I placed the frozen blackberries into my large crock-pot. I cooked them on high for a few hours to release their juices. I smashed the berries with a potato masher to try and release more juices before I scooped a cup of berries out of the crock-pot into a metal strainer.
Placing the strainer over a large bowl, I put the cooked berries into it. The juices dripped into the bowl free of seeds. I pressed a spoon onto the berries to try to get as much juice from them. Then I emptied the strainer and repeated the process until all the berries and juice was out of the crock-pot.
Next, I strained the juice again. This made sure no seeds were in the juice.
I then measured how many cups of juice I had collected. I added 1 cup of sugar to 3 cups of juice and 1 tbs of lemon juice to every 6 cups of juice. We don't like our jams and jellies overly sugared.
I placed the mixture into a pot and heating it on the stove, I brought the mixture to a boil while stirring it frequently. The optimal temperature for the mixture is 220F. I used a candy thermometer to keep an eye on the temperature. Once reaching a temperature of 220F, I let it boil for a minute.
Turning the stove burner off, I ladled the mixture into my prepared half pint jars. I love my wide mouth funnel to keep the mess to a minimum.
After the mixture was in the jars, I wiped the rims and placed lids and rings on the jars. Then I lowered the jars into the hot water bath. I boiled them for 15 minutes.
Once the jars were done, I removed them from the bath and placed on my counter. The lovely sound of the lids pinging signally a seal was heard almost immediately.
We can't wait to fix toast and lather it with the blackberry jelly.
