Christmas Jam– honey sweetened and free of refined sugar

This cranberry jam warmed with subtle spices is sweetened with honey. Free of refined sugar and pectin, this Christmas jam is quick and easy to make. Perfect for Christmas, you can enjoy it all winter long… or anytime!

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There are lots of recipes for Christmas jam out there, and they all sound scrumptious! Cranberries provide a seasonal fall-winter base, and the other ingredients add to the festive flavor profile. Spices, orange, lemon, strawberry… lots of ingredients make their ways into “Christmas jam”. I want to try them all!

Another thing I want to try to do is to avoid refined sugar. Well, I don’t really want to try that, but I need to, and my family does better without it as well. Jam is usually loaded with sugar! It is not only tasty and, in the case of cranberry, needed to make the fruit palatable, but it is part of the process of getting the jam-like consistency.

So, how can you have jam without any refined sugar? Plenty of recipes successfully reduce the sugar, but no sugar? And no pectin?

Well, in the case of Christmas jam, it isn’t all that hard! And we use honey so it isn’t unbearably sour.

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What makes this jam work without sugar?

Well, several things… In fact, there is a risk of getting your jam too thick!

First, have you ever made cranberry sauce? If you have, you know that it thickens after the cranberries cook. Of course, there is sugar involved, usually– unless you make my orange cranberry sauce or cranberry sauce with pineapple and raspberries.

Besides the cranberries, we will add lemon and orange peel. They both contain pectin (in the peel, not the fruit) that can help our jam thicken. (Cranberries also contain pectin, as do plenty of other fruits.Learn which ones here.)

Finally, there is sugar in the form of honey in this Christmas jam recipe– but just enough to sweeten the jam. Not the 2-5 cups you find in recipes for modest-sized batches of jam.

Is pectin a problem?!

So you don’t need to add pectin. Pectin isn’t necessarily a worrisome ingredient; it comes from fruit, and has some health benefits of its own.

You might not have any in the kitchen, though. No need to go out and buy it for this recipe!

If you are on the GAPS diet, the sugar in jam is a main concern, but pectin is also to be avoided. (I think the reason is that it is a highly processed polysaccharide.) We avoid polysaccharides and processed ingredients on the GAPS diet so as to avoid feeding bad bacteria and scratching up our guts while healing.

Pectin in the less-processed form of citrus peel with honey, a monosaccharide, isn’t so GAPS-hostile. Even so, I would reserve this jam as a rare treat on the GAPS diet.

How to Make Christmas Jam

Wash and pick over your cranberries, removing any that are very wrinkled or otherwise damaged.

Zest the lemon and orange. This is a wonderful source of flavor and nutrition, not just pectin! Try to get all the zest you can. I use a box grater all over the fruit, and the whole task is done in a minute or so. You could use a citrus zesting tool, use a peeler and then chop with a knife, or some other method.

Combine the berries, zest, juice of the orange, honey, and spices in a sauce pan. Heat over low heat, stirring at first. There will be very little liquid at first– just the juice of the orange and the honey. After awhile, the berries will burst and release their juices.

Simmer the jam for about 20 minutes. Taste to be sure the sweetness agrees with you. Add more honey if needed. If it is too sweet, juice the lemon and add that.

If you want your jam to be chunky, you are done!

Optional blending step:

I like it a bit smoother, though not perfectly smooth, either.

An immersion blender gets it to my “just right” consistency. A low-end immersion blender will work just fine. (I have an old one that is no longer available, but it is comparable to this one except that this one has a detachable blending stick– much better for cleaning!)

Alternatively, you could use a blender or food processor, or even mash with a potato masher if you don’t want it very smooth.

This recipe makes about a pint. I store it in a pint jar in the refrigerator. It will last at least 2 weeks. We have never managed to keep it on hand longer than that!

I have canned other jams, but not this one. Canning jam isn’t hard, so if you wanted to make several pints, you probably could. They would be nice gifts, and you might also enjoy having them all winter. If you want to preserve it, follow these instructions.

What can I do with Christmas jam?

Jam is an obvious choice for spreading on bread or toast. But what if you don’t eat bread or toast?

• spread on pancakes or waffles
• use it to fill the centers of jam thumbprint cookies
• spread between two layers of cake
• make biscuits or muffins and spread jam on them
• serve as a relish alongside turkey, chicken, or ham– much like cranberry sauce
• similarly, add a dollop of Christmas jam alongside Swedish meatballs instead of lingonberry preserves
• stir into plain yogurt– Greek yogurt from the store, 24-hour GAPS yogurt, etc.
• to whatever cracker you like, add a soft cheese (cream cheese, goat cheese, kefir cheese, etc), then add Christmas jam on top