California Cherry Season is Coming—Try this Luscious Chocolate-Cherry Jam! (April 2026)
Chocolate paired with cherries is a match made in heaven.
With the California cherry season approaching, consider making this delicious and decadent jam. Use it as an ice-cream topping, stir it into yogurt, use it to frost brownies, or top a cheesecake! The possibilities are endless.
For best results, be sure to use a high-quality unsweetened cocoa powder that is pure cocoa.
Yield: approximately 6 ½-pint jars
Preparation time: 20 minutes plus 10+ minutes of processing (depending on elevation).
Ingredients
6 cups coarsely chopped fresh or frozen pitted dark, sweet cherries,
6 Tbsp. traditional (not low-sugar) pectin
¼ cup bottled lemon juice
6 cups sugar
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
Instructions
Ready your boiling water or atmospheric steam canner. Heat jars in boiling-water canner or over simmering water in a steam canner until ready to use. Wash lids in warm soapy water, rinse, and set aside with bands.
Whisk the sugar and cocoa together in a bowl until well mixed.
Combine the cherries, pectin and lemon juice in a 4-quart stainless steel or enameled pan. Over high heat, bring the mixture to a full rolling boil that cannot be stirred down, stirring constantly.
Add the sugar/cocoa mixture all at once to the boiling cherry mixture. Return the mixture to a full rolling boil. Boil hard for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Skim foam, if necessary.
Ladle hot jam into a hot jar, leaving ¼-inch headspace. Remove air bubbles. Clean the jar rim and center a lid on the jar. Screw on a band and adjust to fingertip tight. Place jar in the boiling-water or atmospheric steam canner. Repeat until all jars are filled.
Process jars for 10 minutes, adjusting for altitude (see below). Turn off heat. If using a boiling-water canner, remove the lid, and let jars stand for 5 minutes. If using an atmospheric steam canner, let canner rest for 3 minutes before removing the lid. In both cases, remove jars after the specified waiting period and cool on the counter for 12-24 hours. After this period, check lids for seal; they should not flex when the center is pressed.
Adapted from a recipe in The All-New Ball Book of Canning and Preserving, (Oxmoor House, 2016).
Altitude adjustments:
Altitude in Feet Increase Processing Time by
1,001 to 3,000 5 minutes
3,001 to 6,000 10 minutes
6,001 to 8,000 15 minutes
8,001 to 10,000 20 minutes