Life is Good When Food is Good: Apple Jelly

Mini disasters help you learn. I've certainly learned a lot from making apple jelly. Having not had much previous experience in the preserving world, I thought I would venture into making jelly. I used the last of my locally picked apples, bought the necessary straining bags, liquid Certo, and was on my way... to those mini disasters.

My pot was not quite as big as it should have been. Which lead to sticky jam boiling over onto my oven. Thankfully, not much juice was lost - and only tatters of my sanity. I dream of owning a Le Creuset set someday.

All was going smoothly and the jelly turned out relatively clear and a beautiful light rose hue. However, after 24 hours of letting my jam "sit and settle" it was still like water. I was extremely disheartened. A couple days of moping and occasionally shaking a bottle to see if it had set passed.

After a few days it seemed to set a little more - although it was still a little runny for my liking. Apple jelly is a little tricky. In any case, my answer to apple butter and salsa were easier to make as seen in my previous postings! I share all this not to scare you away from trying jelly - but just to let you know it's "finicky" and a little more tedious. So I would not introduce yourself to bottling with jelly, but warm up with some simple jams first!

Apple Jelly

Taken from Certo - www.kraftcanada.com

Yield: 8 cups

Ingredients:

Juice:
3 quarts (or 12 cups) of tart, juicy apples
6 1/2 cups of water

Jelly:
5 cups of prepared juice
2 TBSP lemon juice
7 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 pouch CERTO Liquid Pectin

Materials:
Jelly Bag (see picture)
Preserving materials - bottles, etc. (see previous post from Apple Butter Recipe for more specific instructions on bottling)

Directions:

1. Remove blossom and stem ends from 3 quarts of apples, cut in small pieces (do not peel or core). Add 6 1/2 cups of water. Bring to a boil and simmer, covered, 10 minutes.

2. Crush pulp and simmer, covered 5 minutes more.

3. Extract juice:
a) Place prepared fruit in a jelly bag.
b) Place jelly bag in a colander over a bowl and let the juices drip - do not squeeze the bag as it will make your jelly cloudy!
c) If after your juice has been fully drained from the jelly bag - if there is insufficient juice you may need to add up to 1/2 water.

4. Pour 5 cups of prepared juice in a large saucepan (please use a LARGE one - and avoid boil over insanity) and stir in sugar and lemon juice. Bring to a boil over high heat.

5. Boil hard for 1 minute.

6. Remove from heat and stir in CERTO Liquid Pectin.

7. Stir and skim for 5 minutes. Skimming is simply taking off the the thick layer of jelly that will form at the surface. Simply discard. To see if your jam is done use a metal spoon and dip it into the jelly mixture. Take the spoon out and out of the steam and turn it sideways so the liquid runs off the side. If the jelly is done, the mixture should be syrupy and form two drops that flow together and form a sheet that hangs off the edge of the spoon.