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Apple jam captures the taste of crisp autumn apples in a sweet, pleasantly tart preserve, with tender pieces of fruit suspended in a smooth, glossy base. It takes just three ingredients and no boxed pectin, and a batch simmering on the stove fills the kitchen with a smell that’s about as close to apple pie as a jam can get.
Table of Contents
- Notes from My Kitchen
- Quick Look at the Recipe
- Ingredients for Apple Jam
- Low Sugar Options
- How to Make Apple Jam
- Canning Apple Jam
- Altitude Adjustments
- Setting Notes
- Apple Jam Variations
- Ways to Use Apple Jam
- Storage and Shelf Life
- More Ways to Preserve Apples
- Yield Notes
- Apple Jam FAQs
- Apple Canning Recipes
- Apple Jam Recipe
- Jam Canning Recipes
This recipe has been reviewed for safety and accuracy by a Master Food Preserver certified through the University of Cornell Cooperative Extension.
I’ve always thought it somewhat unfair that applesauce and apple butter are so well known, while old-fashioned apple jam, the slightly out-of-fashion cousin of the family, gets overlooked. It has the smoothness of those preserves, but it also has real texture, thanks to the way the apples are prepared before cooking.
Like most of my traditional jam recipes, this one is made without any boxed pectin. Apples are naturally loaded with pectin, so the fruit sets on its own with sugar, lemon juice, and a cook to the gel stage, a technique I cover in detail in my guide to making jam without added pectin. An overnight maceration firms the diced apples so they hold their shape in the pot instead of melting into sauce.
You’ll have a hard time finding apple jam at the grocery store, which is all the more reason to put up a few jars at home while the orchards are full. It’s good on toast and makes a nice gift. If the harvest keeps coming, apple marmalade and canned apple cider are good ideas too.
Notes from My Kitchen
Apples come into our Vermont kitchen by the bushel every fall, and most of them are spoken for before they arrive. The soft ones go to sauce and the blemished ones to the cider press, but the firm, tart, and sweet keepers are the ones I set aside for jam.
The overnight maceration makes this an easy recipe to fit around everything else happening in apple season. I dice the fruit in the evening while the kitchen is already messy, and the next day the actual cooking and canning wraps up in under an hour.
Quick Look at the Recipe
- Recipe Name: Apple Jam
- Recipe Type: Jam (no added pectin)
- Canning Method: Water Bath Canning
- Prep Time: About 45 minutes (plus overnight macerating)
- Cook Time: About 30 minutes
- Canning Time: 10 minutes for half pints
- Yield: About 4 to 5 half pints
- Jar Sizes: Half pints or quarter pints
- Headspace: 1/4 inch
- Ingredients Overview: Apples, sugar, lemon juice
- Safe Canning Recipe Source: Follows NCHFP guidance for canning jams
- Difficulty: Easy
- Similar Recipes: Making apple jam is similar to other old-fashioned no-pectin jams, like Raspberry Jam, Pear Jam, and Apricot Jam. If you love apple preserves, try other apple canning recipes like Apple Butter and Cranberry Apple Jam.
Ingredients for Apple Jam
Apple jam takes only three ingredients, and apples are naturally high in pectin, so it doesn’t need store-bought pectin. The amounts are in the recipe card.
- Apples: Choose firm fleshed varieties suitable for pie making that are both tart and sweet, like Empire, Granny Smith, or Honeycrisp (or a mixture of any pie apples). The apples pictured here are Cosmic Crisp, a sweet, crispy variety that’s slow to brown. Avoid soft apples like Golden Delicious and Jonagold, which fall apart during cooking and leave you with something much closer to applesauce than jam.
- Granulated Sugar: Sugar sweetens the preserve, thickens the syrup the apples cook in, and helps the jam reach a good set. This recipe uses a moderate ratio for a no-pectin jam, one part sugar to four parts prepared fruit by volume, so the apple flavor stays out front. If you’d like to reduce it further, see the low sugar options below.
- Lemon Juice: Fresh or bottled both work, since the lemon juice is here for flavor. It cuts the sweetness, keeps the diced apples from browning, and contributes extra pectin during maceration. I recommend Santa Cruz organic lemon juice. If you’d rather skip it, citric acid can stand in at 1/4 teaspoon for each tablespoon of lemon juice, about 2 teaspoons for the 1/2 cup.
That’s the whole list, and the equipment needs are just as simple. Beyond your water bath canning setup, you’ll want a heavy-bottomed jam pot, a large fine mesh sieve for straining the macerated fruit, and 4 to 5 half-pint jars with two-piece lids.
Low Sugar Options
This recipe already sits at the low end for a no-pectin jam, with one part sugar to four parts fruit. Cutting the sugar further means a softer set, a longer cook, and a smaller yield, since sugar is part of what thickens a preserve that sets without added pectin.
For a truly low sugar apple jam, use a citrus pectin like Pomona’s Universal Pectin, which sets with little or no sugar. It works a bit differently than other pectins, so I’d suggest reading about how to use Pomona’s pectin before your first batch.
How to Make Apple Jam
The end goal here is a thick preserve base studded with tender pieces of diced apple. To get there, the diced fruit soaks in sugar and lemon juice overnight, and that simple maceration draws liquid out of the apple pieces. Firmer fruit going into the pot means the apples hold together during cooking instead of breaking apart and melting into the jam.
The recipe starts with 6 pounds of apples as purchased, which yields about 4 pounds of prepared diced apples, or roughly 16 cups. The ratio is 1 cup of sugar for every pound of prepared apples (1 cup sugar to 4 cups fruit), so a full batch takes 4 cups of sugar and 1/2 cup of lemon juice. If you work in weights, 1 cup of sugar is about 1/2 pound, making it 2 pounds of sugar to 4 pounds of prepared fruit.
Prep and Macerate the Apples
Peel, core, and cut the apples into a 1/4 to 1/2 inch dice. The pieces aren’t going to cook down extensively, so resist the urge to go much smaller, since that dice is exactly the texture you’ll find in the finished jars.
Transfer the diced apples to a large bowl and sprinkle them with the granulated sugar and lemon juice. Gently stir or toss until the fruit is evenly coated, scraping up any sugar that settles at the bottom of the bowl.
Cover the bowl and store it in the refrigerator overnight, or up to 24 hours. If you’re pressed for time, aim for at least 4 hours in the fridge, though the longer soak pulls more juice from the fruit and does a better job firming the apple pieces.
Strain and Cook the Jam
When the apples have macerated, strain the fruit through a large fine mesh sieve set over a jam pot or saucepan, catching every bit of that sweet, syrupy liquid. The syrup cooks on its own first, which is what keeps the apple pieces intact in the finished jam.
Set the drained apple pieces aside, but keep them close at hand for the next step.
Bring the reserved juices to a hard boil in the saucepan, then carefully add the reserved diced apples.
Be extra careful, and don’t splash yourself with hot syrup.
Cook the apples over medium-high heat, giving them a good stir every so often to prevent scorching.
Around the 20-minute mark, you can begin testing the jam to see whether it will gel, and it can take up to 30 minutes to get there, so don’t be discouraged if you need to test more than once.
Test the Gel Stage
To test for gelling, take a plate that’s been in the freezer for at least an hour and drizzle a bit of hot jam onto the cold surface. Once that spoonful cools, you’ll see the true viscosity of the jam at that moment, and if it wrinkles when nudged, it has reached the gel stage.
An instant read culinary thermometer works too, since gelling occurs at 220 degrees F (105 degrees C) at sea level and slightly lower at higher elevations.
Once it reaches the texture you like, thick or a little thinner, remove the pot from the heat and set up your station for water bath canning.
Canning Apple Jam
To can, prepare your water bath canner, jars, and lids before the jam finishes cooking, so everything is hot and ready when the fruit reaches the gel stage. This is a hot pack, so have the canner water at about 180 degrees F. This batch fills 4 to 5 half pint jars.
Fill the hot jars with hot apple jam, leaving 1/4 inch headspace, and a canning funnel with headspace measurements is really helpful here. The jam will be thick, so use a spatula or chopstick to de-bubble the jars, refilling whenever necessary to meet the headspace requirement. Wipe the rims with a clean kitchen towel and apply two-piece canning lids, adjusting the ring until fingertip tight.
Process the jars for 10 minutes in a boiling water bath canner, adjusting for altitude. When the timer goes off, turn off the heat, take the lid off the canner, and let the jars sit in the water for 5 more minutes before removing them. That lets the jam cool slightly and helps prevent siphoning (and a giant mess). Set the jars on a towel-lined counter with at least an inch between them, and let them come to room temperature over the next 12 to 24 hours before checking seals.
Altitude Adjustments
For water bath canning, processing times increase at higher elevations:
- 0 to 6,000 feet: 10 minutes
- Above 6,000 feet: 15 minutes
Setting Notes
No pectin jams finish setting as they cool, so don’t judge the set while the jars are still warm on the counter. A properly cooked batch can take 24 to 48 hours to reach its final texture, and because you control how long this jam cooks, the set ends up wherever you stopped it, anywhere from softly spoonable to thick enough to hold a spoon upright.
If the jam still hasn’t set after two full days, it likely came off the heat a bit early. A runny batch isn’t lost. To recook it, follow my guide to troubleshooting jelly set, or call it apple compote and spoon it over ice cream.
Apple Jam Variations
If you have particularly gorgeous and delicious apples for this recipe, I’d recommend letting them be the star of the show, no additional ingredients required. If you’d rather dress the jam up a bit, warm spices and a splash of something boozy both play beautifully with apples (and for a tarter fruit twist, my cranberry apple jam takes the same idea in a holiday direction).
These add-ins can go into a batch without changing the method:
- Split vanilla bean (add at the end of cooking)
- 3 to 4 cardamom pods (added at the beginning of cooking)
- Cinnamon stick (added at the beginning of cooking), or 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon stirred in near the end of cooking
- Crystallized ginger (added at the beginning of cooking)
- Splash of rum or brandy (added during cooking)
Ways to Use Apple Jam
Although apples usually mean dessert, apple jam moves easily between sweet and savory. Spread it on sandwiches with nut butter or cheese, swirl it into oatmeal, stuff it into French toast, or spoon it over pancakes and waffles on a slow weekend morning.
In baking, it can be layered into cakes and other baked goods, spooned into jam tarts, rolled into sticky buns, or used as a filling for apple fritters and doughnuts. The diced apple texture holds up in the oven better than a smooth preserve would.
On the savory side, set it out on a cheese and charcuterie board (try it with aged cheddar or gouda), melt it over baked brie, or serve it beside pork or wild boar. And for something different entirely, it can even be shaken into a jam cocktail.
Storage and Shelf Life
Once the jars have cooled for 12 to 24 hours, check the seals and move any jar that didn’t seal to the refrigerator, where it’ll keep for another week or two. Sealed jars belong in the pantry, somewhere cool, dry, and out of direct light.
Properly sealed jars keep their quality for 12 to 18 months on the shelf. Once opened, refrigerate the jar and use the jam within a couple of weeks.
More Ways to Preserve Apples
Jam is only the beginning when the orchard boxes start stacking up. On the canning side, canned applesauce takes care of most of the apple harvest, my master fruit butter method works for apples, pears, peaches, and more, and the rest of my fruit canning recipes can keep the canner going well into winter.
Beyond the canner, dehydrated apples make an easy pantry snack, and a crock of scraps can become homemade apple cider vinegar with almost no effort. There’s even a method for boiling cider down into apple sugar, a project for the truly dedicated.
Yield Notes
This recipe yields 4 to 5 half pint jars, roughly 4 to 5 cups of finished jam, from 6 pounds of apples as purchased (about 4 pounds once peeled, cored, and diced). The final count depends on your apple variety, how much juice the fruit gives up, and how far you cook the batch, since a thicker jam concentrates into fewer jars.
The recipe halves or doubles with no changes to the method. Don’t go beyond a double batch, though, because a crowded pot takes much longer to reach the gel stage and the apple pieces soften along the way, so make back to back batches instead.
Apple Jam FAQs
No. Apples are naturally high in pectin, and the lemon juice adds a bit more during maceration. Cooking the jam to the gel stage, around 220 degrees F at sea level, sets it without any boxed pectin.
Firm fleshed pie varieties that are both tart and sweet, like Empire, Granny Smith, or Honeycrisp, alone or in any mixture. Soft varieties like Golden Delicious and Jonagold fall apart during cooking and turn the batch into something closer to applesauce than jam.
The most common reasons are pulling the jam off the heat before it reached the gel stage or making more than a double batch. Give it 24 to 48 hours to finish setting, and if it still hasn’t, read through my guide on troubleshooting jelly set.
This recipe already uses a moderate ratio for a no pectin jam, one part sugar to four parts prepared fruit. Cutting it further means a softer set, a longer cook, and a smaller yield. For a very low sugar jam, use a citrus based pectin like Pomona’s and follow the package directions instead.
Properly processed and sealed jars keep for about 12 to 18 months in a cool, dark place. Once opened, refrigerate and use within 1 to 2 weeks.
If your counters are covered in fruit right now, my full collection of apple canning recipes will keep the canner busy all season.
Apple Canning Recipes
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Apple Jam
Equipment
- Canning Jars, Lids and Bands
Ingredients
- 6 lbs apples, as purchased
- 4 cups sugar
- 1/2 cup lemon juice, fresh or bottled
Instructions
- Peel, core, and cut the apples into a 1/4 to 1/2 inch dice.
- Transfer the diced apples to a large bowl, sprinkle with the sugar and lemon juice, and gently toss to coat the fruit evenly.
- Cover the bowl and refrigerate overnight, up to 24 hours (4 hours minimum), so the fruit can macerate.
- Prepare a water bath canner, jars, and lids, with the canner water at about 180 degrees F.
- Strain the macerated apples through a large fine mesh sieve set over a jam pot, reserving the fruit and capturing all the juices in the pot.
- Bring the reserved juices to a hard boil, then carefully add the drained apple pieces.
- Cook over medium high heat, stirring occasionally to prevent scorching, for 20 to 30 minutes, until the jam reaches the gel stage (220 degrees F at sea level, or until a spoonful wrinkles on a plate chilled in the freezer) or your preferred thickness.
- Ladle the hot jam into hot jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace. The jam is thick, so de-bubble with a spatula or chopstick, top up the headspace as needed, wipe the rims, and apply two-piece lids until fingertip tight.
- Process in a boiling water bath canner for 10 minutes, adjusting for altitude (see notes).
- Turn off the heat, take the lid off the canner, and let the jars sit in the water for 5 minutes before lifting them out onto a towel.
- Cool the jars on a towel-lined counter for 12 to 24 hours, then check the seals. Refrigerate any jar that didn’t seal.
Notes
- 0 to 6,000 feet: 10 minutes
- Above 6,000 feet: 15 minutes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
If you like making jam the old fashioned way, without added boxed pectin, try persimmon jam or green tomato jam next, or browse all 50+ jam canning recipes and hundreds more water bath canning recipes.
Jam Canning Recipes
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Apple Jam taste like you’re eating fresh apple.
Your website has a wealth of information that is scientifically proven. Thank you!
Our Granny Smith apple tree this year produced 15 bushels of apples. So in my search on what to do these apples, I came upon your site. Based upon your credentials and scientific safe canning approach I have tried your “Canning Apple Slices” and “Apple Jam” recipes. As we are still eating fresh apples, we have not opened a jar of the canned apple slices. Looking forward to doing that this winter.
On the Apple Jam, the flavor is wonderful! Tastes like I’m eating a fresh apple. I opted for not putting any cinnamon an did not double the recipe. I had one bit a problem though that I hope you can help me with. I cooked and cooked the jam and it ever got to 218 F for our altitude. Starting at 20 minutes into the cook I started doing the cold plate test. It wasn’t ready at 20 minutes, so tested again at 30 minutes, still was not ready for did another test at 40 minutes. This is when I definitely could tell it was set when I dragged my finger through it. So, we proceed in putting the jam in jars. After setting for 48+ hours, I tried it and the jam is very stiff and gloppy. I would like a softer set jam. I will be trying another batch. What do you recommend?
Your website is a wealth of knowledge! Thank you!
So glad you like the flavor! With this one, the set ends up wherever you stop cooking it, and it keeps firming up for a day or two in the jars. For a softer jam, take it off the heat at the first sign of a set on the cold plate, or even a little before, since Granny Smiths are high in pectin. Enjoy the rest of those apples!
This is by far the best apple jam recipe we’ve ever made, after more than a few mediocre batches. It was so simple, easy to follow, and delicious, I mean really, really tasty. The natural pectin in the apples set it up perfectly. We made it as follows: 24 cups of chopped apples, 6 cups of sugar, 2 tsp citric acid (our daughter is allergic to lemon), 1/2 tsp each of cinnamon and vanilla. It took 30 minutes of gentle boiling and yielded 12 half pint jars. Thanks for this wonderful recipe.
Wonderful! I’m so glad it turned out for you =)
I see several of your recipes that I want to make, starting with the jam first. So many recipes out there call for lemon juice, as does yours. I don’t care for lemon and can taste it even in the smallest amounts. I see where someone used citric acid which is what I would use, but what about the macerate part? Would I use citric acid and apple juice or water? Would that still work?
The lemon juice in this jam is there for flavor, to cut the sweetness, and it isn’t needed for safety. You can leave it out and macerate the apples in the sugar alone. They may brown a little more without it. If you’d like some tartness without the lemon taste, use about 2 teaspoons of citric acid instead, dissolved in a splash of water. The usual swap is 1/4 teaspoon of citric acid for each tablespoon of bottled lemon juice, and the recipe’s 1/2 cup is 8 tablespoons.
I made this recipe last year, as I thought it would be fun to try canning for the first time. I also really like apple preserves, and had a bunch of fresh apples.
I have to say that it turned out great, and was pretty good. Now I am very excited to make this again this year, so excited in fact, that I have been buying stuff to make the process more efficient! Mainly some more pyrex bowls and containers to let the apples marinate.
This recipe is the best, and super easy to follow. This recipe is so good in fact, that I have printed and laminated it for this year! I don’t normally comment on recipes, but this one was way to good to not comment on. 5/5 stars, will definitely be making again!
Wow, that’s the absolute best compliment! Thank you and I’m so glad you enjoy it!
Oh my God! So amazing this jam, how come i have never had apple jam in my life. Thank you for the recipe, you are quickly becoming my go to site when i need a jam, pickle recipe.
I’m so happy you enjoyed it!
This came out really well. I was not quite 1 cup short of the sugar but it still turned out well. I added 3 little dashes of brown sugar, but otherwise stuck to the recipe. It made roughly 3.5 pints, or about (7) 8oz jars worth of jam. I’m glad I read the reviews where someone mentioned bringing out a potato masher because I wound up having to do the same, haha.
I’m so pleased with how this turned out. I used Gala apples and I thought they would break down more than they did. I had to get out the potato masher.
I got 7 pint jars from this recipe. They are all a beautiful golden, so satisfying to get this result.
Thank you so much for your fullproof recipes.
Next 🙂
It’s been an amazing apple year where I live.
I may make two more batches of this, one honeycrisp and the other macintosh.
Lovely!
Thank you so much for this recipe! I can’t wait to try it. When I was reading your description, though, you said that I should end up with 1 pound of prepared apples, while the recipe card says 4 pounds. Would you please clarify? Thank you!
Sorry, that was a type-o. I’ve fixed it. Here’s what it should say:
This recipe starts with 6 pounds apples as purchased, which make about 4 pounds prepared diced apples (or roughly 16 cups). You need 1 cup sugar for every pound of prepared apples (or 1 cup sugar to 4 cups apples). One cup sugar is about 1/2 pound, so if you’re working all in weights, it’s 2 pounds sugar and 4 pounds prepared apples. This yields 4 to 5 half pint jars.
It seems like a lot of sugar. If the sugar is reduced to say 1/2 or 3/4 the amount will this extend the cooking time? Thank you.
It does extend the cook time, yes. The sugar is what firms up the fruit, and without it, you’ll end up with applesauce. You can definitely use 3/4 the amount without issue. Half sugar may also work with very firm apples that hold their shape when cooked.
Definitely another keeper – so glad I found you!! I used Ginger Gold apples and a couple of your suggested add-ins – cinnamon stick during cooking and a splash (or maybe two or three!) Of dark rum. Out of this world, thanks so much.
Lovely!
I made this but it turned out like more like jelled chunky applesauce than apple jam. It was also much more yellow than orange like your photos. I cooked it closer to 20 minutes than 30…do you think that was the issue? The article talks about waiting until you reach a gel stage but the printed instructions just say to cook until you achieve the texture you desire. I already water bath canned them. Can/should I open them up and try to cook them down more to reach more of a jam consistency or is it too late?
This looks wonderful, but please clarify before I make it: The post says to sprinkle ONE cup of sugar over the chopped apples before refrigerating while the recipe below calls for FOUR cups of sugar.
Thank you so much for catching that! It’s one cup of sugar to 1 pound of apples, so it should be 4 cups of sugar there. It’s also 2 tablespoons lemon juice to each pound of apples, so it’s 1/2 cup lemon juice total for 4 lbs apples.