Wild fruit has been bountiful this year. During the month of August we foraged over 4 kilos of blackberries. We could have had much, much more; but it was all we could fit in our freezer. Besides, we didn’t want to be greedy – we left lots for other people and hungry birds.
We make blackberry jelly and mixed berry jelly every year; along with a few jars of wild raspberry jelly if we harvest enough of those. Blackberry jelly isn’t the kind of thing you can normally pick jars up of in the supermarkets. I’ve no idea why, it’s dark and delicious and doesn’t cost much to make. All you have to fork out for is some white sugar and a few lemons!
I normally use a recipe in my old Cordon Bleu Preserving recipe book, but this time I found the dead easy Quick Bramble Jelly recipe in Delia Smith’s Complete Cookery Course.
Next week Thursday, our Cakes & Bakes post will be about what we’ve been eating our jelly with… stay tuned!
Blackberry jelly
Ingredients
- 1 kilo blackberries
- 1 kilo granulated sugar
- 3 lemons un-waxed
Instructions
- Rinse & drain the blackberries in a colander in the sink
- Put the berries into a heavy-based saucepan or preserving pan with 400ml/14 fl oz of water and cook on a low heat with a lid on for 20-25 minutes
- Occasionally give them a mash to reduce them to pulp and squeeze as much juice out of them as possible
- Still on a low heat, add the sugar and squeezed lemons (the entire lemon - seeds, juice and actual lemon!) to the pan and stir until all the sugar has dissolved completely (about 10-15 minutes)
- Turn the heat right up and boil fairly rapidly for 8-10 minutes, stirring now and then to prevent it from sticking to the base of the pan
- Carefully pour or ladle the blackberry mixture into a jelly strainer set over a large heat-proof bowl or saucepan (you could also use a square of muslin set into a strainer over the bowl/saucepan)
- Using a wooden spoon, get all the liquid through as quickly as possible, squeezing the remaining pulp as much as you can - but do be quick, as the jelly sets if you take too long (if it does begin to set before you've had a chance to put it into the jar, just gently reheat it)
- Decant the jelly into sterilised jars, cover with waxed discs and allow to cool before screwing the lids down tightly
- The jars should store for a year or more
