This is the strawberry freezer jam that tastes like fresh strawberries!

Author with a bowl of fresh picked strawberries

This recipe is for those of you who’ve made cooked strawberry jam and been disappointed that it’s too sweet and not strawberr-eey enough.

Not to mention that many national brands of strawberry jam have a long list of unpronounceable ingredients… let’s skip those ingredients and the food miles by making your own.

You can make this with both fresh-picked or previously frozen berries. And feel free to use the wonky looking or almost too ripe ones for jam. When you’re growing your own, you’ll likely harvest a few cups to a few pounds a day, and if you want to save up and make a batch of jam, just freeze whatever isn’t eaten at the end of the day and defrost once you’ve got enough berries and time.

More on growing strawberries HERE.

2 flats of strawberries.

If you go to a Pick Your Own Berry Farm and come home with 16 pounds of berries (yep, happened to me before) this is a great way to preserve that summer-sweetened flavor all through winter and right into next spring.

I also love how fast this strawberry freezer jam comes together. It is literally a 10-minute process once the berries are clean.

Technically, you should freeze this jam in plastic freezer containers. And sometimes I do, but I also use freezer-safe mason jars. I pack my freezer jam jars into cardboard boxes, so if something does crack it will be contained.

To prepare strawberries, give them a quick rinse and remove the hulls and any extra weird clumps of seeds on the bottoms of the berries (are those berry butts?). Then crush with a potato masher or similar tool. Crushing the fruit really decreases its volume, so I usually end up preparing about 8 cups of cleaned and hulled fruit that gets crushed down to 4 cups of prepared fruit.

Sure Jell pectin and a bowl of crushed strawberries

Pick a Pack of Pectin

I love Pomona’s brand pectin for making lower sugar cooked jellies and jams but haven’t had great luck with it for freezer jams. I think it may be affected by the lower amount of cooking time. For freezer jams I usually go with the low-sugar Sure Jell pectin. The different kinds of pectin (high or low-methoxyl) are truly fascinating to me; derived from different foods like citrus peel or apple with different setting times and temps, but that is another rabbit hole for another day…

Strawberry Freezer Jam Recipe

Ingredients:

  • 4 cups prepared fruit
  • 3 cups sugar, measured into separate bowl
  • 1 1.75 oz. box pectin Sure Jell (*low sugar)
  • 1 cup water

Directions:

Strawberry jam in a pot.
  • Thoroughly clean six 8-ounce or four 12-ounce containers (plastic or freezer-safe glass) and lids. It never hurts to sanitize jars with boiling water for ten minutes. The plastic containers just wash thoroughly.
  • Prepare the fruit as mentioned above. Measure exactly 4 cups prepared fruit into a separate bowl and set aside.
  • Slowly mix sugar and pectin well in a medium saucepan, then stir in the water. Bring to a boil on medium-high heat, stirring constantly. Once boiling, cook and stir one more minute, then turn off heat and pour in prepared fruit immediately. Stir briskly (I like to use a whisk) for one minute or until well blended.
  • Fill containers quickly to within 1/2 inch of tops. Wipe off rims of jars or containers and cover with lids. Once cooled off, move to refrigerator. You can refrigerate freezer jam up to 3 weeks or freeze up to 1 year.
Jars of strawberry jam

And somehow, I always end up with a partial jar that makes that goes right into the fridge to enjoy!

I love this strawberry freezer jam on yogurt and granola, in smoothies, or on or toast with brie or goat cheese. My kids eat it old school with PB+J.

I hope this has inspired you to make some of your own strawberry freezer jam! Whether you grew the berries, picked them, or bought them, skipping the many ingredients in store-bought jam is better for the flavor and your health!

Dig In,
Michelle