It’s tough to add as much sugar to blackberries as they need without, to our mind, totally ruining the taste of the blackberries. Jams and jellies simply need a lot of sugar in order for such acidic stuff to gel. What to do? We use a.) agar, which is seaweed flakes, or b.) pectin, if we can find an unsulphured version (which we cannot so far around here) or c.) we use cornstarch, which is our absolute last resort to make a jelly, because the texture is subtly like pie-filling instead of jelly then.
Of course, if that was what you were planning to do with the blackberries anyway, well, then, you’re well on your way. If not: just know that blackberries around here are tart! So, jelly may be the best option.
We started this post ages ago, and never did actually get to slotting in all of the pictures, because we’re not very happy with the look of the jam. Something we did made it not as clear as it could be – the boil was off somehow. No matter – we’ve had our first frost, and as soon as it quits raining for five minutes, we’re going to find that patch of rose hips…
EDITED TO ADD:
This is the pic we didn’t post – as you can see, the jelly is not clear purple. Bubbles formed in it, so it’s cloudy. Bah. We have tons, though, and it is tart-sweet and we’ll be using it layered at the bottom of apple pie, right on the crust, and then the apples go on top. Blackberries and apples go really well together.
So you made Bramble jelly? The other day I went for a walk and picked brambles and also found an apple tree. I then went home and made Apple Bramble Jam and all I added was sugar (not as much as I thought) and it turned out lovely and delicous (Tastes fabulous on fresh baked banana bread).
What can you do with rose hips? There are so many around here and I too was thinking there must be something you can create with them. If you need a rose hip supplier, let me know! 😉
We may have to take you up on that supplier thing. We wanted to go back to the island because the country is so CLEAN… we got the windows washed the other day, just with deionized water, and the BLACK that came off of them was horrifying. We really probably don’t want to be eating rose hips from the city, at least not where we were going to pick…
We had about eight quarts of brambles, and just chickened out on adding the correct amount of sugar to truly gel that much fruit. Sugar alone WILL do the trick, but it just looked like so much! Next time we won’t hesitate…
Well, the rose hips here are going to as clean as you can find them (I am guessing).
I do enjoy living in the country and having it be so “clean”, minus the sheep and other livestock “pies” that cover the fields and hills 😕
The apple bramble jam I made didn’t have as much sugar as I thought was needed. I have since been told there is natural pectin in the apples that helps thicken it up a bit.
And may I say, jam doesn’t have to be very “jello” like, it is still lovely when you get a spoon and dollop it on a scone, for example 😉
I was looking through a fabuolus canning/preserving cook book this evening and found some wonderful recipes for rose hip jam, rose hip syrup and a variety of other things. Also figs are on special right now, at Aldis, I believe and I am thinking about creating something with figs. Have any suggestions or past exploits with Figs? 😉
Cheers 😀
Ooh, figs! Yes – make fig newtons! I’ve also seen fig tarts (picture a shallow pie crust filled with glazed figs). Yum!
As to the cleanliness – something that grows along side of the road & is covered in automobile exhaust just doesn’t seem like it’d be a good thing. Perhaps, though, with enough of a scrub they’d be all right.