Part 2 of my short series on blueberries – pie!

7 cups blueberries, washed and sorted
1 2/3 cups sugar
2/3 cup ClearJel
2tbsp lemon juice

OPTIONAL
12 drops blue food colouring
4 drops red food colouring
1tsp grated lemon zest

Prepare your jars and lids in the usual way.

Half fill a large stainless steel pot with water and bring to a rolling boil. Add blueberries for 1 minute to blanch, drain, then return them to the pot. Cover the pot to keep them warm.

Combine the sugar and ClearJel in a large stainless pot. Whisk in 2 cups / 500ml of water, add food colouring if using, then bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat and boil gently while stirring until the mixture thickens and begins to bubble. Stir in lemon zest if using, add the lemon juice and cook for 1 minute. Remove from the heat and gently stir in the blueberries and any juice until they are well incorporated into the mixture.

Ladle the pie filling into jars leaving 1 inch / 2.5cm head space. Remove any air bubbles, adjust head space if necessary by adding or removing filling. Wipe the rims of the jars with a paper towel that has been sprayed with white vinegar. Lid, band, and hot water bath process for 30 minutes. At the end of the 30 minutes turn off the heat, remove the lid of the boiling water bath canner and wait for 5 minutes before gently removing the jars to a cookie rack.

Cool on a cookie rack overnight, remove the bands, label the jars, put them in your pantry, and enjoy blueberry pie!

Yield: about 4 pint / 500ml jars.

A note on ClearJel: it’s worth using it instead of any other option. Yes, it’s more expensive than, say, corn starch, but ClearJel is specifically formulated to work with pie fillings – repeated heating does not cause the ClearJel to break down into liquidy mush.