Blueberry Jelly

Blueberry jelly is the smooth berry preserve that your summer’s missing.  Packed with blueberry flavor, but without the skins and seeds.

Usually, I’m all about chunky jams and fruit spreads, full of huge pieces of fruit and loads of texture.

My kids though?  They love jellies, and they’re slowly converting me.  They talked me into making strawberry jelly, and it was unbelievable.  More strawberry than strawberry, without the chunky fiber of actual fruit pieces in the preserve.

This blueberry jelly was at their request, and I have to admit they were right.  While I absolutely love my homemade blueberry jam, this blueberry jelly really takes it up a notch.

Though they may seem innocent enough, blueberry skins can actually take on a very slight bitter flavor in jams, distracting from the intense blueberry flavor.  In blueberry jelly, the skins (and seeds) are strained out, meaning this preserve is all flavor.

Selecting Fruit for Blueberry Jelly

Making blueberry jelly starts with the fruit.  Underripe fruit won’t release much juice, and they’ll impart an off-flavor to the finished jam.

Sometimes, jelly recipes suggest using up to 1/3 underripe fruit because underripe fruit contains more pectin than ripe fruit.  As the fruit ripen completely, the pectin breaks down, and the fruit becomes softer.

This is only true for “moderate pectin” fruits, like apples, blackberries, sour cherries, chokecherries, grapes, etc.  Adding a few underripe fruits when making chokecherry jelly or blackberry jelly can mean the difference between a smoothly jelled preserve and a jar that just won’t set.

The thing is, blueberries are “low pectin” fruits and blueberry jelly is more or less impossible to make without added pectin.  You can try a few natural pectin tricks, like using homemade citrus seed pectin or tart apple pectin, but you’ll never get enough pectin out of just straight blueberries (no matter how underripe).

Given that, choose the best quality fruit, picked at the peak of ripeness.  That fully ripe fresh flavor will come through in the finished blueberry jelly.

Since blueberry jelly is a particular favorite of my little ones, I never have a problem getting them to volunteer for picking duty in our blueberry patch.  Their tiny fingers are perfect for selecting ripe fruit from clusters of berries.

Blueberry Jelly Yield

A quick note on yield…

I’ve sized this blueberry jelly recipe for a single box of standard pectin, and it yields about 5 cups (5 half-pint jars).  It’s not a large batch, but blueberries don’t give much juice.  You’ll only need 4 cups of blueberry juice, but that means 4 quarts of fresh blueberries.

If you only have a few cups of blueberries, feel free to cut this recipe in half or quarters.  Starting with 4 cups (1 quart) of blueberries and using 1/4 box of pectin will yield just over one 8 oz jar of blueberry jelly. 

You can also use bottled blueberry juice instead of using the berries yourself.   

(Yields are slightly different if you use the low sugar blueberry jelly variation discussed later.)

How to Make Blueberry Jelly

For a single batch of blueberry jelly, start with 4 quarts of fresh blueberries.  (As an alternate measure, a single quart mashed yields 2 1/2 cups, so 10 cups mashed blueberries will also work).

Place the blueberries in a saucepan with 4 cups water (one cup for each quart, if you’re reducing the recipe).

Mash the berries if you didn’t already before measuring, as you slowly bring the pot to a simmer.

Simmer the blueberry/water mixture for about 10 minutes until the berries have completely fallen apart and released their juices.

Pour the mixture into a jelly bag and allow it to drain for at least 2 hours (or overnight).

Most jelly recipes will tell you to be patient and resist the urge to squeeze the jelly bag.  They say just allow it to drain naturally if you want a clear jelly, but I’m skeptical.

I imagine those people have not made blueberry jelly, because this is by far the slowest draining jelly on the planet.  Blueberries are quite dry and dense, and they just don’t give it up easily.

I confess…I squeezed the bag….a lot.  You’re going to have to if you want a meaningful amount of juice out of the berries.  (Warning, it will of course turn your hands blue.)

Even really working the bag to get every last bit of juice, four quarts of berries made about 4 cups of blueberry juice.

And my blueberry jelly’s not cloudy, so take that no bag squeezing jelly sticklers.

At this point, you should have 4 cups of strained blueberry juice.  If you’re just a smidge under, try adding a small amount of water or another fruit juice.  (Or even a splash of sweet white wine, though that’ll take the jelly in a slightly boozy direction.)

If for some reason you’re a lot under, consider reducing the recipe.

Pour the strained juice into a clean saucepan and bring it to a full rolling boil.  Add the powdered boxed pectin and whisk to completely dissolve the pectin.  Maintain a hard boil for a full minute.

After a minute at a hard boil with the pectin/juice mixture, add the sugar and stir to dissolve.  (This is important, don’t add the sugar at the start or the mixture won’t gel.)

Return the juice/pectin/sugar mixture to a full rolling boil and cook for 1 minute more.

Turn off the heat and ladle the mixture into prepared jars.  A full “batch” should make 4-5 jars of blueberry jelly (8 oz).

Low Sugar Blueberry Jelly

The ratio of sugar to juice in this recipe is 1:1, which is required to get standard boxed pectin to gel properly.  If you’re used to full-sugar jams and jellies then that’s likely to your taste.

If that sounds like a lot, no worries, you can reduce the sugar in this recipe provided you use low sugar pectin.

I used to use Pomona’s Pectin for making low sugar jellies, and it’s incredibly versatile.  Everything’s done in teaspoon measurements, which allows you a good bit of flexibility in batch sizes (instead of full 1 box batches as with Sure-Jell).

The problem with Pomona’s is that the set is a bit more like jello gelatin than a true “jelly” in my opinion.

Recently I’ve started using Sure-Jell Low Sugar Pectin, and I much prefer the results.  You can use this exact same recipe, substituting a whole box of the low sugar pectin in place of the standard pectin.

At that point, you can reduce the sugar as much as you’d like (or use honey/maple instead).  I’d suggest trying 2 cups sugar to 4 cups juice for a totally reasonable sweetness level.  You can go as low as 1 cup sugar for a very low sugar jelly if you like too.

(Note that if you do choose to use Pomona’s pectin, the directions are a bit more involved and you’ll need to add ingredients in a different order.  Follow the directions on Pomona’s package, or read through this recipe on Pomona’s website which walks you through it.

Blueberry Jelly with Liquid Pectin

Just to provide all the options, I’ll cover blueberry jelly with liquid pectin.  I don’t like this option, because liquid pectin requires ABSURD amounts of sugar to properly gel.  You’ll need 7 cups of sugar to 4 cups of juice.

If using liquid pectin, go ahead and add the juice and sugar into a pan together.  Liquid pectin is added last, as opposed to boxed pectin which must be added before the sugar.

After the juice/sugar come to a full boil, add in the liquid pectin and return to a boil for 1 minute before pouring into prepared jars.

Canning Blueberry Jelly

This recipe works perfectly fine as a refrigerator or freezer jelly.  It will last several weeks in the refrigerator or up to 6 months in the freezer.  Canning is completely optional.

I personally prefer canning my preserves, as it frees up freezer/refrigerator space, and allows me to enjoy the tastes of summer in the middle of our long Vermont winter.

If you are canning blueberry jelly, be sure to use canning approved jars and 2 part canning lids.  Prepare a water bath canner before you start making the jelly (after you’ve juiced the blueberries, but before cooking the jelly).

Fill the jars with the hot jelly, leaving 1/4 inch headspace.  Cap with 2 part canning lids and process in a water bath canner for 10 minutes.

If you’re not familiar with canning, I’d suggest reading my beginner’s guide to water bath canning getting started.

Ways to Preserve Blueberries

Looking for more ways to preserve blueberries?

• Freezing Blueberries
• Drying Blueberries
• Canning Whole Blueberries ~ Coming Soon
• Canning Blueberry Pie Filling ~ Coming Soon

Jelly Recipes

Looking for more tasty jelly recipes?  I’ve got you covered…

• Strawberry Jelly
• Peach Jelly
• Red Currant Jelly
• Blackcurrant Jelly
• Dandelion Jelly