Homemade Blueberry Jam

It took a jar of blueberry jam from an IKEA an hour away to get my son into peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I've tried strawberry, triple berry, and grape jams in 3 different styles from my local shops, with no luck. Then, I realized the granola bars he would always ask for were blueberry. Do you know how hard it is to find blueberry jam in my area? It took a chance trip to IKEA and wandering around the grocery section to come across it after searching in town for weeks. And like most parents, I made the mistake of not stocking up.

Luckily for Miles and I, blueberry jam is incredibly easy to make at home and takes just like the jar from IKEA without needing to add pectin to the batch. Pectin, it turns out, is a thickening agent like cornstarch. And cornstarch is not an ingredient most people have in their cabinet or think to use. Luckily, this recipe really doesn't need it. I would suggest using pectin or cornstarch if you plan on lessen the sugar content of this recipe, as the sugar crystalizes a bit in the cooking process to help create that thickness needed for it to be a jam consistency.

Since Miles doesn't really like a lot of jelly in his sandwich, I wasn't really worried about the sugar content. I will say that while the jam tastes sweet, it doesn't taste overwhelmingly so or dessert-like.

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What You Need to Have & Do

The ingredients are simple: blueberries, sugar and lemon juice. That's it! Throw everything into a pot at medium-high heat and stir occasionally to make sure things don't burn at the bottom. Once you hear bubbling, drop the heat to low or low-medium and let it cook for 10 minutes. Take it off the heat, let it cool, and jar it up for that next sweet treat!

Really, I'm mad that I didn't think to do this months ago. Miles is so much more willing and excited to eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, which makes my little heart soar! I love pairing it on some multigrain crackers as a little snack.

How to Store

I ALWAYS recommend keeping a few empty jars on hand for the occasional sauce, jam, or other item that would benefit from an airtight seal. This is an old 24 oz Mt. Olive jar that I had on hand since our original blueberry jam jar is still being scrapped away at. This recipe made about 12-14 oz of jam, so I'll definitely be saving some smaller jars in the future to store this recipe a little easier in! Perfect to last you for a month or two of meals and snacks.