Homemade Fresh Apricot Jam with Pectin

Homemade apricot jam with pectin is a real treat. This recipe uses original pectin and reduced sugar to bring out the flavor of the apricots.

Makes 4 half-pints

Traditional Apricot Jam on freshly baked homemade bread.

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Apricot Jam With Reduced Sugar

This is a recipe for homemade fresh Apricot Jam that we developed many years ago. Like most of our jam and jelly recipes, it uses Original Sure-Jell powdered fruit pectin in the yellow box. It also uses less sugar than is usually recommended by the pectin manufacturer. We prefer to use approximately equal parts fruit and sugar when canning jams and jellies. This is not the ratio that comes with directions for the pectin. The directions in the package warn you that if you reduce the recommended amount of sugar, then the jelly/jam will not set. We have worked around this problem by also reducing the amount of fruit in the recipe. Please read the notes a the end for a more detailed discussion of using pectin and less sugar. If this is still too much sugar for your taste, then you may want to consider using “Less sugar needed” Sure-Jell Fruit Pectin in the pink box. Use the recipe that comes in the box.

Ingredients:

Ingredients for Apricot Jam.

2 lbs. fresh apricots
1 (1.75 oz.) package Original Sure-Jell powdered fruit pectin
2 Tablespoons lemon juice (from 1 large lemon, about 6 oz. in weight)
3 cups sugar
4 half-pint (8 ounce) canning jars with rings and lids

Instructions for homemade fresh apricot jam:

1. Wash the apricots in cold water. Pit but do not peel. Then chop the apricots into small pieces.
2.  Mash the apricots in a large bowl to help release some of the juice and measure. You should have 2-3/4 cups of mashed apricots. Press the lemon and measure the lemon juice. There should be 2 Tablespoons of lemon juice. Add the lemon juice to the apricots in the bowl.
3. Combine the mashed apricots and powdered fruit pectin in a 3-quart saucepan.
4. Stir and cook over medium heat until the apricots begin to bubble. You do not have to bring the mixture to a hard boil.
   

   1 - Wash, pit, but do not peel the apricots. Then chop into small pieces.

   

   2 - Mash chopped apricots in a large bowl and add lemon juice.

   

   3 - Combine the mashed apricots and powdered pectin in a 3-quart saucepan.

   

   4 - Stir and cook over medium heat until the apricots begin to bubble.
5. Stir in the 3 cups sugar.
6. Increase to medium-high heat and stir until it reaches a full rolling boil. Boil hard for 1 minute.
7. Remove from heat and skim foam from top of jam.
8. Pour into hot, sterilized, half-pint canning jars, and seal.
   

   5 - When the apricots begin to bubble, stir in the 3 cups sugar.

   

   6 - Stir over med-hi heat until it reaches a full rolling boil. Boil hard for 1 minute.

   

   7 - Remove from heat & skim foam from top.

   

   8 - Pour into hot sterilized jars and seal.
9. Process the apricot jam for 10 minutes in a boiling water bath. Then remove the jars from the pot and place on a dry towel to cool. After two hours, check the jars to make sure that they are sealed. Then hold each jar with a dry towel or hot pad and gently shake to prevent all of the pieces of fruit from floating to the top. Leave undisturbed for another 10 hours until the jam reaches room temperature. The directions in the package caution that this jam may take up to two weeks to set. My experience has been that it may take up to two days to set, but rarely longer.

Peanut Butter and Apricot Jam on crackers.

If you are interested in more jam and jelly recipes, then you may want to try Fresh Strawberry Jam, Small Batch Blackberry Jelly, or Tangerine Marmalade.

If you would like more detailed instructions on water bath canning, then you may like to try thespruceeats.com located here. You can also check out simplycanning.com located here.

Notes:

• Lemon juice: If you do not have a large 6 oz. lemon, then two medium lemons should produce the 2 Tablespoons of lemon juice that you need.
• Using pectin and reduced sugar:  When I first started to can jams and jellies, it did not take long for me realize that I would have to use added pectin. Most of my attempts of canning without pectin were disappointing. While adding pectin to the fruit increased my success rate considerably, it required more sugar than I thought was necessary. So I set out to change the recipes so that they used equal parts fruit and sugar. If you look at the recipe for Manzanita Blossom Jelly, you can see that we used equal parts juice and sugar for that recipe also. It was a long process. Some of the results were too stiff, and others did not set at all. However, after much experimentation, we were able to change most of the recipes to equal parts fruit and sugar. The one exception to this rule is marmalade, like this Tangerine Marmalade. I use the manufacturers recommended ratio of fruit to sugar when preparing marmalade.

If you liked this recipe, you may also be interested in these recipes:

Small Batch Blackberry Jelly

Manzanita Blossom Jelly

Tangerine Marmalade

4.67 from 3 votes

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Homemade Fresh Apricot Jam with Pectin

Homemade apricot jam with pectin is a real treat. This recipe uses original pectin and reduced sugar to bring out the flavor of the apricots.

Course Breakfast

Cuisine American

Keyword apricots, canning, lemon, pectin, water bath

Prep Time 45 minutes

Cook Time 45 minutes

Resting time 1 day

Total Time 1 day 1 hour 30 minutes

Servings 64 Tablespoons

Calories 42 kcal

Rev. McKinney admin

Ingredients

• 2 lbs. fresh apricots
• 1 package Original Sure-Jell powdered fruit pectin
• 2 Tablespoons lemon juice from 1 lemon
• 3 cups sugar
• 4 half-pint canning jars with rings and lids (8 ounce jars)

Instructions

1. Wash the apricots in cold water. Pit but do not peel. Then chop the apricots into small pieces.

2. Mash the apricots in a large bowl to help release some of the juice and measure. You should have 2-3/4 cups of mashed apricots. Press the lemon and measure the lemon juice. There should be 2 Tablespoons of lemon juice. Add the lemon juice to the apricots in the bowl.

3. Combine the mashed apricots and powdered fruit pectin in a 3-quart saucepan.

4. Stir and cook over medium heat until the apricots begin to bubble. You do not have to bring the mixture to a hard boil. 

5. Stir in the 3 cups sugar.

6. Increase to medium-high heat and stir until it reaches a full rolling boil. Boil hard for 1 minute.

7. Remove from heat and skim foam from top of jam.

8. Pour into hot, sterilized, half-pint canning jars, and seal.

9. Process the apricot jam for 10 minutes in a boiling water bath. Then remove the jars from the pot and place on a dry towel to cool. Finally, gently shake the jars after two hours to prevent all of the pieces of fruit from floating to the top. The directions in the package caution that this jam may take up to two weeks to set. My experience has been that it may take up to two days to set, but rarely longer.

Recipe Notes

• Lemon juice: If you do not have a large 6 oz. lemon, then two medium lemons should produce the 2 Tablespoons of lemon juice that you need.

• If this is still too much sugar for your taste, then you may want to consider using "Less sugar needed" Sure-Jell Fruit Pectin in the pink box. Use the recipe that comes in the box.

• If you would like more detailed instructions on water bath canning, then you may like to try thespruceeats.com located here. You can also check out simplycanning.com located here.