Friday, October 8, 2010

Apple Jelly

I have made raspberry and strawberry jam before, but I have never made jelly. With all the leftover apple peelings and cores, I made apple jelly! I did a Google search for "apple peel jelly," and came across these instructions, and I modified them a little (that's just the way I usually do things).

First, I filled my pot up with the leftover apple peels and cores, and added five cups of water, 1 tablespoon of cinnamon and one teaspoon of nutmeg (the original recipe suggested adding 1 cinnamon stick, but I didn't have any so I added the spices). I brought this to a boil, reduced the heat a little, and allowed it to boil for 15 minutes. I removed my pot from the heat and allowed it to sit overnight. I wanted to make sure I had plenty of juice the next morning to make the jelly so I added one more cup of water.


The next morning, this is what my pot looked like. I ran this through a jelly bag to get the required 5 cups of juice needed for this recipe. I did not use 7 cups of sugar like the recipe said, I only used 5, and I also let the jelly boil for 2 minutes instead of 1.


I ended up with a total of 4 1/2 pints of jelly, and it is good! I processed in a hot water bath for 10 minutes.

I have another gallon Ziplock bag of peels and cores in my refrigerator now. I am thinking about putting them in the freezer in case I decide to make some apple syrup for pancakes or maybe some more jelly. Do you have any other suggestions on how to use apple peels and cores?

I still want to dehydrate some apples, but we're going to have to go back to the orchard before I do that!