Blackberry Jam

 I was gifted an unexpected bowl of blackberries a couple of weeks ago and immediately thought of blackberry jam - hold your horses insisted no 1 - could I have a blackberry tart please?

Well, there were quite  few blackberries so I cleaned them all ( few little worms etc in there ) out and saved enough for a large tart and whatever I had left over made the jam, I figured I probably had enough fruit to make 2 large jars and so it was ......kind of.......

Ingredients

400gms Fresh Thoroughly Washed Blackberries

400gms Jam Sugar

Place washed jam jars and lids onto a baking tray and place in a warm oven  - 150c / 300f / gas mark 2 - for 20 minutes to sterilize. I leave mine in the oven until it'e time to fill with jam as they are still nice and warm.

In a large flameproof pan, gently heat the fruit and sugar together until all the sugar is dissolved. Don't rush this bit, as soon as you can see no crystals on the back of a wooden spoon its ready to turn up the heat.

Turn up the heat to a nice boil without it burning and let it boil for about 10 minutes stirring occasionally.

Now, I could put a little bit onto a cold plate to see if it wrinkles but honestly I find it just as easy to coat the back of a wooden spoon, leave it for a few seconds and just gently push it with a clean finger, if it wrinkles its ready.

Pour into sterilized warm jars right to the top and seal immediately . No need for wax discs if its completely to the top and lidded straight away.

Maybe don't do this, don't wash sticky jars under a cool tap - yes I did do this !! One jar just shattered ( of course ) leaving me with one jar of jam.