Apple Jelly

Making this jelly gives me an appreciation of why pure apple juice is so expensive-it took four pounds of apples to get four cups of juice to get three half pints of jelly. I'm making another batch tomorrow as I have enough apples, but it is quite a bit of work for such a small yield.

The colour is actually much lighter than this photo suggests-a very pale yellow.

I used Granny Smith apples, so I omitted the extra lemon juice. If you're using a sweeter apple, add the lemon juice to give the jelly some interest. Because apples are loaded with natural pectin, it tends to reach the gelling stage quickly-so keep checking because nobody likes jelly that bends a knife prying it out of a jar.

The recipe says it makes 4 half pints, but I ended up with three and a half (the half is now in the fridge waiting for breakfast).

You Will Need:

4 cups of apple juice from four pounds of apples (directions for making juice at end of recipe)
3 cups sugar
2 tablespoons lemon juice (optional)

Prepare juice as directed below.

In a large pot, combine juice and sugar (and lemon juice if using it). Stir until dissolved. Bring to a boil over high heat stirring constantly. Cook rapidly to gelling point. Remove from heat. Spoon hot jelly into hot jars leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Wipe threads clean and seal. Process in a boiling water canner ten minutes, then off the flame, let cool in canner five minutes before removing. Let cool 12-24 hours before checking for seals.

To Make juice:

Remove stem and bottom ends from apples and then quarter leaving on skins and cores. For each quart of apples add 1 cup water. Place in pot and cover. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to simmer and cook until fruit is soft. Drain through a damp jelly bag until you can measure 4 cups. Resist the urge to squeeze the bag because it makes the jelly cloudy (if you don't care about that then squeeze away because you can probably get quite a bit more juice out of it if you don't care about clarity).