This jam, featured in The Canadian Living Complete Preserving Book, uses pectin designed to work with a reduced amount of sugar. It requires a shorter cooking time, so the jam has a fresh, intense blueberry flavour. It sets up fairly firm—perfect to spread on toasted crumpets.

12 cups fresh wild blueberries
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 pkg (49 g) light fruit pectin crystals or no-sugar-needed fruit pectin crystals
3 cups granulated sugar

In Dutch oven and using potato masher, crush blueberries, 1 cup at a time.

Measure 6 cups fruit. Add lemon juice to blueberries. Mix pectin with 1/4 cup of the sugar; stir into blueberry mixture.

Bring to boil over high heat, stirring often. Gradually stir in remaining sugar; return to full rolling boil. Boil hard, stirring constantly, for 1 minute.

Remove from heat. Stir and skim off foam for 5 minutes.

Fill hot 1–cup (250 mL) canning jars, leaving 1/4–inch (5 mm) headspace. Cover with prepared discs. Screw on bands until resistance is met; increase to fingertip tight. Boil in boiling water canner for 10 minutes.

Turn off heat. Uncover and let jars stand in canner for 5 minutes. Lift up rack. With canning tongs, transfer jars to cooling rack; let cool undisturbed for 24 hours.

Makes about 8 cups.

per 1 TBSP: about 26 cal, trace pro, 0 g total fat (0 g sat. fat), 7 g carb, trace fibre, 0 mg chol, 1 mg sodium, 10 mg potassium. % RDI: 2% vit C.

tips
• If you prefer a smoother jam, purée the blueberries in a food processor instead of crushing them with a potato masher.
• Certo Light Fruit Pectin Crystals and Bernardin No–Sugar–Needed Fruit Pectin Crystals can be used interchangeably in this recipe.

Excerpted from Canadian Living: The Complete Preserving Book by The Canadian Living Test Kitchen Copyright © 2012 by Transcontinental Books. Photograph Copyright © 2012 by Edward Pond. Excerpted by permission of Random House of Canada Limited on behalf of Transcontinental. All rights reserved.