Carrot Cake Jam Canning Recipe
15. June 2020
Our friend and guest blogger Chez LaRae created this festive Carrot Cake Jam canning recipe. You can follow LaRae’s amazing food adventures on Instagram and her website. LaRae is a self-taught baker, cooking and baking instructor, recipe developer, and an editor at @thefeedfeed. See LaRae's other recipe guest blog posts.
Carrot cake lovers, what if you could preserve the warm, rich flavors of this delicious cake in a jar? Freshly shredded orange carrots, chopped apples, juicy pineapples, coconut, and nuts suspended in a lovely spiced jam. Make and can this today, and enjoy the sweet taste throughout the year. Serve on English muffins, with yogurt, pancakes, waffles, alongside cheese and crackers, or with vanilla ice cream. For a real treat, make this cream cheese ice cream. And remember to affix lovely CanningCrafts' canning labels on your jars with a bit of pretty ribbon for tasty gifts for all of the carrot cake enthusiasts in your life.
Carrot Cake Jam Recipe
Recipe adapted from “Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving” 2006.
Preservation method: Water bath canning
Difficulty level: Easy
Yield: About six 8-oz jars
You will need clean jars and closures, a boiling-water canner, rack, jar lifter, canning funnel, and wooden skewer
PRINT THE RECIPE CARD
-
1 ½ cup peeled and finely grated carrots (about three carrots)
- 1 ½ cups cored, peeled, chopped Granny Smith apple (about one apple)
- 1 ¾ cup canned crushed pineapple, including juice
- 3 tbsp bottled lemon juice
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- ½ tsp ground nutmeg
- ¼ tsp ground cloves
- 1 package regular powdered fruit pectin (49 to 57 grams)
- 6 ½ cups granulated sugar (measured out in a bowl and ready to use)
- ½ cup unsweetened, shredded coconut
- ¼ cup finely chopped pecans or walnuts
Prepare water bath canner, lids, and jars.
Place one or two small, clean plates in your freezer for jam “frozen plate test.” See details below*.
In a large, deep stainless steel saucepan (that has a lid), combine carrots, apples, pineapple with juice, lemon juice, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring frequently.
Reduce heat, cover and boil gently for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Remove from heat and whisk in pectin until dissolved. Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring frequently.
Add sugar all at once and return to a full rolling boil, stirring constantly. At first sugar mixture will appear dry, but it will turn into a thick liquid when heated and stirred. Boil hard, stirring constantly for one minute.
Add coconut and walnuts. Remove from heat and skim off foam.
Ladle hot jam into hot jars, leaving ¼” head space. Remove air bubbles and readjust head space, if necessary. Thoroughly wipe rims with moistened cloth. Center lids on jars, screw bands down until finger-tip tight.
Place jars into canner, ensuring that they are completely covered with water. Bring to a boil and process for 10 minutes. Remove canner lid. Wait 5 minutes, then remove jars, and cool completely.
Wipe jars and affix CanningCrafts’ canning labels. Date and store in a cool, dry place for up to 12 months.
PRINT THE RECIPE CARD
These Custom Foodie's Delight Canning Labels come in 9 color options. Customize these printed labels with your name, food, saying, contact info, or weight.
Custom Foodie's Delight Kraft Canning Labels make a rustic addition to jam jars, baked goods, or sugar scrubs.
* Frozen plate test: To avoid runny jam, when you believe the jam is cooked, grab one of the plates from your freezer and plop a small spoonful of carrot cake jam at the center. Let it sit for a minute or so and then run a wooden spoon through the jam. If the jam does not run back into the line, it is set. If it is runny and saucy, boil the sauce for another minute until done.
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Comments (27)
Can this be made without pectin?
Pat,
I’ve made some jams without pectin & just cooked them down much longer. You could try to cook this down to see if it will gel, but I’m not sure if it would work with this recipe or not. If you give it a try & it works, I’d love to know.
Alison
CanningCrafts
Can this be processed in a pressure canner?
Debbie,
No, you do not want to use a pressure canner for jams or jelly. It would destroy the quality & there are no recommended pressure canning processing times for jams that I know of anyway.
Alison
CanningCrafts
Wow!! First seeing a recipe using coconut n walnuts in jam. I am afraid that they may go bad.
This is fantastic! I changed it just a little bit only used about 4 1/2 cups sugar no pectin and used my instant pot for about 20 minutes. Then I stirred it about five minutes on sauté low. Everybody I’ve given it to so far loves it❣️
Do you put the jars in the water and then bring to a boil or put them in after it starts boiling?
Alley,
Cover the canner and bring the water to a simmer over medium heat. Then when your jars are filled & ready, add them to the pot & bring to a full boil & start your timer.
Alison
CanningCrafts
If I don’t have a canner, can this be done in a stainless steel pot? Normally when I do jams I fill them, seal then turn upside down to vacuum. They last for months that way. Can that work for this jam, or it must be boiled?
Marguerite,
You definitely want to follow this recipe & prepare in a water bath. You can use any pot as long as it’s deep enough to get about an inch of water over the lids. It doesn’t need to be an official “Canning pot.” Add a trivet to the bottom of the pot so the jars aren’t directly on the pot base. I think some canners use dishtowels if they can’t find a trivet that fits well.
As far as inverting jars to seal them, are you not boiling the jars when you do that? If not, that is an outdated canning method called Inversion Canning that is NOT recommended these days for safety reasons. You need to make sure you process jars for the required time to kill any pathogens & such inside. So it’s not just about getting the lid to seal. Of course if you were just filling jars & adding to the fridge, that would be ok. But you need to process appropriately for long term storage.
Alison
CanningCrafts
This sounds awesome why unsweetened coconut? Could I use sweetened? It’s what I have on hand
Heidi,
Yes, you can use sweetened coconut if that’s what you have.
Alison
CanningCrafts
I made this today and it’s delicious. I only put 6 cups of sugar and added a teaspoon of vanilla at the end. If I make it again I will use 5 cups of sugar. It seems very sweet. Thank you for the recipe.
This sounds fantastic. I think it’s the very thing I want to put on top when I spread cream cheese on banana bread.
Here I thought this was a recipe to use FOR carrot cake. You know, like pie filling that you make ahead and just dump that in to make the cake making process shorter. SILLY ME!😝
What size can of pineapple?
Vroomslide,
The recipe calls for 1 3/4 cup crushed pineapple. Most stores sell 20 ounce cans of crushed pineapple which would be a little more than what the recipes calls for.
Thanks!
Alison
CanningCrafts
Can you make it without the pineapple? Would I need to add more of something to replace the volume the pineapple takes up?
Can’t wait to try this! I’m going out to the garden and orchard right now!
Can you use liquid pectin if you don’t have any on hand?
Corey,
YES! You can swap liquid pectin for the powdered. You add the liquid pectin at the end of cooking (versus powdered which is added in the beginning of cooking). One package of liquid pectin is equal to two tablespoons of powdered pectin.
Alison
CanningCrafts
I think 5 cups of sugar would be more than enough. It is too sweet.
Can I make it without the coconut???
I made this and everyone loves it!! Thank you for being so creative!! One of my favorites that will be made again and again!!
Made this recipe, but I added jalapeño pepper, ground it up with half cup sugar….this jam is this years Christmas gift …and I’m so impressed it’s so delicious….I will be making this every year…
Thanks LOVE it