I reached the zenith of my canning with this recipe. Local blueberries were on sale at our market and I couldn’t help myself, I had to buy some! Blueberries are my favorite. I could eat them everyday and still love them. Silly pig agrees with me, she loves them too. It was only natural I made jam with them.
I searched the internets for a suitable blueberry jam recipe. But I wanted something special. Something unusual. And I couldn’t find what I was looking for. So I had to mash-up a couple of recipes to create something that sounded amazing to me. Enter candied ginger, vanilla-blueberry jam. I found a great recipe for blueberry jam over at Food in Jars (I love them, so much). But I wanted something more. I had some candied ginger in my pantry and some old vanilla beans I needed to use up, so I decided to combine them all, and I’m glad I did.
About 6 cups of smashed blueberries (this is around 8-9 cups of whole berries, it kinda depends on the size of your berries)
6 cups sugar
1 cup candied ginger, chopped fine
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg
2 vanilla beans, the guts scraped out
two packets liquid pectin
Smash your blueberries.
Add to a large pot. Add sugar. Bring to a boil and add cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla guts, lemon juice and ginger and let jam continue to cook (simmer) for about fifteen minutes. Add pectin and bring to a rolling boil for a full five minutes.
Remove from from heat and fill sterilized jars. Leave 1/4 inch headspace. Adjust lids. Wipe rims and apply lids that have been cleaned and placed in a warm water bath. Screw on the bands and lower into the water.
Process in a hot water bath for 10 minutes. Enjoy this yummyness on pankcakes, biscuits, toast or, my favorite standby, over cream cheese with crackers!