Has anyone ever made sugarless jam?

[TooTicky]

More of a fruit spread I suppose. I know it's possible because we buy it.

watchign with interest as my aunty has just been diagnosed with diabetes and this may be of some use to her?

Dh made some recently (strawberry). Don't know offhand where he got the recipe from but can ask him this evening. It has to be kept in the fridge because it doesn't contain any preserving sugar.

Tastes horrible to me, but I love 'normal' strawberry jam.

The spreads use concentrated fruit juice - so presumably full of fruit sugar. Not sure whether you could replicate these domestically, but you could try making a freezer jam with fruit and concentrated fruit juice and pectin.

If you are able to get hold of a herb called Stevia then you can make almost anything that requires sweetness but not the calories.

I have made a strawberry 'jam' with it and although it was runny it tasted lovely.

Stevia info

Thank you Muffin, that would be useful.

Lilymaid, can you tell me about freezer jam please?

GentleOtter, I have heard of stevia but not investigated - perhaps I should. Would a crab apple or two or some lemon juice add extra pectin to combat the runniness? [optimistic]

TT - I only know about freezer jam with sugar, but the general principle may help:

Strawberry or Raspberry Freezer Jam
550 gm Strawberries or Raspberries
900 gm Caster Sugar
2 tbs lemon juice
125 ml bottled pectin (Certo)

Put fruit in mixing bowl and crush with back of wooden spoon. Add sugar and lemon juice. Leave to stand at room temperature until sugar has dissolved (about one hour).
Add liquid pectin (this is 1/2 bottle of Certo) and stir to mix thoroughly. Pack into small freezerproof containers. Leave to stand for 24 hours until set and then seal containers and freeze. (I make it in small polythene boxes).
Thaw in fridge before use. (Keeps for 1-2 weeks in fridge).

This makes a very fruity tasting jam and is also great as a fruit sauce for ice cream.

TooTicky- Yes, add everything and boil it a bit longer than usual.
I found this but have never tried the powder as I got the fresh herb from Poyntzfield Herb Nursery on the Black Isle.
The powder is expensive but it is much sweeter than sugar so it goes a long way.

you could make fruit butters? Or buy fructose to use instead of glucose?

Probably cheaper and easier all round to continue buying it.

Thank you Lilymaid

GentleOtter - that's a really interesting link! I have a feeling I may have seen stevia locally, but I may be thinking of agave syrup. Will go looking in the hope that I won't have to buy a kilo at a time

OMDB, what are fruit butters?
You're right, it probably is easier to buy than make in general. One thing I want to do however is make use of some tiny wild plums that grow locally.