative sweeteners.

 

 

What’s the citric acid for?

Citric acid serves three purposes:

• Helps the jam set
• Creates an inhospitable environment for nasty organisms
• Boosts flavor!

You’re welcome to experiment with substituting lemon juice for the citric acid, but I can’t vouch for how that will affect the taste or consistency of the end result. You can easily find citric acid in the canning/preserving section of Walmart or your local grocery store, or purchase it online. A little goes a long way!

 

A little helpful math

• Fresh strawberries = a little over 2 cups of puree per pound of berries
• Frozen whole strawberries = a 24 ounce bag yields about 3 cups of puree

Puree made from fresh or frozen strawberries works fine in these jam recipes.

You can prep the strawberry puree ahead of time if you like. Wash and cap the strawberries, then blend until smooth. (I use a Vitamix blender.) Store the puree in a sealed container in the fridge until ready to use.

 

 

I do have another strawberry freezer jam recipe; it’s set with glucomannan + gelatin. I do prefer these recipes that use pectin instead of glucomannan as they give more of a true “jam” texture. Gluccie can get a bit slimy, although combining it with gelatin definitely helps minimize that.

 

Strawberry Freezer Jam

 

YOU MAY ALSO ENJOY:

• STARTING THM

• MY RECIPE INDEX

• RECIPE INDEX BY FUEL TYPE/ALLERGY/THEME

• All of my Strawberry Recipes

• Blueberry Jam

 

 

 

Photo comparison:

 

 

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