Two-Ingredient Strawberry Jam
Dried strawberries and sweetener, rehydrated into jam in a pot at camp.
- calories
- 110
- weight
- 1.2 oz
- cal / oz
- 92
- protein
- 2 g
- serves
- 2, scales
- prep
- 2 min
- cook
- 10 min
- total time
- 12 min
- water
- 120 ml boiled
- cost
- $
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Breakfast
- Snack
- Canister stove
- Alcohol / Esbit
- Campfire coals
- Car camping
- Backpacking
- Basecamp
- Bikepacking
- Vegetarian
- Vegan
- Gluten free
- Dairy free
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Freeze-dried or dried strawberries | 1 1/2 cups | about 1.5 oz dry, stands in for 1 kg fresh |
|---|---|---|
| Powdered stevia or erythritol | 2 tbsp | the original calls for 4-5 tbsp per kilo of fruit |
| Chia seeds | 1 tsp | optional, for body |
| Salt | a pinch |
Method
- Crush the dried strawberries in the bag with your hand or the bottom of your pot. Smaller pieces rehydrate faster.
- Put the fruit in the pot with 120 ml of water. Bring it to a simmer over low heat.
- Stir every minute or so until the berries swell and the water turns to syrup, about 6 to 8 minutes. Add water a splash at a time if the pot goes dry.
- Take it off the heat, then stir in the sweetener, the salt, and the chia if you brought it.
- Let it sit five minutes off the stove. It thickens as it cools. Eat it warm on tortillas or bagels, or leave it in the pot overnight and spoon it onto oats in the morning.
The original is a home-canning recipe: a kilo of fresh strawberries cooked down for an hour until the water boils off. On trail you cannot carry a kilo of wet fruit, and boiling water away is the opposite of what you want with a fuel canister. So the process runs backwards here. The fruit arrives already dehydrated and you add back only the 120 ml it needs.
Sugar is what makes conventional jam set and keeps it from sticking. With stevia or erythritol you get neither, which is why the source notes the pot stays clean and why this stays loose. The chia and the cooling time do the thickening instead. Add the sweetener off the heat, as the source does, so you can taste before committing.
Packing
Fruit, sweetener, chia, and salt in one small bag. Sweetener can ride loose with the fruit; it does nothing until it hits liquid.
Variations
- A squeeze of lemon powder sharpens it. Without sugar there is nothing to cut the flat sweetness otherwise.
- Swap in dried blueberries or a mixed berry blend. Same water, same time.
- Skip the water entirely and cold-soak the fruit in a jar for two hours for a looser, raw-tasting version.
https://www.bucatarmaniac.ro/2026/05/dulceata-de-capsuni-fara-zahar.html