Healthy Jam & Jelly Recipes

This healthy oven-dried apple recipe is perfect if you want to make dried apples at home and don't have a dehydrator. Great for lunchboxes or as a snack, homemade dried apples are easy to make in the oven and are high in fiber and nutrients. To retain the fiber from the peels and to save time, we skip the step of peeling the apples first. We also skip coring--the star-shaped core makes a pretty shape in the center of each dried apple. For crispy apple chips, bake the apples about 1 hour more.

This strawberry preserve recipe is made in small batches, to reduce the amount of time the fruit is heated so it retains more of its intense fresh flavor. If you use about 25 percent underripe berries in the mix of berries (they're higher in natural pectin), you don't have to add any store-bought pectin.

Chef Vivian Howard's book, This Will Make It Taste Good, is all about creating homemade condiments and seasonings, then using them to boost the flavor in other recipes. This fruit preserves recipe makes a big batch, but there many ways to use it beyond just spreading it on a piece of toast. Use it to make a glaze for meat, chicken or fish, stir it into yogurt, pair it with cheese for an appetizer, or even shake some into a cocktail.

Fruit butter is made by cooking down the fruit mixture until thick and sticky instead of adding pectin to set the mixture as you do with jam. Spread on whole-grain toast or stir into plain yogurt. We prefer to peel stone fruit, such as apricots, nectarines, peaches, and apples and pear for this recipe. If you're making a butter with “seedy” berries, such as blackberries, raspberries or even blueberries, you can puree the butter and pass it through a sieve for the smoothest result. Try the combination of blueberries with lime juice and zest or plums with orange juice and zest.

This green tomato jam is moderately sweet, with the lemon juice and zest enhancing the natural acidity of the green tomatoes. The sugar helps to sweeten the jam just enough without being overpowering, and helps to thicken the jam with the pectin from the tomatoes.

This tomato jam has a pleasant hit of heat from crushed red pepper and warm undertones from cloves and cinnamon. The brown sugar and lime juice balance out the flavor. Serve this easy tomato jam with cheese or use it as a spread in a wrap or sandwich.

Citrus paste uses the whole fruit to create an acidic, bright spread that can be used in tacos, pasta and more.

This easy refrigerator jam highlights the best of fall fruits--pears! Enjoy this easy pear jam on toast with melted butter or as a topping for ice cream or yogurt.

Tart rhubarb and sweet strawberries shine together in this easy strawberry-rhubarb jam. There's no canning involved and with fresh in-season strawberries, added sugar stays in check.

Plums are the star of this easy jam recipe, providing rich, deep color and flavor. The texture and consistency is perfect for spreading on a piece of toast or a biscuit. This is the perfect go-to recipe to use when plums are in peak season.

This easy blackberry jam has subtle accents of lime and ginger. Indulge in summer blackberries by enjoying a jar yourself and sharing the rest with friends.