# Fresh Low Sugar Blackcurrant Jam (No Pectin + Small Batch)

> Our very first homestead jam: low sugar, blackcurrant jam with honey, cinamon and turmeric. No pectic, ready in 25 minutes and surprisingly sour!

Prep 10 min · Cook 15 min · Serves 12 · https://littlehillharvest.com/recipes/low-sugar-blackcurrant-jam-honey

The very first thing we produced on our homestead: our own low sugar blackcurrant jam, sweetened with honey and spiced with cinnamon, bay leaf and turmeric. It surprises you with its sourness and texture.

When we first rented the property, it had several blackcurrant bushes that started to ripen right around the time we moved in. What better way to use them than to make a jam! We searched around and combined several recipes into this one. Because it's low sugar it doesn't keep long, but it's the best blackcurrant jam we've ever had.

## Ingredients

- 300g of blackcurrant
- 4 tbsp of honey
- 1 teaspoon of cinnamon
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 teaspoon of turmeric
- (optional) lemon juice

## Method

1. **Prepare the blackcurrants.** After harvesting, make sure to clean any leaves or anything that could be left over on the blackcurrants.

Place them into a large enough pot and add 1-2 tablespoons of water (prevents sticking).
2. **Crush & bring to simmer.** Put the pot with blackcurrants and splash of water on your stove to medium heat, as they are heating up crush about half of them to release their juices and pectin (which will make it thicker later!).
3. **Add spices.** After crushing the blackcurrants add your spices, namely turmeric, bay leaves and cinnamon.
4. **(optional) Add lemon juice.** We haven't got to try this out this year, but from some of the jam we gave away the feedback was that it could use little bit more sourness and we think adding bit of a lemon could be a nice way to spice it up! Make sure to add it with the other spices to allow the liquid to evaporate.
5. **Simmer for 12-15 minutes.** Stir frequently to prevent it from burning and to mix in the spices, the mixture should slowly start to look syrup like as the pectin activates.
6. **Add in the honey.** Once everything has broken down remote the pot from the heat and stir in the honey. Depending on your desired consistency and flavor (heavily depends on ripeness of your blackcurrant) feel free to add more honey to match your desired taste. 

At this point you can remove the bay leaves.
7. **Test consistency.** Put a small spoon of the jam onto a small plate and put it in freezer or fridge for few minutes. This should thicken up to about the consistency you'll expect from the jam. Depending on how you like your jam you might want to leave it on the heat for extra few minutes if it feels too runny.

## Notes

Because of this being low sugar jam and not including any preservatives you can store it in your fridge up to 2 weeks but use your best judgment. 

When putting it into a jar you can disinfect the jars with boiling water which should help you achieve the 2 week shelf life.

In our case it only lasted 3 days :)