The Craftiest Workshop

Last fall, I froze many of these crab apples I had picked.

I removed the blossoms and stems and quartered them.
Since I was invited to pick more crab apples this week, I decided to use up the last of the apples in the freezer to make some jelly.

Directions for making juice for jelly

Put 12 cups of apples (1.5 large ziplocks full) in a pot on the stove.
Add 3 cups of water then boil the apples until you are able to mash them.

Put a strainer over your largest stainless steel bowl in the sink.
Double up some cheesecloth and lay it in the strainer.
Leave the mashed apples in the strainer to drip.
Do not squish the mash to get more juice or it will become cloudy.
Once all the liquid has drained into the bowl, put the juice into some containers and place in the fridge overnight.
Discard apple mash.

12 cups of apples with the water yields 6 cups of juice.

Ingredients for jelly

6 cups of crab apple juice

1/2 cup water

1/2 tsp butter

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

3 cups white sugar

2 cups brown sugar

Certo pectin powder

Directions

Heat your jar lids in boiling water in a small pot on the stove for 10min.

After 10 min, remove from heat and let sit with the lid on the pot.

Boil some water in the kettle to pour into empty jars in the sink.

Leave the water in the kettle until just before you are ready to fill the jars with jelly.

• 

• 

• 

Put the apple juice, water, butter, cinnamon, nutmeg and pectin in a large pot on the stove.

Bring to a full rolling boil at med-high heat stirring constantly.

Stir in sugars and return to a rolling boil; continue stirring.

Boil 1 minute while stirring.

Remove from heat and skim any foam off the top with a spoon.

Pour water from the kettle into jars and dump one jar using jar tongs.
Place the jar onto a cutting board and ladle the jelly into a funnel over the jar.

Wipe any mess on the rim with a paper towel.

Using a magnetic wand, grab a lid from the small pot and place it on the filled jar.
Screw on a jar ring; just hand tighten.

Repeat with the remaining jars.

Makes the equivalent of 7 small 250 ml jars.

I am not sure if it is the spices or the brown sugar but this jelly is less tart than regular crab apple jelly.
It tastes yummy on toast or crackers.