Seedless Raspberry Jam (Small Batch Recipe) (2024)

This simple step-by-step recipe for Seedless Raspberry Jam is both delicious and deliciously easy to make. With just 3 ingredients and no specialist sugar or pectin required, this is a great way to use fresh or frozen raspberries to make a lovely smooth jam with no bits.

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I’ve mentioned before in my recipes for Strawberry Jam and Blueberry Jam that I am adverse to bitty jam. I much prefer a smooth jam with no seeds in it. And raspberry is no different. So when I came into a bounty of cheap raspberries, I knew what I needed to do. And so this seedless raspberry jam recipe was born.

Seedless or smooth jam shouldn’t be confused with a jelly. Jellies are made in a similar way to jam but just use the juice of the fruit. My smooth jam recipes use the pureed whole fruit with just the pips sieved out. This gives a fuller texture and I think it retains more flavour.

How to Serve Smooth Raspberry Jam

I will always be a promoter of eating jams and fruit curds etc at room temperature. I keep open jars in the fridge but take them out a little before using/eating.

This makes sure that the jam is nice and easy to spread. But also ensures that the full flavour of the jam is able to shine. Cold temperatures dull flavour and I’m just not into dull flavours!

As for what to serve jam with, the options are endless. Start the day using it as a breakfast spread on everything from Scotch Pancakes and croissants to toasted sourdough or Sesame Bagels.

Move on to elevenses or afternoon tea and jam is idea to add to Vanilla Fairy Cakes or slather in the middle of a Victoria Sandwich Cake. Add some clotted cream and you’ll have the best filled Scones of your life.

Pile jam into part baked Small Pastry Cases and finish off in the oven. Or make a quick microwave jam sponge pudding or traditional jam roly poly. Use in my Sweet Pizza Pockets as an alternative to strawberry jam. Just add custard to make delicious rounded desserts.

Follow lashings of butter and pile jam onto crumpets for the ultimate tasty supper or snack at any time of day.

Ingredients for Seedless Raspberry Jam

Raspberries

It doesn’t matter if you are using fresh, frozen, home-grown or store-bought raspberries, this recipe will work out great.

You will need to make sure frozen fruits are thawed before blitzing or you will struggle. Leave them spread in one layer on a tray or dish on the counter and they will thaw in no time.

You can also substitute or in mix raspberry adjacent fruits like cloudberries, loganberries, or tayberries. You can also use blackberries (brambles) to make a seedless blackberry jam using exactly the same recipe. If you get black raspberries in your area, they will work too.

Sugar

Regular white sugar is all you need to make jam. You do not need to use specialist (and expensive) jam sugar. Jam sugar contains added pectin which is not required in this recipe.

It also doesn’t matter if you use regular or caster/superfine sugar as it will be melting in the pan. I do tend to just use regular granulated sugar as it is the cheaper option and I save caster sugar for when it is really needed.

As with all my seedless jams, please don’t be tempted to use a brown sugar or sugar alternative as the jam will either have an odd flavour or texture respectively.

Lemon Juice

Lemon juice does two things in a jam recipe. Firstly it adds a little bit of a sharp counterbalance to the sweetness. Secondly, and most importantly, it adds the extra pectin that rasberries don’t contain themselves.

Pectin is what allows the jam to set. Most fruits contain some natural pectin. Some contain enough that they don’t need any help during the jam making process. But most need a little helping hand.

Using lemon juice rather than powdered pectin or jam sugar is both the tastiest and best value way of doing this.

Using too much lemon juice can therefore results in jam becoming overset. For this reason it is important to measure the juice you’re using and try to be fairly accurate about it. If you want to add more actual lemon flavour, you can add some fresh and very finely grated lemon zest instead.

Fresh, frozen or bottled lemon juice are all perfectly fine to use.

Be Flexible

I’ve already mentioned subbing in another raspberry type fruit or mixing these with the raspberries. And I’ve talked about adding more lemon flavour by adding lemon zest.

You can add other flavour like vanilla or even almond by using a good quality extract. Orange extract could also be added or you could add orange zest.

Don’t be tempted to replace the lemon juice with orange juice or any of the other flavour. The recipe as written can take up to 1 tbsp of added liquids but no more.

To this end, adding booze is a fun option. I especially like to add an orange liqueur like Cointreau, Cassis for a dark fruit backnote, or Amaretto if you are into almond type flavours.

Vegetarian or Vegan Jam

This seedless raspberry jam recipe is suitable for both vegetarian and vegan diets.

Is Raspberry Jam Allergy Friendly?

This recipe is free from egg, dairy, gluten and nuts.

Please note that this recipe may contain other allergens not referred to above and any variations suggested have not been tested unless otherwise stated. For more information regarding any dietary information provided on this website, please refer to my Nutritional Disclaimer.

Discover More Homemade Jam Recipes

Equipment Notes for Smooth Raspberry Jam

You don’t really need any great specialist equipment to make jam. The most important thing is to have a good sized pan. This recipe using just one pound of fruit makes a fairly small amount of the finished product but you still need to use a goodlarge saucepan.

You might think that I’m being excessive when you first see the amount of fruit in the pan but it bubbles up so much when boiling, you’ll soon understand why.

There are a few things that will help make your jam making easier although they’re not essential. A thermometer is one of them. It turns out that I own quite a selection and they are all suitable. Mylaser thermometer(centre) is mess free and fun to use.

Mymeatthermometer(left) posed a little more peril as I needed to hold it in the jam until it registered the temperature. And my old fashionedsugar thermometer(right) just happily sat in the pan the whole time. But it was harder to wash up!

And don’t forget something the store the jam in. I love my super cutequilted jam jar set. But you can simply use old jam jars that you’ve thoroughly cleaned.

A comprehensive list of the equipment used to make this recipe is included in the main recipe card below. Click on any item to see an example. There are no hard and fast rules so many items can be sensibly substituted to achieve the same results.

How to Sterilise Jars and Preserve/Can Jam

There is a whole world of variations and advice for how you should prepare your jars and deal with the jars once they’re sealed. They vary from person to person and country to country.

Here in the UK we largely make sure that the jars are properly sterilised, fill the jars with the hot jam, seal them and that’s that. In the US it is almost a given that the jars will then be “processed” to complete the “canning” process. I have purposely provided no links here – if you’d like to learn more about canning, Google is your friend.

There are a lot of strong feelings about this in the “jam community” (yes there is one) which I have no interest in being drawn into. All I know is that UK cooks have been making jam for a very long time without any issues. Therefore I am more than happy to follow the UK process for my jams.

Jar Sterilisation Options

There are several ways that you can sterilise your jam jars.

• Run the jars and lids through a hot wash in the dishwasher.
• Bake the jars and lids in the oven on a baking tray.
• Microwave the jars and boil the lids in water.
• Boil the jars and lids in water.

Whichever method you choose the only important thing is to make sure that the jars and lids are left to dry without being touched. And that you do not under any circ*mstances touch the inside of the jars or lids as this can contaminate them and undo your sterilisation. Tongs are your friend.

For the record, I usually use the dishwasher method.

How to Tell if the Jar is Sealed

It is essential to add the lid to the hot jars filled with the hot jam straight away. As the jam and jar cool, a vacuum is created in the jar and the lid will be pulled downwards. To help this, I often turn my jars upside down to cool.

This means that when you press the lid, it doesn’t move or pop. When you open a jar of properly sealed jam the lid will then pop. And an opened or not properly sealed jar will pop when you press it.

If your jars don’t seal properly, you can either keep the jar in the fridge and eat it relatively quickly or go though a canning process to seal them. The choice is yours.

Get Ahead

You can make jam up to a year in advance. Whether you consider that getting ahead or not I don’t know!

The important thing to note is that you want to be making it at least 24 hours in advance of needed it so that it has time to properly set. You can probably get away with 12 to 16 hours in the fridge if you are in a real hurry.

Smooth Raspberry Jam Tips

Do not touch the hot jam. I cannot stress this enough. I don’t care how tempting it looks. Or if that little bit on the side looks a bit cooler. Do. Not. Touch. It. You will regret it.

If you are using a thermometer, you can simply rely on the jam hitting temperature and not worry about doing the wrinkle test on a cold plate. I like to take a belt and braces approach so I use both testing methods. But you can just use one or the other.

I mentioned before to use a good big saucepan. This is worth repeating here!

If you don’t need to keep your jam for any length of time, you can skip the jar stage and use any old container and keep your jam in the fridge.

Don’t forget to let me know in the comments if you try making this recipe – I want to know what you think and if you made any substitutions, how did it turn out?

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Seedless Raspberry Jam (Small Batch Recipe)

This simple step-by-step recipe for Seedless Raspberry Jam is both delicious and deliciously easy to make. With just 3 ingredients and no specialist sugar or pectin required, this is a great way to use fresh or frozen raspberries to make a lovely smooth jam with no bits.

Nutrition (Approx)

Serving: 1tbsp | Calories: 74kcal | Carbohydrates: 19g | Protein: 0.2g | Fat: 0.2g | Saturated Fat: 0.003g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 0.01g | Sodium: 0.4mg | Potassium: 28mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 17g | Vitamin A: 6IU | Vitamin C: 5mg | Calcium: 5mg | Iron: 0.1mg

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