Homemade Chia Jam ~ So how do you make that?

Hi everyone, I hope you had a wonderful summer and have enjoyed the mostly mild weather we had. Although ironically, this week is probably the hottest it's been all summer! That means I can try to sneak in some more summer recipes in the meantime. 😉

This is a recipe I'm really excited about. On the weekends, I love to have a piece of toast or a bagel with peanut butter and jam. But the thing about the jams and jellies are how high in sugar they are, and even the most organic wholesome versions have sugar as the first or second ingredient. Then there's the "sugar-free" versions and to be honest with you, I really don't like the sugar alternatives and feel they take away from the taste of the jam. So, I've been playing around with this and think I've landed on a recipe that's really quite tasty and of course super simple.

NOTE: I used honey as the sweetener for this recipe, but you can use maple syrup or even regular sugar if you want. And if you're OK with the sugar alternatives then go ahead use that instead.

I think the most important part of this is making sure you're using a fruit that's "strong" in its taste, and also obviously that you enjoy eating on its own. As an example, I tried a version of this using mango. Now I love mango. If I had to choose one fruit to eat b a for the rest of my life, I'd choose mango. But using this in a jam didn't actually work out. The taste was a little too mild and it turned out to a be a little bland. In my opinion, I think most of the berries would be the best choice for something of this nature. I used blueberries for this particular recipe, but strawberries, blueberries, or raspberries would be awesome choices. I used frozen blueberries because that's what I had, but you could use fresh or frozen.

The other thing I would note is that it may be a little difficult to immediately scale down to this not-as-sugary taste. If you need to you can take it slowly and reduce the sugar step by step until you don't need more than just a tiny bit! If you pick a nice ripe berry, you'll be really surprised at how naturally sweet it tastes to you.

With all that being said, let's get this show on the road!

Ingredients:

16 oz fruit (blueberry, strawberry, raspberry etc.) - fresh or frozen

Juice of one small to medium lemon

1-3 tbsp honey (or sweetener of your choice)

1-2 tablespoons Chia seeds

Step 1: Put fruit into a pot and put on stove on medium/high.

I used the frozen wild blueberries from Trader Joe's, but feel free to use any brand, or fresh if you have it.

Step 2: Add in the juice of one whole lemon.

Step 3: Add in the sweetener you are using.

I used 1 tablespoon of raw honey.

Step 4: Stir and let it cook for 5-10 minutes on medium/low

Step 5: Take some of the liquid that's started forming in the pot, and put it in a blender.

NOTE: If you don't mind the texture of the whole chia seeds, you can completely skip steps 5 and 6.

I like the whole piece of fruit in my jam, so I only use a little bit for this step.
If you prefer a more jelly like texture you can puree the entire amount.

Step 6: Add the Chia seeds into the blender and blend until the seeds have been pulverized into the liquid. I've noted you can use 1-2 tablespoons. I prefer a thicker jam, so I used 2 tablespoons. But if you want a more sauce/liquid type texture you only need 1.