Tart, luscious keto marmalade with gorgeous blueberries and a sweet vanilla kiss – yes, please! In addition, this blueberry and lemon marmalade is super easy to make as it doesn’t need any cooking. Yes, you read it right, no cooking! That also means all the precious nutrients are there for your body to use and thrive. So sink your spoon into this tasty treat and lift your keto desserts and baked goods to completely new spheres!
How to make this Vanilla-Kissed Fresh Keto Blueberry and Lemon Marmalade
Like said, making this keto-friendly marmalade is very easy. This marmalade is thickened with gelatin that creates a thick, luscious texture. So, this is not jelly nor jam: when you use just the right amount of gelatin, you’ll end up with a perfect-textured marmalade. And entirely without added sugar!
There is no need to cook your marmalade. Like that, the taste is super fruity and fresh – and you’ll get all those nutrients and other valuable substances that would be destroyed by cooking. Moreover, the time needed for the preparation of this marmalade is minimal.
My favorite sweetener is powdered erythritol. I’ve used it to sweeten this keto blueberry and lemon marmalade as well. Feel free to use another keto sweetener as long as it’s in powder form or liquid. Granular sweeteners usually don’t work well in jams or marmalades as they tend to leave a “sandy” mouthfeel. Be also sure that you use a natural sweetener like erythritol, stevia, monk fruit, or allulose.
I recommend using wild blueberries or bilberries for this marmalade. The wild ones are without herbicides and pesticides, and they are not cultivated, which means a higher nutrient content and less naturally occurring sugars. Since I’m located in Finland and in the abundance of bilberries, I’ve naturally used those brilliant berries in this recipe.
That’s it, let’s take a look at how to prepare this easy and luscious sugar-free marmalade:
Take 2/3 cup (160 ml) freshly squeezed lemon juice from organic lemons.
Pour half of the juice into a small microwave-proof cup.
Add 2 teaspoons gelatin powder.
Let bloom while you do further preparations.
Combine 10 oz (280 g) fresh or frozen and defrosted wild blueberries or bilberries…
…the rest of the lemon juice…
…1 cup (240 ml) powdered erythritol…
…and 1 teaspoon vanilla powder.
Blend with an immersion blender until smooth. You can naturally use a regular blender instead.
Here we go.
Now, take the bloomed gelatin and the lemon juice mixture. Heat it in the microwave oven until piping hot and completely dissolved. Keep your eye on the cup, the mixture will spill over in a fraction of the second if left unattended! You can naturally heat the mixture in a saucepan if you don’t use a microwave.
Take the hot, liquid gelatin mixture.
Pour the gelatin into the blueberry mixture.
Mix until well combined.
Transfer into a glass jar or a few small glass jars. The recipe makes 2 1/2 cups (600 ml).
Let set in the fridge overnight or until completely set.
Enjoy!
How I came up with this keto marmalade recipe
If you remember, I spent a couple of weeks in our summer house a while ago. I had plenty of bilberries in the freezer, so I developed some recipes using them. Actually, before developing my Keto Queen Jam in the summer house, I developed another keto jam – the precursor of this recipe – with bilberries. For that experiment, I wanted to see how gelatin works as a thickener.
I had defrosted some bilberries and decided to use them for my experiment. However, I also needed liquid to dissolve the gelatin powder. Since I had some lemons (and I love to add a dash of lemon juice to my keto jams anyway), I thought I’ll dissolve the gelatin in lemon juice.
For sweetener, I chose my favorite: powdered erythritol. For some reason, I decided to use vanilla powder as well to lend an enchanting flavor to my jam.
I didn’t do very exact calculations but just eyeballed the amounts. First, I blended the bilberries, erythritol, and the vanilla powder with an immersion blender until smooth. Then, I added the hot gelatin and lemon juice mixture and blended until well combined.
I placed the jam in the fridge for thickening. Now, it was the most painful part for my impatient mind: waiting.
After a few hours, I checked my jam experiment. It was pretty sturdy – and it tasted fabulous! After a few more hours, the jam was super sturdy. And it just got sturdier! It was almost like a gelatin dessert. There was clearly too much gelatin powder in this stuff.
However, the consistency was more of a marmalade rather than a jam. So, I added some lemon juice to the super-sturdy jam – or marmalade – to make the consistency a bit smoother. After adding a substantial amount of lemon juice, the consistency was really like marmalade. And the taste was deliciously tangy! Now, this was a recipe I wanted to fine-tune and post here on my blog.
After returning home, it was time to improve the recipe and come up with the final version. This time, I made some careful calculations to reach the best possible result. Again, I wanted to have tangy marmalade, so I used only lemon juice – and plenty of it – as the liquid. And this time, I used less gelatin powder.
I made my carefully calculated experiment with 1/2 cup (120 ml) freshly squeezed lemon juice, 1 teaspoon gelatin powder, 10 oz (280 g) defrosted bilberries, 1 cup (240 ml) powdered erythritol, and 1 teaspoon vanilla powder. The texture was a bit runny – and I still wanted to have more tang in my marmalade – so I increased the amount of lemon juice a bit and doubled the amount of gelatin powder.
Now, I was completely happy with my keto blueberry and lemon marmalade! It tasted amazing, and the texture was sturdy and spoonable. Just perfect to accompany any keto dessert or baked good!
Here’s the recipe for you to enjoy:
5-Ingredient Vanilla-Kissed Fresh Keto Blueberry and Lemon Marmalade
Tart, luscious keto marmalade with gorgeous blueberries and a sweet vanilla kiss – yes, please! In addition, this blueberry and lemon marmalade is super easy to make as it doesn’t need any cooking. Yes, you read it right, no cooking! That also means all the precious nutrients are there for your body to use and thrive. So sink your spoon into this tasty treat and lift your keto desserts and baked goods to completely new spheres!
Ingredients
- 2/3 cup = 160 ml freshly squeezed lemon juice from organic lemons
- 2 teaspoons gelatin powder
- 10 oz = 280 g wild blueberries or bilberries (fresh, or frozen and defrosted)
- 1 cup = 240 ml powdered erythritol
- 1 teaspoon vanilla powder
Instructions
- Take half of the lemon juice and pour it into a microwave-proof cup.
- Add the gelatin powder and let bloom while you do further preparations.
- Combine the rest of the lemon juice, blueberries, erythritol, and the vanilla powder in a blender jar. Blend until smooth. You can also use an immersion blender.
- Heat the lemon juice and the gelatin mixture in a microwave oven until the gelatin has dissolved. You can also pour the mixture into a small saucepan and heat the mixture until the gelatin has dissolved.
- Pour the hot lemon juice and the gelatin mixture into the blueberry mixture. Blend until well combined.
- Transfer the mixture into a large glass jar or divide into small glass jars. Close the lids tightly. The recipe makes 2 1/2 cups (600 ml) marmalade.
- Place in the fridge and let set overnight or until the mixture has thickened throughout.
- Serve, for example, on keto bread, pancakes, muffins, etc., or fill your keto cakes or crepes with the marmalade and some whipped cream. This marmalade makes a fabulous companion with sharp cheese, too!
| Nutrition information | In total | Per tablespoon |
| Protein | 8.6 g | 0.2 g |
| Fat | 3.1 g | 0.1 g |
| Net carbs | 31.0 g | 0.8 g |
| kcal | 239 kcal | 6 kcal |
Tips for variation
Even the carb count is low since you need to use only a little of this flavorful sweet condiment, you can further reduce the carbs by using berries that are lower in carbs than blueberries. For example, raspberries contain about half less carbs than blueberries. Even strawberries have slightly less carbs than blueberries.
I admit this marmalade is super tart. To reduce the tartness, you can replace part of the lemon juice with water. I made one version with 1/4 cup (60 ml) lemon juice and the rest, about 0.4 cup (100 ml), water. It was nicely mild, yet it had a slight tang from the lemon juice. You could also taste the vanilla well. Very delicious, especially for kids!
Feel free to add other spices to this marmalade as well. All warm spices like cardamom, star anise, Ceylon cinnamon, or ginger will certainly lend fabulous flavor.
You can replace part of the lemon juice with lime juice. Alternatively, you can add 1 tablespoon lemon, lime, or orange peel to this marmalade and blend it in with the other ingredients.
General prattling
This week, I have been creating our e-book for the Ketokamu baking mix. I’ve developed recipes with the mix and shot plenty of photos. It’s interesting to see how many different types of creations you can make with the baking mix!
Oh yes, and since it’s Mother’s Day, I developed a muffin recipe using our Ketokamu chocolate-covered berries. We posted the recipe on our website and our social media channels.
Naturally, I also baked a cake to celebrate Mother’s Day with our family as I’m a mother to an adorable 10-year-old boy (the cake is filled with a mixture of whipped cream and this keto blueberry and lemon marmalade):
I brought some Ketokamu soups to the 90-year-old lady in the neighborhood earlier this week. She mentioned that she will have some visitors coming over on the weekend. So I baked this cake roll (again, the cake roll is filled with a mixture of whipped cream and this keto blueberry and lemon marmalade) for her so that she doesn’t have to bother to bake anything. She has severe diabetes, so eating low-carb, gluten-free food really benefits her.
The leftover filling I served as mousse:
~~~ Happy Mother’s Day to all who are celebrating! ~~~
I’ll absolutely have to try this recipe… maybe using blackberries instead of blueberries (same wonderful color but less carbs and a more pleasant taste for me), thanks for another gorgeous but still easy recipe 🙂
Looking forward to find your Ketokamu products in EU…!
Hi Roberta, awesome! I bet blackberries work wonderfully, too!
Another recipe I can look forward to making at some point. Before I had to go low carb I was making yogurt parfaits for breakfast using lemon curd. This would be a wonderful option for those parfaits. I generally don’t look at recipes for sweet things because I don’t do desserts, but this marmalade will be useful. I’m assuming that one could freeze it?
Hi Susan, yes, you can freeze this marmalade. Alternatively, you can store it in the fridge in sterilized jars for a few months. This marmalade is not very sweet, it’s rather tart.
Thank, Elviira! Actually tart is very pleasing to me. When I do the parfaits I could always add sugar to my husband’s serving. I would probably freeze most of it because I would not use it very fast – I only cook for two weeks out of every four weeks, plus I like a lot of variety in my meals.
Sounds awesome!