Seedless blackberry jelly is easy to make at home, and all you need is blackberries and sugar (no added pectin required).
Blackberries are my husband’s absolute favorite fruits, and he absolutely loves my homemade blackberry jam (seeds and all).
My kids though? They’re all about jellies.
Smooth, spreadable crystal clear jellies that jiggle a bit on top of a piece of toast, or effortlessly stir into a bowl of plain yogurt.
Take the kids out blackberry picking, and they’re going to expect homemade blackberry jelly before the day is out.
Blackberry jam or jelly, it doesn’t really matter. The recipe is remarkably similar and comes together with just two ingredients and no added pectin.
Wild or commercially grown, blackberries have plenty of natural pectins. Even when the seeds and skins are strained out, it’ll still come together into a smooth dark jelly in minutes once you add sugar.
Making Blackberry Jelly without Pectin
Homemade blackberry jelly starts by extracting blackberry juice.
A “batch” of jelly is usually made from 4 cups of juice, and for that, you’ll need to start with about 9 cups or 2 1/2 quarts of berries. Add in a cup of water (so they don’t burn), and bring the berries to a boil over medium-high heat.
Mash the mixture as it cooks, and after about 5 minutes the berries should have completely fallen apart.
Pour the blackberry pulp through a jelly bag (or a piece of dampened cheesecloth lining a strainer), and allow the mixture to drain for several hours.
Resist the temptation to squeeze the jelly bag, as most people say that’ll make your finished blackberry jelly cloudy. (Personally, I usually squeeze the bag, and my jellies still come out crystal clear, so I’m skeptical.)
While many people suggest letting it drip overnight, I’ve found that an hour is more than enough time for just one batch of juice. (If you’re making a huge batch, it might require a good bit more time to fully drain.)
Measure the strained juice. Ideally, at this point, you’d have 4 cups of juice, which makes the math and yields simple. But really, it doesn’t much matter.
For every cup of blackberry juice, add 3/4 cup of sugar.
If you did end up with 4 cups (as I did), then add 3 cups of sugar.
Bring the juice/sugar mixture to a boil over high heat, stirring frequently to prevent scorching.
Be sure to use a deep-sided pot, as the jelly is going to foam up considerably before it’s done. I’d suggest starting with the pot no more than 1/3 to 1/2 full.
The mixture should reach gel stage after about 8-10 minutes of cooking.
You can test for gel stage by spooning a bit onto a plate that’s been placed in the freezer. It should flash cool the jelly and show you the finished texture.
I find an instant-read thermometer is a more reliable measure. Gel stage happens at 220 degrees F at sea level, and a bit below that at higher elevations. Subtract 1 degree for every 500 feet above sea level to find gel stage at your location.
For example, I’m at 1000 feet elevation, so I finish my jellies at 218 F.
Either way, once the blackberry jelly reaches gel stage, ladle it into prepared jelly jars. Starting with 4 cups of blackberry juice and 3 cups sugar, this recipe should yield about 4 half-pints (8 oz) jars.
Blackberry Jelly with Pectin
I don’t suggest adding commercial pectin to blackberry jelly, because it’s completely unnecessary.
That said, if you really feel the need to add pectin to blackberry jelly, you can, but it won’t actually change much. The pectin needs a certain amount of sugar to gel properly, so you’ll need to add at least 4 -5 cups of sugar (for 4 cups juice), and then you add in the box of pectin.
It cooks for a similar amount of time, and you’ve added more volume (in sugar and pectin), to get 5 half-pint jars instead of 4.
The pectin isn’t changing anything here, just adding expense (about $5-6 a box) and calling for more sugar (when it’s really not needed). Naturally gelled jellies actually have a nicer texture anyway, that spreads smoother.
I only add boxed pectin when I absolutely have to, like when I’m working with very low and no pectin jellies. Things like cherry jelly, where the fruit has almost no pectin, or floral jellies like dandelion jelly where it’s not even fruit (thus no natural pectin).
Still, if you’re set on popping a box of sure jell in there “just in case,” then here’s the recipe for blackberry jelly with added pectin:
4 cups blackberry juice (from 9 cups fruit)
4 1/2 cups sugar
1 box Sure-Jell Pectin (1.75 oz)
Add the pectin to the juice (but not the sugar), and bring it to a boil on the stove. Once it’s boiling hard, add the sugar. Boil hard for 1-2 minutes, then pour into prepared jars leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Yield should be right around 5 half-pint (8 oz) jars.
This is not the method I recommend. I’d suggest skipping the pectin and using 3 cups of sugar (rather than 4 1/2), to make a simple no pectin added blackberry jelly.
I promise it’ll set beautifully…
Canning Blackberry Jelly
While you can just store this homemade jelly in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks, or freezer for up to 6 months, I generally prefer to can my homemade preserves.
Canning is optional, but it’ll allow you to enjoy homemade blackberry jelly year-round, as canned goods retain peak quality at room temperature for 12-18 months.
To can blackberry jelly, prepare a water bath canner while the juice is straining.
Once the jelly reaches gel stage, ladle it into prepared canning jars leaving 1/4 inch headspace.
Process in a water bath canner for 10 minutes.
Remove the jars to cool on a towel on the counter. After 24 hours, check seals and store any unsealed jars in the refrigerator for immediate use.
Properly canned and sealed jars of homemade blackberry jelly will maintain quality for 12-18 months at room temperature in the pantry.
Ways to Preserve Blackberries
Looking for a few more ways to preserve blackberries?
- Blackberry Fruit Leather
- Canning Whole Blackberries
- Blackberry Fruit Butter
- Freezing Blackberries
- Dehydrating Blackberries
Blackberry Jelly Recipe without Pectin
Homemade blackberry jelly comes together with just two ingredients! It's a perfectly smooth and spreadable way to preserve blackberries for year round enjoyment.
Ingredients
- 4 cups juice (from 9 cups or 2 1/2 quarts berries & 1 cup water)
- 3 cups sugar
Instructions
Making Blackberry Juice
- Place 9 pints fresh blackberries into a heavy-bottomed pot with 1 cup of water.
- Bring the mixture to a boil over medium-high heat, mashing as the mixture cooks.
- After about 5 minutes, the blackberries should have completely fallen apart and released their juices. Remove the mixture from heat.
- Pour the blackberry pulp through a jelly bag, or a cheesecloth-lined strainer. Allow the mixture to drain for at least an hour until it stops dripping and the pulp is pretty dry.
- Measure the collected juice, you should have about 4 cups. (Other yields will work fine too, see notes.)
Making Blackberry Jelly
- For every cup of blackberry juice, add 3/4 cup of cane sugar.
- Place the sugar/juice mixture into a deep jam pot and bring to a boil over high heat.
- After about 5-8 minutes, the mixture should reach gel stage. Test for gel stage on a plate that's been placed in the freezer, or with an instant-read thermometer (220 degrees F at sea level, see notes for other elevations).
- Pour the mixture into prepared jam jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace.
- Seal with 2 part lids.
- Store in the refrigerator for immediate use, or freezer for up to 6 months. For longer-term storage, canning is a better option.
Canning Blackberry Jelly
- Prepare a water bath canner before you begin making the jelly (while the juice is straining).
- Fill jars the hot jelly mixture, leaving 1/4 inch headspace, and seal with 2 part lids.
- Process in a water bath canner for 10 minutes.
- Remove the jars to cool on a towel on the counter. After 24 hours, check seals and store any unsealed jars in the refrigerator for immediate use.
Properly canned and sealed jars of homemade blackberry jelly will maintain quality for 12-18 months at room temperature in the pantry.
Notes
Sugar ~ This recipe is written for 4 cups of blackberry juice, but you can make the jelly with any amount. Simply add 3/4 cup of sugar for every cup of extracted juice. If you'd like to try a low sugar blackberry jam, you can reduce the sugar to as little as 1/2 cup and still get the mixture to gel (looser set). Below that, I'd suggest using a low sugar pectin (such as Pomona's) to ensure the jam sets with minimal sugar.
Gel Stage ~ The gel stage is at 220 degrees at sea level. For every 500 feet above sea level, the temperature drops by 1 degree. For example, at 1,000 feet in elevation, jams reach gel stage at 218 degrees F.
Easy Homemade Jellies
Looking for more easy homemade jellies?
Summer Canning Recipes
Putting up more than just blackberries this season? I have more than 100 canning recipes for you…
Rhonda Leigh Rooke
I am so excited to find this site, right at a time when I have become interested in foraging for local medicinal plants and making my own tinctures and salves. Learning to make a blackberry jelly with no pectin!!! Game changer! I love you!! Love your site
Thank you
Rhonda
Cobble Hill, B.C.
Ashley Adamant
Wonderful, so glad you found it helpful!
Carolyn Rooks Nobles
Do you sell the jelly? I am 74 years old and not physically able to can any longer.
Administrator
I’m sorry we don’t sell the jelly here. Maybe you could try some farmer’s markets in your local area.
Visa Davis
If you email me your address I would be happy to send you a few jars of my organic homemade jelly. My email is sacredgatefarm@yahoo.com ❤️
Stanley belk
My jelly didn’t set what can I do now
Administrator
Did your jelly ever set up for you? What did you end up doing with it?
Catherine
Put it back in the pot and heat to 220. That should do it.
Beth
I took mine to 222…but it’s still not set. I did not use the full 3/4 C sugar per C juice. Would that cause it? With a desire for a lower sugar option for diabetic needs, I combined recipes I found online. It called.for much less sugar… I am also going to check my thermometers-my Thermapen One never got above 115 and when I changed to my ChefAlarm, it showed 222.
Administrator
The sugar is a vital part of the jelly making process. If you are wanting a lower sugar option, it is probably best to use a low sugar pectin like Pomona’s Pectin and follow a recipe that uses that product.
Melissa Woodward
This was my first time making jelly with blackberries. I used your recipe without sure-jell. It turned out amazing. It is so sweet without all that excess sugar. I recommend it to anyone making jelly. Thank you!
Administrator
You’re welcome. So glad you enjoyed the recipe.
Roland
Hmmm mine didn’t set either. Can I boil it again but add pectin. It’s kind of like a thick juice at the moment. What are my options here?
Ashley Adamant
If you just made it, give it time. Jelly can take up to 48 hours to set properly even after it’s cooled completely. If at that point it’s not set, try re-cooking using this guidance from the national center for food preservation: https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can_07/remake_soft_jelly.html
Sorry that you had that happen, I’ve never had that problem with blackberry jelly.
Roland
Thanks for your feedback. When I made it the first time, I brought it up to the right temperature (104C), then turned it off. It took about 8-10 minutes to do this, so that seemed right based on the instructions.
Since it didn’t set, I re-boiled it up, and kept it on boil for 10 minutes. It got nice and frothy and it was clear that I was dealing with a better result right away. It was jelly-ing on the spoon and on the drip catcher that I laid the spoon on. And no surprise, it set fantastically. Thanks!
Question: can it be done with less sugar?
Administrator
You would just have to experiment with it to see how well it will set. If you want to use less sugar, you may want to try using a low sugar pectin to help.
Betsy
Does raw cane sugar work in jelly or jam?
Thanks!
Administrator
Many people use raw cane sugar successfully in jams.
Paula
Thank you for this recipe. I have never made jelly before and had an abundance of blackberries this season. I loved the results. This is a perfect recipe and not overly sweet. Other recipes used more sugar than yours and I wanted to taste the berries not sugar.
Ashley Adamant
Wonderful, so glad you enjoyed the recipe!
Cliff R
I followed your recipe, and the jelly did not set, any suggestions? Reheat it?
Ashley Adamant
Here’s a guide from the national center for food preservation on how to fix it: https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can_07/remake_soft_jelly.html
I’ve actually never had this recipe not set myself, but there are a lot of potential causes. Too large a batch size is the most common, since it won’t heat evenly. If you used 4 cups juice, then that’s not an issue. Sometimes overprocessing in the canner can keep it from setting.
Another possibility is super overripe fruit. As fruit ripens it loses pectin, and depending on the blackberry variety it may have less pectin to begin with (I believe cultivated raspberries have less than wild). If they’re both cultivated and really super ripe then you might have issues, but that’s a “might,” I just made a batch of blackberry jam with incredibly overripe fruit today and it set nicely.
Anyhow, hard to know the exact cause, but try re-cooking it with lemon juice as it says in the guidance from the national center for food preservation. Good luck!
Kaitie
Thanks for your recipe! Mama nature has blessed us with many gallons on blackberries, and I’ve been so happy to can lots of jam and jelly. Do you like to add lemon juice to this recipe? If so, about how much?
Ashley Adamant
I don’t add any lemon juice to this recipe, or at least I haven’t in the past. I also usually don’t put lemon juice in my blackberry jam either…but this year I had a bunch of lemons sitting on the counter. I literally made blackberry jam today and added lemon juice and actually liked it more, since it came out with more tartness.
Next up is blackberry jelly when we harvest another bunch of fruit, probably over the weekend. For the blackberry jam, added about 1/4 cup to a similar batch size as this recipe and absolutely loved the results. I’m going to do the same thing with the jelly. That said, I like my jam/jelly to have a lot of acidity to balance out the sugar.
If you do too, then great, if not I’d suggest maybe going with a more conservative 1 to 2 tablespoons per batch (4 cups juice).
The bonus is lemon juice has a lot of pectin, so it’ll also increase the yield and help the blackberry jelly set well.
Enjoy!
Emma Lingo
Excited to try making this jam with our delicious harvest of blackberries this year! I wanted to clarify, is it 9 pints or 2.5 quarts? Both are listed, but 9 pints would be 4.5 quarts, so I’m wondering which is the correct amount. I’ll probably try 2.5 quarts first and see what yield I get for juice. Thanks!
Ashley Adamant
Oh my goodness, thank you for catching that. I believe that should say 9 cups or 2 1/2 quarts (not 9 pints). My mistake typing this up. I’ll double-check though, since our blackberries are just starting to come in here in Vermont this week. I’ll make it in the next week or two and update the post then. Sorry about that!
Rachel in Nova Scotia
This is a good recipe; I typically make jam, but the extra step is worth it for avoiding those seeds. This time I also added a handful of juniper berries while making the juice for a sharper flavor that I think will be nice on a baked brie. One thing that wasn’t 100% clear to me in your directions is the fact that you need to keep the boil going for about 10 min after reaching the jelly temp. The other day I think I took mine off too soon after reaching temp and it didn’t set. I re-cooked it today and it is setting nicely. Thanks for the recipe!
JoAnn Neuhalfen
I, too, failed in my first attempt of this recipe as I cooked it up to 220 and stopped.. Today, I tried again but cooked it at 220 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes and it set so not sure exactly how the recipe is to be interpreted but happy I didn’t need any pectin. However, I added a small amount of lemon both times to brighten the taste. Today, I added honey in place of some of the sugar and it tastes fine. Glad to find use as I have more honey than I need.
Alex
My jelly came out like a thick syrup.. where did I go wrong?
Administrator
It’s possible that it just didn’t get cooked long enough. Did you use a thermometer or did you just time the cooking process?
Alex
I did not use a thermometer, I simply timed the process.
Administrator
I would recommend using a thermometer for more accurate results. You can also test it to see if it is the proper consistency.
Mel
Sadly it did not work without the pectin which I didn’t want to use.
Administrator
I’m sorry it didn’t work out for you. Did you change the recipe at all?
Renda
When I made plum jelly last month, I learned that pectin comes from the fruit skin, so it is important to boil it long enough when extracting the juice. If you use a juicer, you wont get enough pectin (when making plum jelly) and will need to add pectin to get it to thicken appropriately. I’m not sure if this is the case with blackberries, but if you used store-bought juice or if you used a juicer, and your jelly ended up being syrup, that may be why (although I have nothing at all against blackberry syrup, either!!)… just a thought…
PAM FORSTER
My blackberry jelly turned out beautifully. Thank you for the info. I read the concerns of others whose jelly did not set. When that has happened to me, I just use it for delicious blackberry syrup. One year, my blackberry syrup turned to jelly after it has been in the jars on the shelf for some time. It’s all good!
Bev and Bill
We followed the recipe and the jelly set beautifully and the colour is beautiful. But find it a wee bit too sweet so will try with the reduced sugar. So, do we follow the recipe using 1/2 cup sugar exactly as we did with the 3/4 cup?
To get the juice from the berries we did not cook the berries with 1 cup water as you did but strained the fresh berries without cooking. So it was pure juice without any added water. Perhaps this affected the sweetness? Add some lemon?
We live in British Columbia and the wild blackberries this year were very abundant and sweet. And even now the bushes are still loaded with berries.
Administrator
Yes, you would follow the recipe as is and just reduce the amount of sugar.
Bev and Bill
We made another batch using the recipe with 1/2 cup sugar to 1 cup juice and it did not set. We want to recook the batch and are wondering if we recook it and added only the additional 1/4 cup sugar per cup juice would it the set properly? Would rather not add the pectin if possible. What are your thoughts?
Administrator
Yes, you can definitely try this. Along with the sugar, I would also add 2 tablespoons of lemon juice per quart of jelly. This will give you some additional pectin.
Daniel Spencer
Just made a batch of blackberry jelly with the no pectin recipe, turned out perfect, Not to tart and not to sweet, just right set perfectly. This is the way my mom used to make it. Now all I need is some big buttermilk biskits.lol
Administrator
Sounds wonderful. So glad you enjoyed the recipe.
Laura
Hey there,
Can I prepare the juice ahead of time and refrigerate it for a day before the cooking and canning?
Administrator
Yes, that should be fine.
Chuck
Is there a recipe somewhere in this story????
Administrator
The recipe cards can be found at the bottom of each blog post.
Lorri
I made this blackberry Jelly from frozen black berries. I am so happy to say that this recipe turned out delish!! I just want ask about the lemon juice?? Do you make it with lemon juice now and how much would you use?
Ashley Adamant
You can add a tablespoon or two of lemon juice if you want a more tart flavor.
Monica Wyman
Hi Ashley! I’m excited to try this recipe for jelly without the seeds. Can it be doubled without any setting issues as long as my pot is big enough?
Administrator
We usually do not recommend doubling jam or jelly recipes since it can affect the way that the product sets.