How to Make Apple Jelly – With Just Two Ingredients

The natural pectin in apples prompted the authors of Stocking Up III to call apple jelly “the simplest of jellies” because it is made with only apples and sweetener.  This year we had a ton of crabapples gifted to us from a neighbor.  I canned 14 quarts whole as honey-cinnamon crabapples, made some into applesauce and used some for both juice and sauce.  It was nice to get two end products out of the same batch of apples.  I cooked the apples up one night and made the jelly the next day so the juice had time to drain.

How to Make Apple Jelly with Honey or Sugar

Ingredients

• 4-6 cups apple juice (about 6 pounds of apples)
• 3 cups honey or 4-6 cups of sugar

Directions

To juice your apples:  Wash apples.  Remove stems, damaged areas and blossom ends, cut into quarters or slices.  Don’t peel the apples – much of the pectin is in the peel.  Place apples in a non-reactive heavy bottom stockpot (stainless steel or enamel).  Add enough water to half cover apples.  Cook until fruit is soft, stirring occasionally to avoid burning and promote even cooking.

To strain the juice, place well-cooked apples into a jelly bag strainer or flour sack towel in a colander.  If using a towel, gather ends of the towel and hang it from an elevated location.  I hang mine from my kitchen cabinet handles because my cabinets are sturdy.  If you have lighter cabinets, hang from the back of a chair or other solid location.  You can see my setup in the currant jelly post.  I have both a strainer and a towel in action.  (I forgot to snap a photo while the apples were draining.)

If you want a clear jelly, don’t squeeze the bag to hurry it along – just let it drip.  As I mentioned above, I cooked my apples the night before and made the jelly the next day.

Measure out your juice.  Stocking Up II recommends:

1/2 cup honey for every cup of juice 

The Ball Blue Book recommends:

3 cups of sugar for every 4 cups of sweet apple juice

4 cups of sugar for every 4 cups of crabapple juice

Measure juice and sweetener into pan.  Mix well. Make sure to use a large pot, as the jelly will boil up and foam a great deal during cooking.  This is an 8 quart stockpot, and at times the jelly reached close to the rim.

Cook at a high boil, stirring constantly, until the gelling point is reached (220F (104 C)).  When the gelling point is reached, the jelly will sheet cleanly off a spoon.  Alternatively, you can place a spoonful of jelly on a cold plate, stick it in the fridge for a minute, and then run your finger through it.  Jelly that has jelled should hold the shape of the finger trail for a bit, not run right back together.

It’s okay to cook smaller batches, but cooking larger batches does not work out so well.  I ended up with around 10 cups of juice, so I made a larger batch.  It took over an hour to boil down to jelly.  Smaller batches cook much faster.

While the jelly is cooking, sterilize seven 8-ounce jars, keep hot.  Heat lids and rings in hot water, keep warm but not boiling.  Fill water bath canner and bring to boil.

Ladle jelly into sterilized jars leaving 1/4″ headspace. Wipe rims clean and screw on the lids. Process for 10 minutes in water bath canner (add 1 minute for every 1,000 feet above sea level).  Makes roughly 5 half-pints for every 6 cups of juice.  With 10 cups of crabapple juice and 5 cups of honey I ended up with 8 jars of jelly.  The red skinned crabapples gave it a very pretty red color.

If you have sweet apples, you can add 2 tablespoons of lemon juice for a tarter jelly.  You may also make a spiced jelly by simmering whole spices such as cinnamon sticks, cloves or allspice (in a spice bag) with the apples while they are cooking to get soft.  (Don’t add them to the boiling juice.)

To make applesauce, I took the drained apples and ran them through the food strainer.  This gave us a nice, thick sauce that would be great for fruit leather since much of the water has already been removed.  You can read more about making applesauce in the post, “Preserving Apples – How to Make Applesauce, Apple leather and Dried Apple Slices“.

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