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Made with fresh summer berries, you’re going to love this delicious Blackberry Syrup recipe. This is a delightful homemade treat for pancakes, waffles, baked goods, drinks, and more. You can freeze or can this easy homemade blackberry syrup.
Blackberries are the dandelions of Washington. They grow wild everywhere and are free for the picking. When you want to savor that delicious taste longer than the short season lasts, homemade blackberry syrup is the way to go!
Let me teach you how to make this incredibly fresh syrup. You can keep it in the fridge, freeze some for later, or even can it. You’ve got options. Go get some blackberries and let’s do this.
If you have leftover fresh blackberries, use them to make Blackberry Freezer Jam, Blackberry Simple Syrup, Gluten-Free Blackberry Crisp, or Blackberry and Apple Crumble.
HOW To MAKE Blackberry SYRUP FROM SCRATCH
*I’ll walk you through it here with some photos and tips, and you’ll also find a printable recipe card at the bottom of the post with exact measurements, etc. You can click “jump to recipe” to skip down.
Rinse the blackberries and add them to a heavy-bottomed pan (I use my cast iron dutch oven). Now we’re going to cook them down over medium heat and gently mush them as they heat up.
Once the berries are hot and steaming, use an immersion blender to puree everything. If you don’t have an immersion blender, no worries. You can use a blender; just make sure you remove the middle part of the lid to allow the steam to escape and blend in batches.
Now, you’ll place a fine-mesh strainer over a clean bowl and pour the berries into the strainer. You may need to “push” the sauce through with a silicone spatula or wooden spoon to get every last drop.
Then add the filtered sauce back to the pan, add the sugar and (optional) lemon juice, and bring to a gentle boil for 5-10 minutes or until reduced by one-third.
If storing in the fridge, allow the syrup to fully cool before placing it in a jar/bottle in the fridge. Want to can your blackberry syrup to make it shelf-stable? Read on, nerd!
Canning Blackberry syrup
Prepare your water bath canner by filling it with water, and setting it on the stove. Turn the burner to high. Once it reaches a boil, reduce it to simmer until you’re ready to can the blackberry syrup.
Wash and sanitize your jars. You’ll want to keep them warm to avoid having them crack when placed in the canner. You can fill them with hot water, or place them on a tray in the oven at 170˚F.
Wash your lids and set them aside in a clean place. You no longer need to simmer lids in water to keep them sterile. Woot!
Using a funnel and a ladle, add the syrup to your prepared jars, leaving 1/2 inch of headspace at the top.
Using a wet clean rag, wipe the rim to make sure there isn’t any sticky syrup on there.
Place a new clean lid on the jar and then a canning ring. Tighten the ring to fingertip tight (tight enough that it won’t come off, but not so tight that a normal person couldn’t budge it).
Using canning tongs, add your jars to the boiling water, and put the canner lid on. Pro tip: you must have at least 1 inch of water over the tops of the jars for safe canning. Processing times will vary based on altitude. See the chart below.
Processing Times for Blackberry Syrup
| Processing Time for Blackberry Syrup | ||||
| Process Times at Altitudes of: | ||||
| Style of Pack | Jar Size | 0-1,000 ft | 1,001-6,000 ft | Aove 6,000 ft |
| Hot | Half-Pints & Pints | 10 min | 15 min | 20 min |
| *Source: National Center For Home Food Preservation | ||||
Once the processing time is up, remove the canner from heat, remove the lid of the canner, and let the canner sit for 5 minutes. Use canning tongs and remove the jars and place them on towels on the counter. Make sure you put them where they can be undisturbed for 12-24 hours.
After everything has cooled, check the seal by pushing down on the middle of the lid. If it doesn’t give way, it’s sealed. Label the jars, and store in a cool dark place for 12-18 months. If the lid bows a little bit, put that in the fridge and use it within 2 weeks.
Making Syrup With Frozen Fruit
YES, you can use frozen fruit for making syrup. Hurray! You’ll need to cook down the blackberries a bit longer to reduce the liquid that is produced while they thaw. Or, you can thaw them ahead of time and discard the liquid.
Check out this post on how to freeze blackberries if you have lots of leftover fresh blackberries.
Storage
Non-canned: Store in the fridge for up to two weeks, or freeze for 3-6 months.
Canned: Once the jars have sealed, remove the rings. Label and store sealed jars in a cool (best results are 50-70˚F) dark place for up to 12-18 months.
If you have the space available, do not stack the jars on top of each other more than two jars high. If you open a jar for use and don’t use it all, you can store it in the fridge for 2-3 weeks.
Pro Tips/Recipe Notes
- You can reduce or increase the sugar depending on your preferences and the sweetness of the berries. I recommend starting with 1/4 cup and tasting as you go.
- Recipe makes five 8-oz jam jars.
- If you don’t have an immersion blender, carefully transfer in batches to a regular blender. Leave the center component of the lid off to allow the steam to escape; drape a clean cloth over the top of the lid to prevent syrup splatter.
- You can leave the seeds in if you’d like.
Blackberry Syrup Recipe
Ingredients
- 12 cups fresh or frozen blackberries {to yield ~5 cups juice}
- 2 cups sugar
- 1/4 cup water
- 2 tbsp lemon juice {optional}
Instructions
- Combine 1/4 cup water and berries in a heavy-bottomed pot. Cook down over medium heat until the berries are very soft and steaming.1/4 cup water, 12 cups fresh or frozen blackberries
- When hot, use an immersion blender in the pot to blend the berries. See note 1 below if you don't have an immersion blender.
- Ladle hot berry sauce into a metal sieve placed over a bowl.
- Use a spatula to work the sauce around until all that is left in the sieve is the seeds. Return the now seedless sauce to the cooking pot.
- Mix sugar and (optional) lemon juice into the sauce, cook on medium-high, stirring often until the syrup has reduced by 1/3 (about 5-10 minutes).2 cups sugar, 2 tbsp lemon juice
- If you're not canning the syrup, allow it to cool and then transfer it to small containers. Refrigerate and use within 2 weeks, or freeze for six months.
How to Can Blackberry Syrup
- Prepare your water bath canner by filling it with water. You just need to have enough water to cover the jars by 1 inch once the water is boiling.
- Set the canner on the stove. Turn the burner to high.
- Wash and sanitize your jars. You’ll want to keep them warm to avoid having them crack when placed in the canner. You can fill them with hot water, or place them on a tray in the oven at 170˚F.
- Wash your lids and set aside in a clean bowl.
- Ladle in the warm syrup into jars, leaving 1/2 inch of headspace. Remove any bubbles from the jar (I use a chopstick).
- Use a wet clean rag and wipe the rim of the jars to make sure it is free of any food.
- Place a clean lid on the jar. Add a ring, and tighten to fingertip tight.
- Using canning tongs, add jars to the boiling water, and put the canner lid on. Pro tip: you must have at least 1 inch of water over the tops of the jars for safe canning.
- Process half-pints and pints based on the elevation guide below:*0-1,000 ft – Half-Pints & Pints =10 min *1,001-6,000 ft – Half-Pints & Pints =15 min *6,000 ft+ – Half-Pints & Pints =20 min
- Once the syrup has processed for the appropriate amount of time, remove the canner from the burner, and carefully remove the lid of the canner (Pro tip: use oven mitts to take the lid off because the steam is super hot).
- After the jars sit for 5 minutes in the canner, use canning tongs to carefully remove the jars, and place them on a thick towel in a place where they can be undisturbed for 12 hours.
- Store in a cool dark place for 12-18 months.
Notes
- If you don’t have an immersion blender, carefully transfer in batches to a regular blender. Leave the center component of the lid off to allow the steam to escape.
- Store in the fridge for up to two weeks, or freeze for 3-6 months.
- If you choose to can it, you can store it in a cool dark place for 12-18 months.
- Recipes makes five 8oz jam jars.
- You can leave the seeds in if you’d like.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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This was not the best way to extract juice. I have a steam juicer that would have produced more juice and less mess. I started with 24 cups of blackberries and ended up with 6 cups of juice.
Rest of recipe is great, I will steam juice next time.
Hi Lynn, thanks for the feedback with your experience. Not everyone owns a steam juicer, so I do like to give people alternative options using things they have hanging around. A steam juicer is a wonderful resource if you do have one, and would definitely make easy work of this recipe.
Hi there- this is my 1st attempt at canning.
May I reduce the sugar amount or is ithe 2c a requirement?
Thanks in advance!
Hi Melody, there is a note about that under the heading “Pro Tips”. I’ll copy and paste it below, but please let me know if you have any additional questions! Always happy to help.
You can reduce or increase the sugar depending on your preferences and the sweetness of the berries. I recommend starting with 1/4 cup and tasting as you go.
I found I could obtain a much better yield using a Squeezo Strainer to get the juice after using an immersion blender. Using the strainer, my 12 cups of berries yielded 5 cups of juice. With the Squeezo, 8 cups of berries yielded the same 5 cups!
We love our Squeezo too; I’ll have to give it a try!
You mention that the lemon juice is optional. If you don’t add it, would this be acidic enough for canning?
When canning fruit, the natural sugars alone make it safe to can without additional sugars. So in this case, the sugars in the blackberries are what make it safe to can.
And if you add additional sugar to the syrup, that also acts as a preservative.
I had already juiced all my berries before I saw your recipe. How much juice should I user or how much actual juice does your recipe yield before we add sugar and lemon juice?
There isn’t an exact measurement of juice because when dealing with fresh vs frozen blackberries or storebought vs homegrown the ratio can vary wildly. I would aim for 4-6 cups of liquid.
I made this, and so far it looks amazing! It doesn’t say in the instructions (or I missed it) when to add the lemon juice. I added it when I added the sugar. I used sugar substitute Apriva. It’s used cup for cup for sugar. It tasted delicious, and I canned most of it. Thank you for the recipe.
Goodness, you’re right Joey, I left it out of the instructions! You did the right thing; it goes in with the sugar. Off to update to the recipe now, and many apologies for the confusion.
I have already made the blackberry juice with water covering the berry and straining them. Can I still follow this recipe or should I add more cornstarch
Are you planning to can the product or just freeze it?
I know you told how much berry’s to use,but it would help to add how many cups of juice. Maybe juice to sugar ratio. I made my berries into juice made cobblers won’t to make syrup with juice I had left over. The syrup is so good. Thank you for posting.
I quartered this recipe and it is so good! The blackberry really shines through. Thank you 🙂
I’m so glad you enjoyed it Jessi! It will be a delicious taste of summer come January. 🙂
i have already juiced my blackberries. any idea how many cups of juice 12 cups berries would produce?
It depends on the ripeness of the blackberries, but it will probably lead 5-6 cups. The recipe makes 5 half-pints (5, 8 oz jars) after it has been reduced in volume a bit.
I wanted to try this recipe out so I cut it in half, just enough to put in the frig for waffles or angel food cake.
It was sooo good. We have tons of blackberries, so many I’ve been having to freeze them every day to keep up.
I made blackberry jelly with the surejell and it’s so sweet. I love the taste of the syrup so this morning I got more berries out and wanted to try cooking them longer than the syrup to see if it would set up as jelly. Could you tell me exactly how much longer I should cook it down so it will set up?
About 15-20 minutes at a low boil should do the trick! The hard part is you won’t know it is “set” until it starts to cool.
Freezing blackberries is one of my favorite things. They’re like little bits of summer during the gloomy winter.
Blackberries are coming into season in the south. I love to make this with xylitol to make it keto and have it over lemon pound cake.
I’m so jealous they’re already ripening! We still have 2(ish) months to go.
Lemon pound cake is THE best!
How much syrup does this render when you use 12 cups fresh fruit?!
Hi Kortnie, the recipe states: “Recipes makes 4-6 jelly jars depending on how much sugar you add and how much you choose to cook it down.”
Jelly jars are 8 oz each. Hope this helps!
This would bring our “breakfast for dinner” night to a whole new level, thanks!
I have a ton of blacberries in the freezer. I will be making jars of this for Christmas presents! Thanks for posting.
Would this work for blueberries as well? I have a ton of frozen ones I would like to use up. No one likes blueberry jam and I am not a great pie or pastry baker.
I’m sure it would. Blueberry skins are annoying but are less annoying than blackberry seeds.
This whole wheat blueberry muffin recipe I make uses frozen blueberries and the muffins freeze really well. https://www.sustainablecooks.com/finally-amazingly-delicious-whole-wheat-blueberry-muffins/
Our local grocery had blackberries on sale, so I bought a TON and made jam and your syrup. DH is crazy for anything blackberry. He’s been eating Smucker’s with Splenda, so I’m trying to get him off the chemical crap. This stuff is the bomb. I subbed agave because it’s low glycemic and he loves the stuff, and it turned out great. I also LOVE the idea of the rings in the bottom of the stock pot rather than dragging out the big canning pot.
I’m glad google led me to your blog-we just picked a ton of blackberries by the Puyallup river, and this syrup looks perfect! We don’t do nearly as much sugar either, so I was surprised so many recipes call for tons of sugar and other random things. Simple and less sugary. Suhweeet. ;o)
That looks great, I’ll have to try it.