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What could be better spread on your morning toast than strawberry jalapeño jam? This delicious jalapeño and fruit jelly without pectin pairs sweetness with a hit of spice from the chilli pepper. It’s certainly an unusual recipe and you can tweak the spice level to suit your palate. This strawberry pepper jam is the perfect addition to a cheese or charcuterie board.
Although not the best option for your toddler’s PB&J sandwich, this strawberry jalapeño jam is a worthy addition to a cheese or charcuterie board!
If you love jams, jellies and sweet spreads, also try cranberry orange jam, summer mixed berry jam or even jalapeno hot honey.
Strawberry Jalapeño Jam Ingredients
This isn’t made by adding some spices to regular jam. Instead this strawberry pepper jam is made from scratch with strawberries. Can you sub raspberries, cherries or blackberries? Yes you can if you like.
Butter, jalapeños, red pepper flakes, sugar, lemon, vinegar, liquid smoke, and sugar are also included in this recipe for hot strawberry jam. I used 3 jalapeños in mine but you can cut that right down to one if you prefer a much milder result. Or else dial up the heat by subbing serranos – but be careful with those! They can be very spicy.
Other possible tweaks include subbing white sugar for the brown sugar or rice vinegar instead of the white wine vinegar.
How to Make Spicy Strawberry Jam
The first step in this jalapeño and fruit jelly recipe is to warm a pan over a moderate heat. Discard the strawberry stems then mash them.
Remove the jalapeño stems and pulse in a blender or food processor. Add the butter to the hot pan and then add the jalapeños, sugar and red pepper flakes, and cook for 4 minutes.
Add everything else in the strawberry pepper jam recipe to the pot now and turn it down to a simmer once it reaches a boil. Cook it for 15 minutes then let it sit for 5 more minutes. Divide it between jars and refrigerate it overnight.
How to Serve Jalapeño Hot Strawberry Jam
If you want to lay it out cheese or charcuterie board style, that is definitely a great option. Offer crackers or baguette slices on the side as well as some sliced fresh strawberries and goat cheese too for a nice tang which complements the sweet flavours of the strawberry jalapeño jam.
This strawberry jalapeno jam is served good spread over crackers and topped with a square of your favourite cheese. It would pair well with this pear chutney. Another idea is having it with some butter on your morning pancakes! I am sure you’ll be thinking of many other ways to enjoy this jalapeño and fruit jelly without pectin. Oh, and it makes cute gifts too. Just warn the recipients it might be a little on the spicy side!
Jalapeño and Fruit Jelly FAQs
Expect it to last for up to 3 weeks in the refrigerator or up to 3 months in the freezer. Jam freezes quite well. One handy tip is to keep the jam upside down in the refrigerator. This eliminates any air between the lid and the top of the jam and creates a kind of seal, making it potentially last for longer.
Some jam makers prefer to keep their jams in the pantry but only consider this if your pantry is cool, else it might spoil before you get the chance to eat it all! During the warmer summer months, I really think it would be better off in the refrigerator.
You can use jalapeños if you wish or another kind of pepper if you prefer. Because everyone’s palates are different, what one person finds unbearably spicy another might consider medium-spicy. I wouldn’t go the whole hog with Scotch bonnet peppers but there are plenty of different mild to moderately spicy chillies to choose from. Jalapeños are nice because they’re usually pretty mild and won’t overpower the more delicate fruity flavours in the jam.
You can always make two separate batches – one mild version and one hotter one. If you’ve accidentally made it too spicy, add more sugar. This is a clever way of counterbalancing the heat.
Then if you are making a cheese or charcuterie board you can offer both kinds (clearly labelled!) and people will choose which they think they’ll like most.
Strawberry Jalapeño Jam Recipe
Easy Strawberry Jalapeño Jam
Ingredients
- 4 Cups strawberries, crushed
- 1 Tablespoons unsalted butter
- 3 jalapeños, roughly chopped
- 1 Teaspoons red pepper flakes
- ¼ Cup brown sugar
- 2 Tablespoons lemon juice
- 1 Tablespoons white wine vinegar
- 1 Teaspoon liquid smoke
- 1 Cup granulated sugar
Instructions
- Preheat a saucepan over medium heat.
- Remove the stem from strawberries. Add to a ziplock and mash.
- Remove the stems from jalapeños and add to a food processor or blender and pulse to break up.
- Add butter to the pan. Once melted, add the jalapeños, brown sugar, and red pepper flakes and cook until softened, about 4 minutes.
- Add remaining ingredients to the saucepan and stir. Bring to a boil, stirring often.
- Once mixture starts to boil, reduce heat to a simmer and cover. Simmer for 15 minutes.
- remove from heat. Let sit covered for 5 minutes.
- Pour into jars and allow to cool completely.
- Refrigerate overnight before serving. Serve with crackers, sliced strawberries, and goat cheese.
Nutrition
I love homemade strawberry jalapeño jam. This jalapeño and fruit jelly is incredibly easy to prepare and you can tweak it to your heart’s content using other fruits, other chilli varieties and so on. Strawberry pepper jam without pectin is perfect for any cheese or charcuterie board and the flavour is bold, fresh and unusual.
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Bella Bucchiotti
Bella Bucchiotti is a Canadian-based syndicated food, travel, and lifestyle writer, photographer, and creator at xoxoBella. She founded xoxoBella in 2015, where she shares her love for food, dogs, sustainability, fitness, crafts, outdoor adventures, travel, and philanthropy to encourage others to run the extra mile, try new recipes, visit unfamiliar places, and stand for a cause. Bella creates stress-free and family-friendly recipes for weeknight dinners and festive feasts.
The strawberry jalapeño jam was a hit at our brunch! Perfect balance of sweet and spicy.
Will this thicken up in the fridge?
It can be hard to see if you’ve reached the set point because jam always thickens as it cools. If it’s too runny, boil it again and it should thicken up.
can this be eaten with venison sausage or any other hard sausage?
It would be a great condiment for any meat!
I’m glad i made this yesterday! It was a hit! So perfect! 🙂
Hi Bella, found your blog & love your recipes! Just wondering if this jam can be canned in a water bath for long storage like I do with other jams I make. I don’t think the peppers would make any difference, but what about the butter? I don’t think I’ve ever canned anything that had butter in it. TIA for an answer.
Hi Dona, I like to use butter here to cook the jalapenos but also because a little butter helps minimize the foam you’d otherwise get. I haven’t pressure canned this recipe myself but I don’t think the butter content will make any difference if they’re perfectly sealed. Let me know how you get on if you can these in a water bath! Bella
Another great recipe!