Strawberry Balsamic Jelly

Strawberry Balsamic Jelly makes for a delicious alternative to making the same old “strawberry jam” every year.

NOTE for time planning: This recipe has a 2 hour pause in it while the juice drains off the cooked berries.

You can make this with sugar (36 calories per 2 tablespoons) or cut those calories in half by making it sugar-free (17 calories per 2 tablespoons.)

The recipe

Jar size choices: Either 125 ml  (1/2 cup / 4 oz) OR quarter-litre (1/2 US pint / 250 ml / 8 oz)

Processing method: Water bath or steam canning

Yield: 5 x quarter-litre (1/2 US pint) jars

Headspace: 1 cm (1/4 inch)

Processing time: Either size jar 10 minutes

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Strawberry Balsamic Jelly

Prep time:  25 mins

Cook time:  20 mins

Total time:  45 mins

Yield: 5 x ¼ litre (1/2 pint / 8 oz) jars.

Serving size: 2 tablespoons

Calories: 17

Fat: .2 g

Ingredients

• 2 kg (4 lbs) strawberries
• 125 ml (1/2 cup / 4 oz) water
• 1 teaspoon butter or margarine (optional)
• 4 teaspoons (12 g) Pomona's pectin powder
• 4 tablespoons (60 ml) balsamic vinegar
• 200 g white sugar (1 cup / 8 oz) OR 125 ml honey (1/2 cup / 4 oz) OR 1 teaspoon liquid stevia
• 4 teaspoons calicum water

Instructions

1. Wash strawberries, hull them.
2. Put into a large pot with the water.
3. Optional: add a teaspoon of butter or margarine to reduce foaming.
4. Cover, bring to a boil over high heat, then lower to a simmer, covered for 2 to 4 minutes stirring frequently.
5. Remove from heat, mash right in the pot.
6. Transfer to cheese cloth or a jelly bag and suspend over a bowl or large jug for about 2 hours to let juice drip off.
7. You want to end up with about 1 litre (4 cups / 32 oz) of strawberry juice.
8. You can freeze the pulp for another use including adding to batches of jam or pie fillings.
9. LIQUID SWEETENERS (HONEY, AGAVE, LIQUID STEVIA, ETC): See special directions below before proceeding further.
10. DRY SWEETENERS (SUGAR, SPLENDA, POWDERED STEVIA, ETC): Mix the pectin powder with the sugar in a small bowl or a measuring cup, set aside. Add the lemon juice and the calcium water to the pot. Bring pot contents to a boil, then add pectin mixture.
11. ALL SWEETENERS: When pot returns to a boil, let boil for 2 minutes, stirring constantly.
12. Remove from heat.
13. Ladle into 125 ml (4 oz) or ¼ litre (1/2 US pint / 8 oz) jars.
14. Leave 1 cm ( ¼ inch) headspace.
15. Debubble, adjust headspace if needed.
16. Wipe jar rims.
17. Put lids on.
18. Process in a water bath or steam canner.
19. Process jars for 10 minutes; increase time as needed for your altitude.

Notes

You can start with frozen, thawed berries. If so, don't discard the juice from the berries as they thaw, add it in.

Pomona pectin comes with a small pouch of powdered calcium for you to mix with water to make calcium water.

The pectin powder will clump if you just mix it straight into the fruit; that's why you mix it with something first.

How much stevia you need will depend on the tastes of your crowd and how sweet / tart that particular batch of blueberries was.

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Liquid sweetener directions (agave, honey, liquid stevia, etc.)

1. Bring the juice back to a boil, either in a pot or in a microwave. (Mind the surge when removing from microwave.)
2. Put half of the heated juice into a blender, along with the pectin, and blend carefully (cover top of blender with a towel to prevent hot surge. (See recipe notes below if multiplying the batch.)
3. Put the blender mixture in a pot.
4. Put the rest of the juice in the blender, whiz it to pick up more of the pectin with the same towel safety precaution, and pour that into pot. (The two steps help to get most of the pectin out of the blender.)
5. Bring pot to a boil. Add the lemon juice, calcium water, and the liquid sweetener.
6. Bring back to a boil, follow canning directions above.

Reference information

How to water bath process.

How to steam can.

When water-bath canning or steam canning, you must adjust the processing time for your altitude.

For stevia, Better Stevia liquid stevia was the stevia used.

Information about Pomona pectin.

More information about Sugar and Salt-Free Canning in general.

Recipe Source

Strawberry-Balsamic Jelly. In: Duffy, Allison Carroll. Preserving with Pomona’s Pectin. Beverly, MA: Fair Winds Press. 2013. Page 102.

Safety Check

Strawberry Balsamic Jelly has a pH of 3.77, tested using 25 g solids, 50 ml distilled water. Well below upper safety cut-off of 4.6 pH.

Nutrition information

Regular version

Per 2 tablespoons:

• 36 calories, 10 mg sodium

Sugar-free version

Per 2 tablespoons:

• 17 calories, 10 mg sodium
• Weight Watchers PointsPlus®:  0 points

* Nutrition info provided by https://caloriecount.about.com

* PointsPlus™ calculated by healthycanning.com. Not endorsed by Weight Watchers® International, Inc, which is the owner of the PointsPlus® registered trademark.

* Better Stevia ® is a registered trademark of the NOW Foods Company.