A Strawberry Jam- Sugarless Without Jello.

I tried some of the other sugar free strawberry jam recipes I've found, but they all seemed to contain a box of sugarfree strawberry Jell- O. I like jello, but I prefer a bit of a softer feel to my jam. So, I mussed around until I came up with one I like. You can try it out, and please let me know if something in it just doesn't sit right with you. I included the time it takes to can it properly. If you're just slapping it into mason jars, it won't take this long. *PLEASE NOTE* I don't like a super sweet jam. If you do, add more substitute, up to I'd say around 6 cups, or even half and half with REAL sugar. Also, cut down the lemon if you like it sweeter.

• Ready In: 3 hrs 30 mins
• Serves: 300
• Yields: 8 500 ml jars

Ingredients

• 10 -12  cups strawberries, chopped into bite sized pieces
• 57  g  pectin (you MUST use one that is "No sugar needed" or it won't set.)
• 3  cups sugar substitute (I used splenda but I think any would do)
• 1  cup water, as needed (you may need more or less)
• 1⁄4-1⁄2 cup lemon juice (depending on how tart you like it. I used almost 3/4)
• 1⁄8 teaspoon salt

Directions

1. In a large sauce pan, mash the strawberries with a fork or a potato masher. Just try to do a bit at a time, other wise you'll miss some of them.
2. Combine sugar substitute with the pectin, salt, and a tsp of butter (to reduce foaming), and mix into the strawberry mush.
3. Put on stove and turn the burner to high heat. This is when I added about half of the water, and some of the lemon juice. Don't stop stirring, or it may burn.
4. I let this boil away for quite a long time. I'd say at least ten minutes, until I couldn't stir it down from the boil. I also added the rest of the water, and lemon juice closer to the end, simply to change the taste and consistency.
5. I took it off the heat, waited about two minutes, skimmed the top off, and canned it.
6. *CANNING TIP*
7. I like to can so that I can store food for a longer time.
8. To do this, boil your mason jars before you use them, lids shouldn't be boiled. Just keep them in a sink of CLEAN HOT water until ready to use (I put the jars in too, to keep them sterile after boiling).
9. Then, put a deep pot on the stove with water to boil.
10. Take as many jars as you can fit into the pot, fill them with your hot jam almost to the top (about 1/4 inch)- IMPORTANT- WIPE THE TOP OF THE JAR COMPLETELY CLEAN, and tighten the lid, but NOT all the way. Just a bit more closed than open.
11. Put them into the large pot, with water at least 1 inch over the top of each jar. Boil for ten minutes.
12. After it's cooled a bit, take the jar, and tighten the rest of the way, as far as you can. The top of the snap lid will be bent down, letting you know your seal is good. This creates a vacuum seal on each jar, letting you store it up to 1 year.
13. THIS is the best way to can, but NOT necessarily the easiest. It's time consuming and labour intensive.