You don’t need more than 2 ingredients to make a sweet and delicious cherry jam. Cherry jam is worth spending the time on. A small batch of natural cherries and nature’s sugar without pectin or preservatives can be enjoyed right away! Or, you can save it in the freezer.

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What has a name of two words and uses only two ingredients? That’s right: cherry jam! This delicious recipe with sweet cherries and a touch of agave is all you need to make a delicious topping, filling, or all around snack. No measuring out cups of sugar or looking for more cherry recipes. You’ve got leftover cherries? I’ve got your recipe. This cherry season won’t leave you hanging.

Picking fresh fruit with the family is a fun activity, especially in the summer season. Whether you find tart cherries or sour cherries on the field, all of the cherry trees have a delicious amount of natural sugars that you can bring into your kitchen and have fun cooking with. A cherry salad? Count me in. You can have any sweet recipe but with less sugar than you’d expect if you stick with me.

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What makes this jam recipe an easy recipe?

I’ll often say that my recipes are easy recipes. The truth is, everyone’s personal level of easy is different. When I only have to cook with two ingredients, just boiling and cooling, I’ll call that an easy recipe. that’s why I labeled this jam an easy recipe! Generally, jam recipes are very easy to make. All you have to do is wash jars, cook fruit, and add a sweetener. Sometimes not even in that order! I think the easiest way of making jars of cherry jam is this exact recipe. I hope you enjoy it as much as my family does!

A pro tip for everyone: always measure out your ingredients beforehand. You’ll be ready to go and time in the kitchen will zoom by when you’re actually cooking.

What is agave?

Agave is a desert plant that turns out sweet syrup similar to sugar. Agave is a great alternative in recipes that may usually require bucket fulls of sugar. When the amount of sugar is high, my go to sugar replacement is agave. It’s sweet but doesn’t have the thick stevia aftertaste. Added sugar is a controversial subject for many home chefs and I like to not use too much.

Just 2 Ingredients for a Sugar-Free Sweet Cherry Jam

Cherries and agave are all you need!

I don’t always use fresh cherries since they are only available in July and August in the Pacific Northwest. Frozen cherries work just as well! They are even faster and easier since frozen cherries are already pitted and ready for use.

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How do I store cherry jam?

There are some jams that I make that would be best to store in jars and in a warm place, but not this one. This is the type that you can store in the freezer. Then, just take it out to defrost at least 30 minutes before you enjoy! There have been times when I would forget to take it out on time. So, I would just reheat it in a saucepan.

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When it’s evening in the winter and you’re enjoying a hot cup of tea, you might remember that this easier freezer jam recipe is waiting for you to be spread on toast. Fruit pieces will coat the warm bread as the sweetness drips off the spoon. A bite will send your taste buds into a state of euphoria and you’ll be loving this jam especially then! All because you decided to combine cherries with agave and cook them together in the summer to make your own jam. How perfect is that? So many more combinations can be made from ripe fruit and a simple sweetener. Don’t limit yourself to just cherries this year!

What can you do with cherry jam? How else can you use homemade jam?

No matter what flavor of jam you make, there is so much you can do with it other than just spreading it on toast or on top of ice cream. My husband likes to eat it just with a cup of tea. My kids love to help me make these rogaliki (rugelach), a sugar-free pastry filled with jam. If you like it on bread with peanut butter, I suggest you enjoy it like that!

Or, we enjoy these Crumbled Jam Bars. I like to put it on crepes like these cheese-filled crepes.

Here’s some equipment you’ll be needing:

half-pint jars (glass jars)
lids
medium sized pot

When preparing the jars, I like to boil my jars and the lids so that they’re fully clean before I use them. For that, I use a separate pot with water.. I bring it to a full boil, place jars in, boil for a minute, then take them out. After that, I place lids into the pot and boil them for a minute as well. Don’t forget to dry them and let the hot jars cool. Once you’ve prepared the cherry jam filled them, don’t forget to wipe jar rims so that you can put on a clean lid and have no spillage from your clean jar. A jar with cherry jam on the outside attracts ants. You can store them in a cool, dark place if you don’t plan on freezing them.