Homemade strawberry jam is something really special--so much better than most of what you can buy commercially. And the easiest strawberry jam you can make is freezer jam. There's no cooking and no canning involved. Just fresh, fabulous, easy homemade jam.

Four jars of Strawberry freezer jam and two fresh strawberries, three jars on a white pedestal, one on the white ground.

I'll tell you a secret, too: I actually prefer the taste of freezer jam to traditional jam. It's bright, fruity, and tastes like spring in a jar when you pull it out of your freezer the following winter.

Round wooden cutting board on a white surface, with a knife, and cut and whole strawberries on the board.

This isn't strictly a tutorial on how to make freezer jam. That's super easy, and I just follow the directions on the package of freezer jam pectin, after all. But I do want to share my technique for you that takes making freezer jam from just simple to insanely fast and easy.

Sliced strawberries in a large pyrex measuring cup, next to a packet of Freezer jam no cook pectin on a white surface.

Freezer jam pectin is available in most major grocery stores. You have to get the kind that specifically says it's for freezer jam--regular pectin won't work for no-cook jam. I started with four cups of sliced up fruit, just like the package instructed me.

Kitchenaid Mixer bowl with strawberry chunks and sugar and a mixing paddle, on a granite counter.

But here's where I take a slight detour from the instructions, which simply say to smash the berries, sugar, and pectin together with a potato masher. I don't like potatoes, so I don't have a masher, so I had to improvise the first time I made jam. I threw it all in my Kitchenaid mixer and gave it a whirl for a few seconds.

Strawberry freezer jam ingredients mixed together in a kitchenaid mixer bowl on granite counter.

In about a minute, I ended up with absolutely perfectly mixed and mashed strawberries. Still nice chunks left, but lots of good puree as well. The Kitchenaid does a brilliant job of smashing the berries. When I was making jam favors for my daughter's Strawberry Picnic birthday party, my jamming-expert friend Liz came over to help me. She was initially dubious when I put my berries in the Kitchenaid bowl, but a moment later, she was a complete convert, and she's been making jam this way ever since.

Three jars of strawberry freezer jam and a whole strawberry on a white cake plate on a white background.