Carrot Cake Jam

If you’re looking for a delightful springtime treat that impresses with texture and flavor, this carrot cake jam is perfect!

With spring and Easter almost here, carrot cake is THE go-to, but as a canning enthusiast – and someone who’s always keen to have a new jam to put on my biscuits, I love to make this carrot cake jam.

It’s slightly out of the ordinary, but everyone is familiar with the cinnamon-y fruity flavor of carrot cake, so it’s still familiar enough to get skeptics to try it.

It’s fun to have on hand to surprise guests with something different, or to give away just because.

I haven’t had much success (yet) with growing carrots in our hard soil here in central Texas, so I go to Sam’s to stock up on carrots and make a triple or quadruple batch of this recipe.

This carrot cake jam recipe uses pectin. Most jams do, and in fact, the only I routinely make without pectin is pineapple jam. You can make other jams without it, but powdered fruit pectin removes all room for error and gets you the most consistent results.

Ingredients for Carrot Cake Jam

Carrots, for texture and flavor and because, well, it’s not really carrot cake jam without them.

Pears. These provide flavor, additional pectin, and necessary liquid for the cooking process. One thing about carrots is that they’re not very juicy, so we need to give them some help.

Canned pineapple. More flavor and moisture

Lemon juice. To add a nice balance to the flavor, and lower the ph of our final jam

Cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves, all for flavor. These can be adjusted up or down based on your preference. So if you’re one of those poor souls who doesn’t enjoy the flavor of nutmeg, you can leave that one out.

Powdered pectin. As mentioned above, this helps you achieve the desired jammy texture consistently.

Sugar. Without it, jam wouldn’t be much of a treat. While I have (and still do) made jam without sugar, such as sugar free strawberry jam, and sugar free blackberry jam, which allows me to share them with my family member who cannot tolerate added sugars, for most of us, jam is just a treat, eaten occasionally a tablespoonful at a time. So in my opinion, the high levels of sugar in jam just isn’t something I worry about much.

Easy Carrot cake jam recipe

For this recipe, you will want to peel your carrots and shred them. For the pears, you can use either fresh, peeled, cored, and diced, or canned, diced pears. Whichever makes the most sense for you. In the summer, when we’re harvesting pears from our orchard, I would use fresh pears, but any other time of year, it makes more sense for me to open a can of home-canned pears, or dip into our stash of frozen pears.

1. Combine carrots, pears, pineapple with its juice, lemon juice, and spices to a large pot (at least 4 quart capacity)
2. Bring to a simmer, and let simmer 25 minutes
3. Add pectin to mixture, and bring to a full boil
   
4. Add sugar, and stir until dissolved
5. Bring to a full rolling boil that cannot be stirred down, and boil for exactly one minute
6. Remove from heat, and skim off any foam that has accumulated on top (in my experience, this recipe doesn’t get terribly foamy)
   
7. Label hot jam into prepared (ie.e sterilized) pint or half pint jars
   
8. Wipe rims of jars with a soft cloth to ensure that they are free of debris, and screw down lids and rings
9. Process in a water bath canner for 15 minutes (pints), or 10 minutes (half pints)
10. Remove from heat after processing time, and let cool. Preferably, do not remove jars from bath until they have significantly cooled in order to reduce risk of breakage.
11. After 24 hours, test for seals, clean jars as needed (mine always have hard water build up that needs to be washed off), and store in a cool place out of direct light. Bands can be removed for storage if desired.

If you’re not canning your jam, transfer to your preferred containers instead. This jam can be frozen in freezer jars if desired.

Frequently asked questions

Can I double this jam recipe?

Yes. Just make sure you use an adequately large pot. I actually use my stainless steel water bath canning pot to make large batches of jam to make it easy, and get lots of jam done all at one time.

Can I make sugar-free carrot cake jam?

Not with this recipe. In order to use a non-sugar sweetener, you need a recipe that has been developed specifically for that. As mentioned above, we do make some sugar-free jams, using sugar free pectin.

Can I add my own twist?

Yes, to an extent. You can add some vanilla after cooking, before ladling into jars. Or you can add some raisin at the beginning of the process. Other than that, the spices can be customized, as I touched on above. 

Can I freeze carrot cake jam?

Yes. You can put the jam into freezer safe containers, leaving some headspace for expansion as it cools.

How long does this jam last?

Canned or frozen jam is typically good for upwards of a year.

Can I use this jam recipe with different fruits?

Other fruits have different sweetness and pectin levels. For instance, apples typically have more pectin, peaches typically have less. For that reason, I do not recommend switching fruits in a jam recipe.  You need a formula that is specific to the fruits you’re using.

What do I do if my jam doesn’t set up?

It’s pretty rare for this jam not to set up, but you can fix it if that happens.

The basic method is pretty simple:

1. Dissolve a package of sure jell in 3/4 cup of cold water
2. Stir into the batch of jam, and bring to a boil, stirring
3. Add 1 cup of sugar, and bring back to a boil, stirring constantly
4. Continue boiling for 30 seconds
5. Ladle into jars, and continue to process as you did previously.

Typically this jam is very good at setting, so you shouldn’t need this fix. Fixing is more commonly needed with peach, orange jam, or watermelon jam.

Delicious ways to use carrot cake jam:

• On toast of biscuits! We love using it on hot, buttered sourdough sandwich bread, and of course, I already mentioned I’m a big fan of biscuits.
• with a bagel and cream cheese
• On a peanut butter sandwich. It’s something different for a treat!
• On panaceas or waffles. We love using jam on our sourdough pancakes!
• On cheesecake. So good!
• Give as gifts. I don’t know about you, but I love sharing homemade jams and jellies with friends. It’s something consumable, so they don’t have to worry about where they’ll put your gift, and delicious, so they love it, plus they get a new jar out of the deal.

We love this jam recipe, and I’m confident that you will too!

Other jam recipes to make:

• Strawberry jalapeño jam
• Blueberry jam recipe
• Apple pie jam
• Homemade peach jam

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