Preserve summer’s plump, juicy blackberries in these decadent chocolate blackberry preserves — not quite jam, not quite sauce, but tastes delicious on everything from your morning toast to your after-dinner dish of ice cream.

Today’s Sunday Supper, hosted by Stacy of Food Lust People Love and Heather of Hezzi-D’s Books and Cooks, is all about preserving summer produce. Last year, I tried dehydrating for the first time. This year, I attempted something I’ve been wanting to do for a long time: canning.

There are several recipes pinned on my Condiment and Sauce Recipes Pinterest board that I want to make, but once I heard about Chocolate-Raspberry Preserves, I knew that’s what I was going to make. I went to buy some raspberries, a basket of big, juicy blackberries caught my attention, so I substituted blackberries for raspberries. Let me tell you, the sauce almost didn’t make it to the canning stage. It was THAT DELICIOUS.

To be honest, I was scared of canning. If done wrong, the food can spoil and make someone sick. Reading about the process made it seem intimidating. But really? It’s not. There are many resources for step-by-step guides to water-bath canning, and finding out WHY things are done a certain way.

Make sure you have a good-sized stainless steel saute pan for cooking the mixture. The blackberry mixture will stain reactive materials like aluminum. Also, the acidic mixture in a reactive pan will leach a metallic flavor into your preserves. So, cook your blackberry mixture in a stainless steel pan. At first it will feel like you’re stirring and stirring and nothing is happening, and then almost instantly, the sugar dissolves and mixes with the blackberry juices to form a thick syrup.

The original recipe suggests running the mixture through a food mill, but I don’t own one. Instead, I carefully mashed the mixture in the saute pan with a potato masher (didn’t want to splash blackberry juice all over the place). Then, I pressed the mixture through a fine-mesh sieve, making sure to scrape the syrup clinging to to the bottom of the sieve into the rest of the juices. If you’re feeling lazy, it’s perfectly find to leave the seeds in the preserves. You just don’t get to complain when they get stuck in your teeth.

There is some special equipment that’s needed for canning — rubber-coated tongs, a wide-mouth funnel, and a magnetic lid-lifter, but if you enjoy cooking, and are interested in canning, it’s a small investment, and I bet once you get comfortable doing it, you’ll be canning all the time. I plan to make this recipe many more times, using all kinds of berries. I’ve already spread it on my toast, spread it on a slice of pound cake, drizzle it over ice cream, and heck, eaten it straight from the jar on a spoon.

Chocolate Blackberry Preserves

Discover more recipes for preserving the summer harvest!

Canning

• Blackberry Chia Seed Jam from Books -n- Cooks
• Cherry Lemon Jam from Food Lust People Love
• Chocolate Blackberry Preserves from The Redhead Baker
• Gilded Bluebarb Jam from What Smells So Good?
• Hamburger Dill Chips from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Piri Piri Hot Sauce from Curious Cuisiniere
• Southwestern Salsa from The Freshman Cook
• Spiced Peach Jam from Cosmopolitan Cornbread
• Spiced Vanilla Rhubarb Jam from Hezzi-D’s Books and Cooks
• Strawberry Balsamic Syrup from Cindy’s Recipes and Writings
• Watermelon Butter from Palatable Pastime

Dehydrating

• Blueberry Peach Fruit Roll-Ups from Cupcakes & Kale Chips
• Dried Pineapple from Take A Bite Out of Boca

Fermentation

• Fermented Spicy Daikon Spears + A Cocktail from Culinary Adventures with Camilla
• Simple Pickled Cabbage from Simply Healthy Family

Freezing

• How to Freeze Blueberries from Pies and Plots
• Peach Crisp from That Skinny Chick Can Bake
• Roast Tomato Soup with Basil-Butter Croutons from Caroline’s Cooking
• Summer Veggies from Momma’s Meals

Infusing

• Raspberry Vinegar from Magnolia Days

Pickling

• Black Radish Pickles from A Kitchen Hoor’s Adventures
• Bread & Butter Pickles from Adventures in All Things Food
• Homemade Bread and Butter Pickles from Life Tastes Good
• Mustard Pickles from Jane’s Adventures in Dinner
• Pickled Cherries with Five Spices from Nosh My Way

Preserving in oil or butter

• Garden Herb Butter from An Appealing Plan
• Spinach and Pistachio Pesto from Bobbi’s Kozy Kitchen

And for even more help and support

• 5 Food Preservation Tips from Sunday Supper Movement

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