Cooking Jam Without Sugar

Cooking jam without sugar – is that possible? We learned from our grandmothers that sugar preserves canned fruit for months and even years, so sugar is often found in a 1:1 ratio to the fruit in jams – like our ginger jam made with fresh ginger and passion fruit nectar. If you consider that there is a lot of sugar in the fruit itself, the question arises as to whether you can do without added sugar for health reasons. The answer: you can. It’s entirely possible to cook sugar-free jam—as long as you’re aware that doing so will come at the expense of shelf life. But the preparation is often much faster than with conventional recipes.

In addition to sweetening, the sugar has another task when making jam: it ensures that the fruit puree gels. If the natural fructose of the fruit is enough for the sweetness of strawberry jam, blueberry jam or another favorite variety and you want to cook your jam without sugar, you have various other gelling agents available: for example agar-agar, guar gum, chia, pectin or psyllium husk powder.

Tip: If you want a little more sweetness, add erythritol or a few pureed dates to the fruit puree.

Cooking jam without sugar – that’s how it works

With agar-agar: Add a heaped teaspoon of the seaweed powder to 500 g of washed and pureed fruit and boil everything for about eight minutes. Pour the jam into sterile jars while it is still hot. For example, currant jam can be kept for about a month without preserving sugar, and even longer in the refrigerator.

With pectin: Simmer the puree made from 500 g of fruit for five to ten minutes, then add 8 g of pectin. Boil for another minute and fill while still hot. The shelf life is similar to the preparation with agar-agar.

With guar gum: You don’t even have to cook the fruit here. Add them to the blender along with about 2 teaspoons of guar gum (or more depending on the liquid content – just add the powder little by little until the consistency is right) and blend for about a minute. Another advantage of this method: vitamins, enzymes, etc. are not boiled off, but are retained. This gives your jam raw food quality, but it should therefore be eaten within a few days.

With Chia: Simmer 300g of fruit over medium heat for about five minutes, then add 2 tablespoons of chia seeds and let the mixture simmer for another five minutes over low heat, stirring. Then bottle – the chia jam will keep in the fridge for about a week.

With psyllium husk powder: Boil the puree made from 500 g of fruit for five minutes, then stir in 2.5 teaspoons of psyllium husk powder and pour the jam into sterile jars while it is still hot – this way it will keep for one to two months. With this method, the consistency is similar to a creamy porridge.

Pro tip: To keep your jam from turning brown – something sugar usually prevents – add a generous squeeze of lemon juice to the fruit mixture!