We have a beautiful crabapple tree in front of our house and, last year, I made my first-ever batch of jelly. It took forever to gel, the colour was pale, but it tasted pretty good!
This year, I followed the instructions a bit more carefully, had my husband’s help in prepping all of the crabapples (So! Much! Work!) and it turned out beautifully. Look at that colour! It’s a tart, sweet, lovely jelly.
Here’s the recipe:
Crabapple Jelly
Makes about 8 x 250 mL jars
Ingredients:
5.5 pounds crabapples
5 cups of water
1 pouch (85 mL) of liquid pectin
7 1/2 cups of sugar
Directions:
- Wash the crabapples, then remove stem and blossom ends. (Don’t peel them – they’ve got loads of pectin in them!) Chop coarsely.
- Combine crabapples with water in a stainless steel saucepan. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat, cover, and boil for 10 minutes.
- Using a potato masher, crush the apples, then simmer 5 minutes longer. Remove from heat.
- Pour the liquid and the apple mixture into a dampened jelly bag and let the juice drip for at least 2 hours or overnight. (Remember, if you squeeze the bag, the jelly will be cloudy – but it will get things done faster!)
- Prepare 8 x 250 ml (half-pint) jars, lids and rings.
- Measure 5 cups of the prepared apple juice into a large, deep stainless steel saucepan. Add all of the sugar.
- Over high heat, bring the mixture to a full rolling boil that cannot be stirred down. Add liquid pectin.
- Boil hard 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and skim off foam.
- Pour or ladle the jelly into a hot jar, leaving 1/4 inch of head space.
- Wipe jar rim, place lids and rings.
- Process for 10 minutes.
- When processing time is finished, remove canner lid and wait 5 minutes.
- Remove jars and allow them to cool.
- All jars should seal. If they don’t seal, place them in the fridge and eat them soon.