I do several pints at a time, but say for one pint, here's what I do...
Rinse the berries in cold water to be sure they're clean...
Then, place them into a 10 inch sauce pan and put the heat up high... add about 1 or 2 ounces of cold water and then let it begin to boil up... the berries will open, you can use a big spoon to mash them so they do open, they open easier when they're heated... I never really measure the amount of agave, but pout the agave over the berries with about 6 full swirls around the pan... keep stirring slowly constantly throughout the entire cooking process... then, just stir and keep on high or medium high and let the berries boil down and let the water reduce until the liquid begins to thicken some... taste the preserves to be sure it's sweet enough, otherwise just add more agave to suit your taste... I may use more than 6 swirls, maybe 8 or so, I like mine sweet...
Also, if you like, and I do this some times just for variety, I add just a few sprinkles of cinnamon and a lesser amount of allspice to the mix... this makes the preserves taste more like blueberry pie filling, but it's not necessary...
When the whole thing looks like preserves and you can pull the spoon through the bottom of the pan and you can see the pan without the berries filling in the space too quickly, then just take it off the heat and spoon it all into a 16 oz jar... cover the cap tightly and put into the refrigerator and let cool...
I make 4 pints at a time, so I end up with nearly three full jars of preserves that last me through the winter when the blueberries are out of season...
One pint of blueberries and 1 or 2 oz of water reduce down considerably, so one pint might make only 1/2 jar or more... but the flavor and the richness is so intense and extremely delicious, and you'll have fresh homemade blueberry preserves without any of the other crap in it which they add at the factory...
You can also use strawberries to make strawberry preserves the very same way...
Enjoy...
GZ |
