Super Easy, Low Sugar, Yummy!
Chia jam has been one of my favorite things lately. It’s amazingly quick and simple to make, it packs a nutritional punch, and you can control the level of sweetness to your taste and keep added sugar low or out all together. With the popularity of chia pudding these days, lots of people have discovered these healthy, useful little nutritional powerhouses. I’ve used them in overnight oats and to make the occasional chia pudding for quite awhile and I’ve even sprinkled them on salads. But until recently I hadn’t ever made chia jam. After my first batch disappeared super-fast, I was hooked. It only takes about 10 minutes to whip up a batch, and since you can use frozen fruit (which I almost always have in my freezer), it can be made on a whim. As long as you keep chia seeds around of course, and you should!
Ingredients:
3 C fresh or frozen fruit, I usually use a mix of berries like strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and/or blackberries.
1 T date paste OR honey OR maple syrup *
2–3 T chia seeds (2 T has worked well for me but if you’d like your jam thicker you can increase to 3 T)
*Depending on your preference and the sweetness or tartness of your fruit you may want to add more sweetener; taste before adding chia and adjust if necessary. I find honey to be slightly sweeter than the other options.
Instructions:
Yield: About 13 oz or just under 1 ¾ C jam
Pour fruit into a saucepan and place on stove over low heat. You will be cooking down the fruit into a juicy mush. This will take a little longer if the fruit is frozen. Make sure you keep an eye on the berries as they cook and stir as necessary to keep them from scorching before the juices are released.
You will begin to see the fruit releasing juice within a few minutes and eventually everything will start to meld together into a juicy mush and then you can use a potato masher to finish mashing any chunks. Add your sweetener to the pan if using and stir. Then, remove from heat, sprinkle the chia seeds into the pan and stir to incorporate.
I like to pour the jam right into a wide-mouth glass pint jar at this point as it’s still very liquid, but make sure the jam is not boiling or bubbling at all! Allow to cool off the heat for a few minutes before pouring. I use a canning funnel to keep from spilling any jam. Using oven mitts, carefully pour the hot jam into the jar and allow to cool for a bit on the counter. The jam will thicken up as it sits. Alternatively, you can wait until the jam is cool and spoon it into a jar or pour into another container.
I usually wait until the jam jar is cool enough to comfortably handle before putting on a lid, labeling the lid with the contents and date, and storing in the refrigerator. The jam will continue to thicken as it cools and will keep in the refrigerator for about 2 weeks.