How to make blackberry and hedgerow jelly

I love the taste of blackberries, but the pips can be really annoying – this delicious jelly gives you all the taste without the pips. The jelly is perfect smeared on hot toast with lashings of butter  - made with your own homemade sourdough bread .

 You will need

• 2lbs/8 cups/900g blackberries (you can use other fruits with this recipe such as damsons, raspberries and elderberries for a delicious hedgerow jelly)
• 2 large lemons
• About 2lbs/8cups/900g of preserving sugar (this will vary according to the amount of juice you end up with)
• large preserving pan
• a jelly straining bag – or a sieve

 Step 1

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x

Wash and drain the fruit.

Step 3

Put the blackberries into your preserving pan with lemon juice and pips.

Add just enough water to cover the fruit and simmer for 1 hour.

Step 4

Mash the fruit slightly and set aside to cool. Meanwhile set up your  jelly bag strainer (if you haven’t got one you could use a sieve) . Add the blackberries to the bag and strain until they stop dripping.

Step 6

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Measure the juice into a preserving pan and for every 1 pint/2 ½ cups /600 mls of juice you extract, measure out 1lb/2¼ cups/ 450g of sugar and add to the pan.

Step 7

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Heat the mixture, stirring over a low heat until the sugar has dissolved. Increase the heat and boil rapidly without stirring for about 10-15 minutes or until the jelly reaches setting point.

Step 8

Remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly.

Remove any scum and pour your blackberry jelly juice into warm sterilised jars.

Leave to cool and then label.