How to Make Blueberry Jam – no pectin or refined sugar

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We have a fridge full of blueberries just picked from the blueberry bushes in our back yard, so I thought this would be the perfect time to experiment with making a few new recipes.  I love anything with blueberries!  My favorites are blueberry pancakes and blueberry muffins, both made with coconut flour.  This time I thought I would try a blueberry jam recipe because it’s a healthy delicious spread to put on breads or crackers and it is so simple to make!

I got the idea to make blueberry jam when I was walking through the food store and passing by the rows of jelly. One of my favorite comfort foods has always been toast with butter and jelly.  Oh, how I miss eating this! Since it was so hard to find a spread with good ingredients, I just gave it up for the last two years.  I started thinking, how can I make this but..healthy?

My plan was to make a few jars of blueberry jam to give to family and a couple for myself. Before leaving the food store I picked up some cute pint sized mason jars to store my blueberry jam!  The recipe turned out great and my family really enjoyed it!  I’m hoping that they will no longer buy jam in the food store.

Typical blueberry jam recipes call for adding cups of sugar and pectin powder. For this blueberry jam recipe, I switched out the conventional sugar for raw honey.  Raw honey is preferred over regular honey as it not processed, pasteurized and it does not contain any added chemicals. Raw honey also has beneficial nutrients, antioxidant properties, along with anti-viral and anti-bacterial properties.

When I first saw pectin powder listed in other blueberry jam recipes, my first thought was, what is pectin? Jam recipes often use it to create a gel consistency. For this blueberry jam recipe, chia seeds will be used instead! Chia seeds create a gel-like consistency when water is added to them. This will provide the blueberry jam with a nice jam consistency.

This blueberry jam adds great flavor to a slice of bread or muffin!  This morning,  I spread some of this blueberry jam on a coconut flour muffin and it was delicious!  It spreads like real jam, the consistency is just right!

Blueberries are one of the few fruits that are lower in sugar and with the low amount of raw honey, you can feel good adding this treat to your diet.

Blueberry Jam Recipe

Ingredients:

• 2 Cups of blueberries
• 6 Tablespoons of water
• 2 Tablespoons of raw honey see it here
• 3 Tablespoons of chia seeds (see it here)

Blueberry Jam Instructions:

1. Put 3 tablespoons of chia seeds in a bowl and pour the water over the seeds.
2. Let the seeds soak in the water for 10 to 15 minutes. (This will allow the seeds to soak up the moisture and form a nice gel to give the blueberry jam a nice consistency.)
3. While you’re waiting for the seeds to soak, put the blueberries in a separate dish and mash them. I use a handheld potato masher.
4. Once the seeds have been soaking for at least 10 minutes, pour the mashed blueberries on top of the chia seeds.
5. Add the raw honey and stir well.

*Store in your refrigerator

Enjoy your blueberry jam!