Fresh Low Sugar Strawberry Jam Recipe for Canning {Free Printable Jam Labels}

You’re going to love this low sugar strawberry jam recipe that captures the flavor of spring using fresh strawberries and only 1.5 cups of sugar.

Strawberry jam. It’s the most quintessential home canned good that pops into my head when I think of spring and preserving the spring harvest. It’s perfectly sweet and feels so rewarding to make after spending a sunny afternoon plucking in a strawberry field.

And that is just what I did after coming home with my blessed harvest this year. Aside from delicious strawberry ice cream, I made a big batch of this low sugar strawberry jam for canning. When I tell you it’s low sugar I’m talking 1.5 cups of sugar for 8 cups of pureed berries.

And no! That signature perfectly sweet strawberry jam flavor isn’t compromised at all. Neither is the jelling factor in this recipe. The best part yet, I’ve created some tasteful strawberry jam labels and I’m dropping them in this blogpost for you to print off at home for free. You can grab those below.

What Is The Best Pectin For Low Sugar Jam?

My favorite discovery in canning so far has been Pomona’s Universal Pectin. It’s a sugar free and preservative free citrus pectin that allows your jams and jellies to set up without using a ton of sugar. It is also compatible with honey so you can choose to skip sugar all together and use a more natural form of sweetener.

When I tell you it works like a charm. It really does. This low sugar strawberry jam set up beautifully in the jars and is the perfect spreadable consistency.

Supplies Needed to Make and Can Low Sugar Strawberry Jam

Fortunately this jam recipe only calls for a water bath canner and a couple of other supplies. The list is short and sweet.

• Water Bath Canner – If you don’t have a specific vessel for water bath canning, you would always use a large and deep stockpot
• Canning Jars – Eight half pint jars or four pint jars
• Jar Lifter – A necessity for lifting hot jars from your canner
• Canning Funnel – preferably stainless
• Food Processor – This is optional. It just makes pureeing the fruit up super easy
• Pomona’s Universal Pectin – I keep several packs of this stuff on hand in the kitchen and purchase it through Amazon

Ingredients

This recipe calls for all of the basics to make any strawberry jam. The type of pectin is the only differing factor.

• 16 cups of fresh chopped strawberries or 8 cups of strawberry puree or mashed strawberries
• 1 1/2 cup of organic cane sugar (you could also use the same amount of sugar in honey)
• 4 Tsp of calcium water
• 4 Tsp of Pomona’s Pectin
• Juice from one large fresh lemon

How to Make Low Sugar Strawberry Jam

Start out by washing and sterilizing your canning jars. Do this by washing them well with soap and hot water. This includes lids, bands, and jars.

Wash, hull and half your strawberries. Add them into a food processor to puree or had mash them if you before bigger chunks of fruit in your jam. Food processing for a few pulses breaks down the strawberries in an even consistency while still leaving small chunks. It’s my favorite way to do it.

The next step is to prepare your calcium water mixture. Pomona’s doesn’t require a lot of sugar to jell, instead it relies on the calcium water. Prepare the mixture by combining 1/2 tsp of the powder with 1/2 cup of water. Stir them together until dissolved or add to a lidded jar and shake it.

You will only need 4 Tsp of this mixture for this recipe. The leftover calcium mixture can be stored in the fridge for your next back of jam.

Since you’ve already opened your pack of Pomona’s at this point, go ahead and combine the pectin with the sugar and set it aside so it’s ready. To do that, add in 4 Tsp of pectin into your 1 1/2 cup of sugar and stir it together well. If you’re choosing honey instead of sugar, do this same step.

Now it’s time to get your fruit cooking. Put your strawberries into a heavy bottom saucepan on the stove along with your fresh lemon juice and heat that up until it reaches a good boil. Once a boil has been reached, add in your sugar pectin mixture.

Stir that in continuously for around 2 minutes.

Let the jam come back up to a boil and then turn the heat off.

Make sure to skim off the foam that builds up on top. It’s not unsafe to consume but it slightly bothersome to fill jars with.

How to Can Low Sugar Strawberry Jam

Before making your jam, I wrote instructions to have your jars clean so they can be ready to go when the jam is done cooking. So using your clean jars, fill them with jam using your canning funnel and leaving 1/4 inch of headspace at the top.

Wipe all rims of the jars down with a wet clean cloth and apply lids and bands.

Process in a water bath canner for 10 minutes for half pints and 15 minutes for pints.

Other Strawberry Recipes on The Blog

Strawberry Ice Cream