Cherry Habanero Jam Recipe

Disclosure: This Cherry Habanero Jam recipe has been sponsored by the Northwest Cherry Growers. I received a box of Northwest Cherry Growers cherries to help me create this canning recipe as part of this years Canbassador program.

Make this Cherry Habanero Jam recipe this summer with fresh sweet in season cherries available from Northwest Cherry Growers at your local grocery store.

If you have always wanted to can your own fresh jams this Cherry Habanero Jam recipe is very easy to make as long as you know the basics of home canning.

It’s cherry season and if you are a canner you know what that means. Making cherry preserves! I love this time of year when there are so many different types of fruits in season. Cherry season is in high gear right now and this Cherry Habanero Jam recipe is the perfect cherry recipe to make.

I love pepper jam! It is one of my favorite type of jams to make. The sweet and spicy flavors of summer ripened fruit and hot peppers go so well together.

I was so excited to hear from the Northwest Cherry Growers this year and that they wanted me to join the Canambassador program again.

The Art of Saving Fruit: Sweet Preservation

Be sure to check out the Sweet Preservation website where you can find canning recipes, printable canning labels, how to throw your very own canning party and more canning information.

Last year as a Canambassador I made homemade Cherry Vanilla Pie filling as part of the Canambassador program. Then I made this Cherry Slab Pie recipe with the homemade cherry pie filling. Oh, my it was so good!

Pepperheads love Pepper Jam!

This year I decided to get a little wild and try my hand at a cherry pepper jam using habanero peppers.

I love the flavor of habanero peppers but this would be my first time using those fiery hot peppers in a pepper jam recipe. I chicken out a bit and was a little too cautious with the heat from the habanero peppers.

The Cherry Habanero Jam recipe still turned out awesome. It is sweet with just a little heat. I like a bit more fire in my pepper jams so I will be making this Cherry Habanero Jam recipe again this week and adding more Habanero pepper to it.

Best Way to Pit Cherries

The hardest part of making this Cherry Habanero Jam recipe is pitting all the cherries. Last year I bought three different cherry pitters before I finally found one that worked the way I needed it to.

The first two cherry pitters left much to be desired. What I didn’t like about them was that it seemed like it would pit the cherries but when I looked through my bowl of pitted cherries I found way too many cherry pits.

Cherry Pitter I use

The third cherry pitter I bought was the OXO Good Grips Cherry and Olive Pitter (affiliate links). The OXO Good Grips Cherry pitter is a little slower to use because it can be a tight fit when you load larger cherries into the pitter but once you get the feel for it you can pit a bunch of cherries quickly.

What I love about the OXO Good Grips Cherry pitter is that you can actually feel when the cherry pit doesn’t come out of the cherry.

How to Make Cherry Habanero Jam

Note: The Cherry Habanero Jam recipe has been adapted from the Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving Red Chili Cherry Jam recipe.

Ingredients

4 cups pitted and coarsely chopped sweet red cherries
1 cup finely diced red pepper
1 Scotch Bonnet Habanero pepper, finely minced **see notes
4 1/2 cups white granulated sugar
6 tablespoons Ball Real Fruit Pectin Classic
2 tablespoons lime juice
1 tablespoon butter (optional)
**rubber gloves

Directions

Wash cherries then stem and pit them into a large bowl, catching as much cherry juice as possible.
Coarsely chop the pitted cherries and place them into your large canning pot.
Add the lime juice to the pot of cherries and toss well.
Dice the red pepper and place into the pot with the cherries.
** Put rubber gloves on and finely mince the habanero pepper. For a mild cherry pe,pper jam remove all seeds and remove the pith. For a medium-hot jam leave the seeds in. For a hotter jam mince the entire habanero pepper with seeds and pith and place into the pot with the other ingredients.
Add pectin to the pot and heat on low, occasionally stirring until the pectin melts.
Increase the heat to medium-high and bring to a roiling bowl.
Add sugar, stirring until the sugar is mostly dissolved.
Return to a roiling boil.
Add butter to cut down on foaming. (if using)
Boil for one minute.
Remove the pot from the stove.
and skim off any excess foam.
Fill your prepared jars leaving a 1/4 inch head space.
Wipe rim of jar with a damp paper towel, place flat lid on top of jar and place band on screwing until just hand tightened.
Process your filled jars in a hot water bath for 10 minutes.
Makes 6 1/2 pints.