Jam without sugar

Blackberry Jam

Agar flakes are a gelling agent made from dried seaweed. In general 2 tablespoons of Agar flakes is sufficient for 500 g of fruit. You can make the gelling probe: Drop jam on plate and wait for a minute or two, turn upside down, if jam runs off you need more Agar flakes.

Ingredients 

1kg of fruit

300-500g of honey, maple syrup or pear syrup

Juice of half a lemon

4 tablespoons of Agar flakes

Method 

1. Mix fruit with honey or syrup (I usually blend the fruit with a stick blender and add the honey and lemon juice the night before).

2. Sprinkle the agar flakes over your fruit/honey mix before heating.

3. Heat without stirring until boiling.

4. Simmer, stirring occasionally until flakes fully dissolve (5 minutes).

5. Fill in jars with twist-off lid (warm them in oven) and seal well. Turn the jars upside down for a couple of minutes, turn them back and let them cool down. We usually cover them with a kitchen towel.

6. Store cool. Once opened consume within 3-5 days and store in fridge.

 Tip

You can speed up the process by soaking agar flakes in the lemon juice before adding it to boiling fruit, boil for one minute and continue at stage 5

 Note

You can also make raw, uncooked jam. Add 300g honey to 1 kg fruit of your choice and puree well. To thicken your raw jam, mix 2-4 tbsp agar flakes with a little cold water first before adding 1 cup of hot water. Stir into fruit puree. Fill into sterilised jars and store in refrigerator.

Use in 2 weeks.

 Agar flakes can be got in Healthfood stores.