Low Sugar Cherry Jam Recipe

Canning cherry jam is a delicious, low-sugar, and fresh-tasting spread for toast, yogurt, or dessert recipes. This homemade cherry jam recipe is an amazing way to preserve the harvest and is a treat for the whole family.

This low-sugar cherry jam recipe is exactly how homemade jam should taste – not too sweet and tasting of fresh fruit and not sugar!

This post is very detailed because I have stuffed it full of information, tips, tricks, and hacks I have learned over 20 years of canning. I’m telling you EVERYTHING you need to know to be successful at making homemade cherry jam in your very own kitchen.

You can always click “jump to recipe” if you’d like, but I highly recommend a read-through at least once to make sure you fully understand the process.

How to use low-Sugar Pectin

This recipe is specifically designed to use low-sugar pectin. That gives you fresh-tasting jam instead of cherry candy.

Most commercial pectins are added to fruit along with bonkers amounts of sugar to create a “gel” that makes jam, well, jam. Most conventional recipes call for at least a 1:1 ratio of fruit to sugar. That means for a recipe that makes four jars of jam, you’re looking at needing 5-7 cups of sugar. MAKE IT STOP.

Low-sugar pectin, (like Pomona’s) is activated by calcium (not sugar) and needs just a touch of sugar to work. :confetti: This recipe makes four (8 oz) jars using just 3/4 cups of sugar.

how to make cherry jam

*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 also click “jump to recipe” to skip down.

Canning prep

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. You want to keep the water hot so that everything is ready when the jam is.

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!

Chop the cherries using a chef’s knife and a cutting board, or a pastry cutter, or pulse them in a food processor. You don’t want to blend them; visible chunks are ideal.

Heat the cherries in a heavy-bottomed saucepan (I use my Dutch oven) over medium heat until the juices start to bubble. Stir often to prevent sticking, and soon the natural juices in the cherries will be released. Be patient!

In a small bowl, combine 1/2 tsp calcium powder (this comes in the box of low-sugar pectin) with 1/2 cup cool water.

In a separate bowl, combine sugar and pectin. Set aside. To prevent clumping in the fruit, Pomona’s must be mixed with your sweetener before being added to the fruit.

Add the bottled lemon juice and calcium water to the pot with the cherries, and stir.  Add the sugar/pectin mixture, and bring everything to a rolling boil. Stir the mixture constantly for 3 minutes, turning down the burner to medium if the jam starts popping.

Pro tip: actually set a timer and stir for the full three minutes. The constant stirring prevents the jam from burning, and the cooking time is important to help the jam set.

Pro tip #2: a rolling boil means no amount of stirring will stop the bubbling. Use a long spoon or spatula to avoid any hot jam from popping onto your hand.

At this point, turn the burner under the canner back up to high and get that water boiling again.

Remove the jam pot from the heat, and stir it gently for 3 more minutes. At the end of the 3 minutes, skim off any foam that remains.

Using a funnel and a ladle, add the jam to your prepared jars, leaving 1/4 inch of headspace at the top. Headspace is the amount of room between the top of the food, and the top rim of the jar.

Using a wet clean rag, wipe the rim to make sure there isn’t any sticky jam 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.

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 3 weeks.