Spiced Crab Apple Jelly Recipe

 

Sorry I haven't updated in a while. It's harvest season. The berries, the mushrooms, all those other things wild and cultivated that my family picks and creates the jams, sauces, syrups and jellies we use through out the year and give to our friends. Also, I'm going to do something weird and give you the recipe before the back story.

This is actually a TECHNIQUE and a recipe both. The technique is for easily juicing the crab apples. 

Juicing the crab apples in an Instant Pot

This method will not be as clear as traditional juicing methods, more of a "cider" than a juice.

You will need: 

• 10 lbs of crab apples- ornamental are fine, we used ornamental for this batch
• water to cover
• strainer
• Instant Pot or other electric pressure cooker

We have a Ninja pressure cooker that's large enough we did this in 2 batches, which wound up being 2 cups of water per batch to cover the apples. 

Prep apples by removing stems. For larger crab apples, you can cut them in half too. Seeds and skins will be discarded with the pulp, but can add natural pectin to the finished jelly. 

Bring up to pressure and cook for 8 minutes. Natural release. Using a bowl to catch the juice, strain out the solids. A mesh strainer will work, you can line it with cheese cloth if you want a clearer finished jelly. We just strained and smooshed it through. The pulp and the discarded stems all went into our compost heap. 

Juice can be frozen to keep to process into jelly later. Also if you really, really like sour, go ahead and try it. It is sour though. 

Jelly Recipe (makes 12 half pints with a little leftover)

You will need:

• 9 cups of juice. Measure out your juice, add water to make 9 cups if necessary
• 1/4 cup of lemon juice
• 11 cups of sugar
• pinch each allspice, cinnamon and either mace or nutmeg (we used mace, I'm very fond of that vintage spice) 
• 2 packages of pectin- we used powdered Sure-Jell

Mix crab apple juice, lemon juice, and sugar in a large heavy bottomed pan. Add in spices. Stir, heat slowly to mix completely and dissolve sugar completely. Stir in 2 packages of pectin. Bring to a rolling boil (a boil that can't be stirred down) and boil for exactly 1 minute. 

Skim of foam and put into prepared jars with a half inch headroom. Water bath process for 10 minutes.  

Crab apples are pretty new in our harvesting. Last year at a virtual plant symposium, someone told me approximately where her Dad had planted crab apple trees decades ago. My daughter went out exploring and found them and also found out that other people weren't picking them. Over the course of the next few weeks, she and her brother picked about 30 lbs of them. They were dried, used in pie, used for jellies and apple butter. 

Those trees aren't ready yet. But a friend of our offered to let TG and William pick at her house and they got 16 lbs total! We gave some to a friend, and used the rest to make this jelly. 

It's delicious. This would be amazing with moose, caribou, or if you're down south, venison. It's also a natural for pork. The sweet, tart, spiced combination is a natural with sharp cheese too. 

National Can-It-Forward Day!

It's National Can-It-Forward Day! A great day to learn how to can and talk to other people about canning.

Ball®'s  FreshPreserving.com  is having all day webcasts, there is a Twitter event going on (#CanItForward) and other ways to participate.

Can-It-Forward TV

Here's the webcast schedule- there will be chances to win giveaways as well as all the great things you'll learn!

Broadcast Schedule:

10:00am-10:45am: Jam making and water bath canning demo by Jessica Piper
10:45am-11:00am: Craft Corner with Jordan DeFrank
11:00am-11:45am: Pickles Demo by Rick Fields 
11:45am-12:00pm: Craft Corner with Jordan DeFrank
12:00pm-1:00pm: Special Guest Host Ted Allen canning and cooking demo
1:00pm-1:15pm: Cocktails in Ball Jars hosted by Mason Jar NYC Restaurant
1:15pm-2:00pm: Jam making and water bath canning demo by Jessica Piper (repeated)

3rd National Can It Forward Day- Super Easy Jelly Making

Tomorrow is National Can-It-Forward Day! YAY! A lot of my readers are enthusiastic canners, and a lot have never canned before. Tomorrow I'll be posting video links AND a giveaway! Be sure to come back for that.

My daughter, before this year, had never canned before. She enjoys homemade jellies and jams made by me, and by some of our family friends. But it was kind of intimidating for her. Part of National Can-It-Forward is encouraging people to try it.

Ball® sent me a current Ball® Blue Book, a Ball® Home Canning Discovery Kit, a case of the gorgeous Heritage blue jars, labels, pectin and a  Ball® FreshTech Automatic Jam and Jelly Maker free for review purposes. The Ball Blue Book and Canning Discovery Kit are reviewed here.

So why can your own jelly and jams? Well, the most obvious answer is that if you grow berries and other things, you may want to preserve your harvest to enjoy through the winter. But even if you don't, there are still good reasons to can. You have absolute control over the ingredients. You can pick the flavors and types of things you want to can, your home canned goods won't contain high fructose corn syrup or other ingredients that are used to cut costs commercially. You can save money by canning too. The jars and bands are reusable. The only thing you need to replace every time is the lids themselves. That's because the compound on them to seal your jars is one use only.

All of those were made by The Amazing Turnip Girl. From left to right are stewed rhubarb (rhubarb from our garden), raspberries (also from our garden, and jelly made from store bought juice.

Yes. Store bought juice. Because jelly making can be ridiculously easy. So easy you'll wonder why you ever bought jelly. She used the FreshTech Jam and Jelly Maker to make everything but the rhubarb. 

Go to FreshPreserving.com for a bunch of great recipes!

Using the FreshTech Automatic Jam and Jelly Maker, you can go from fruit juice, pectin and sugar to jelly in a half hour in only a few steps. You add your juice and pectin, then when it beeps, add in sugar. It will make 4 cups of jelly at a time. So you can make 1 pint jars, 4 half pints, or 8 little 4 ounce jars to give as gifts. It has a non-stick surface and cleans easily. It got TG's seal of approval, she's just thrilled with it. Use your favorite 100% juice, it can be made from concentrate, or canned juice. She chose Juicy Juice Fruit Punch for her first jelly. 

You can freeze or can the jelly to preserve it. For my family, we go through about a pint a month.  Because this is so easy, with no standing and stirring time, I asked her if she wanted to make jelly regularly that way. She said "Oh yes!" and started considering other juice flavors. 

So I broke out my pencil and paper and worked out the cost. Remember, Alaska is a little more expensive than that lower 48 states, so chances are good you can make your own jelly even more thriftily.

The recipe in the included booklet calls for 3 cups of juice, 4 tablespoons of pectin, 3 1/3 cups of sugar and a 1/2 tsp of butter. 

Costs are rounded up.

Bottle juice at 4 dollars a bottle- 64 ounces= .0625 per ounce, a cup is 8 ozs, 3 cups is 24 oz= 1.50

Sugar- 4 lb bag is 3.49, 8 cups per bag- .44 cents per cup = 1.45

Jar of Flex-batch Real Fruit Classic Pectin is 4.49 regular price (it's on sale this week at my local Fred Meyer for 3.69)- One jar will make 4 batches-  1.13 per batch

Butter= .20 per tablespoon

So at premium prices for the sugar and juice instead of buying frozen concentrates or canned juice, and getting a name brand juice- it's 4.28 to make 32 oz of jelly! Can't beat that for something you know is the flavor you want and made without high fructose corn syrup or any of the other things that might be hiding in a jar of store bought jelly. You can make savory jellies to use as glazes. 

If you've ever made jelly the old-fashioned way, with the mashing, milling, straining, standing, cooking, etc, you can appreciate that it's a wonderful way to make jelly, but it's time consuming. Using fruit juice will cut a lot of time from it. 

When I mentioned it on Facebook, how much fun she was having making jelly- my friends came up with a whole bunch of suggestions including seasoned cider jellies to use on pork, pom/cran for poultry, and cranberry to use with cream cheese for the best ever turkey sandwiches. 

So did we like the FreshTech Automatic Jam and Jelly Maker? Absolutely. We are planning to put up a lot more batches of jelly, and she's looking forward to giving some of her friends jelly. Now, mine turned out super easy because I didn't have to do even open a bottle of juice. But that's because TG took over very enthusiastically. Your experience probably won't be quite that easy, but it will still be easy. 

I recommend it to people who haven't made jams or jellies before because it's so easy for small batches, but I also really recommend it for people like me who just can't stand to stir anymore. It takes a lot of the standing time out of the process. 

Strawberry Freezer Jam

This was originally posted at my old blog in 2009.

My friend Jehanna helped by answering a lot of my questions. She's got tons more experience than I do making jellies, since the only one I've ever made before was Hillbilly Housewife's Grape Jelly, which is a really easy recipe, but has a lot of sugar, most jelly recipes call for a ton of sugar with the pectin.

So my criteria was a small batch, ingredients easy to get year round inexpensively, not so much sugar, and nicely gelled. After talking to my friend, I realized a freezer jam, since it doesn't need to be shelf stable, also doesn't need pectin as the gelling agent. So I used Knox gelatin. Agar would work as well if you are a vegan, but I couldn't find my agar, and I always have gelatin on hand because I'd rather my children have fruit juice than Jell-O. Gelatin also has the advantage it COSTS a lot less than pectin.

You will need:

• A saucepan
• a stick blender*
• a small bowl
• Clean empty jars
• Spoon to stir with. I used one of my wooden spoons.
• About jars- I used an empty spaghetti sauce jar because my family will go through a lot of jelly in a week. If you don't use a lot of jelly, use smaller jars and keep some in the freezer that can be thawed as needed.

Ingredients-

• 1 16oz bag of frozen no sugar added strawberries (yep. Frozen, always in season, not very expensive. I used the store brand)
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup cold water
• 2 envelopes of gelatin. One if you like a soft set.

Put the strawberries in the pan, and sprinkle the sugar over them, then leave it alone while the strawberries thaw. I just did something else for a couple hours.

After the strawberries are thawed, blend them to mush with the stick blender, and put them on medium heat on your stove top. Bloom packets of gelatin in cold water.

Bring the strawberries up to a nice simmer, stirring constantly so they don't burn. When they are bubbly, turn off the heat, and stir in the water/gelatin mix. If you want to hit it again with your stick blender to make sure it's well blended, you can. Pour mixture into empty jar and cap. Let it set until room temperature then chill. After a few hours, it's set. Give it a good stir, and serve. Keep refrigerated. 

Because this is low sugar, it's not as sweet as commercial jellies, it's a bit tart, and tastes like strawberries, more a fruit spread than jelly as you are used to from the supermarket. Because this is set with gelatin, it actually works with a lot of types of berries. It's a healthier option than the high sugar jams that are available in stores and my family loves it. However, it doesn't make a good gift like traditionally made jams do because it's not hot processed into jars to be shelf stable. 

*Which is one of those handheld blender things, you don't *really* need one, but I like them. You could blend your strawberries in a regular blender or break them up with forks.

Jelly Recipe Page

Spoonflower is getting ready to have their annual free swatch day on August 18th. Every year, they do this to help raise money for Heifer.org, they will mail you a swatch of fabric, but if you'd like to make a donation, the money goes the charity. 

The swatch I'm getting this year is this design, and after I get the swatch and approve it, the fabric will be for sale at Spoonflower.

Since I decided I really liked the layout, I made a printable recipe page using it. I hope you enjoy this.

Click on the image for the larger version. The dots are spaced approximately 1/3 of an inch apart for the lines. 

Lots more printable jelly things and recipes pages on Don't Eat the Paste.

Jelly and Jam Printable Labels

Printable Recipe Pages

Raspberry Jelly Labels

 I like using Avery Sticker Project Paper (Amazon.com affiliate link) for labels because I can do custom layouts. For people who prefer other methods, you can download the labels individually and use them in your word processing or graphics software to make your own label sets. Click on the images for the larger versions. 

Other cute label designs in this series:
Rhubarb
Strawberry

A friend of mine who is also very into canning has been really wishing I'd make raspberry labels. So I started them this morning, but getting the face just right for the amount of cute I want was challenging. While I was posting in progress designs on Facebook, Lillian asked if I could make dark purple ones. I said "Sure, color changes are easy peasy." Then Jennifer (who originally asked for labels) made a joke about them. Then said "‎*giggles* Sorry, that was probably uncalled for, wasn't it *^^*;;;" which made me think of a bratty kid. Bratty kid! There was the answer to making the face cute enough. A raspberry giving a raspberry. Perfect.
So that's what I drew, then recolored it to make dark purple blackberry type raspberries for Lillian.

While we were canning jelly the other day (have I mentioned how much I love the Discover Canning small batch kit? You can read my review here) we couldn't find a ruler. Now, you have to understand, I have rulers. LOTS of rulers. Metal, plastic, great big T rulers and little 6 inch school supply kit rulers, but at that moment, we couldn't find any of them. Turnip Girl brought over the model I printed of the printable ruler to make sure it was exact. Well, a paper ruler won't work to measure head space in jars. So I had her grab her marshmallow stick and we measured on that and made a small notch at 1/4 inch. It worked very well.

The marshmallow sticks are our family's answer to the fact I won't let them roast marshmallows on coat hangers because of the coatings on them. We got a 3/8 inch oak dowel and sawed it in half. Then the kids sharpened them in a pencil sharpener and sanded them smooth. Their marshmallow sticks are their responsibility not to loose and to clean after roasting marshmallows. Every so often we saw off the ends, put the rest back our craft supplies for other projects, and start all over with a new dowel. The non-marshmallow end can be decorated with various things if you have kids who want to decorate them. Nothing loose or that dangles, but wrapping craft wire around one end with beads or coloring with permanent markers works.

Rhubarb labels and coloring sheet

After posting the strawberry labels, a friend said " Now if only you had an adorable rhubarb printable for my rhubarb compotes ;D" - long, skinny things are harder to make cute than strawberries. Strawberries have a natural amount of cute going for them! But I told her I would try.

Same thing as the strawberry labels. These are 300 dpi, the circles will fit a 2 inch punch. I like using Avery Sticker Project Paper (Amazon.com affiliate link) for labels because I can do custom layouts. For people who prefer other methods, you can download the labels individually and use them in your word processing or graphics software to make your own label sets. Each label is 300 dpi, the rectangles should work in 3.33 inch tall x 4 inch wide 6 labels per sheet templates. They are 3 inches tall by 3.66 inches wide at 300 dpi. Click on the images for the full sized versions.

Here's my layout. Also 300 dpi, click on the image for the full sized version.

And a coloring page/embroidery pattern for people who really like rhubarb. My daughter loves the stuff, and recommends using it in lemonade.  100 dpi, click on the image for the full sized version.

Check out #canvolution on Twitter.

Strawberry Printables

I'm planning to make strawberry jam soon, so I made up some labels. I like using Avery Sticker Project Paper (Amazon.com affiliate link) for labels because I can do custom layouts. For people who prefer other methods, you can download the labels individually and use them in your word processing or graphics software to make your own label sets. Each label is 300 dpi, the rectangles should work in 3.33 inch tall x 4 inch wide 6 labels per sheet templates. They are 3 inches tall by 3.66 inches wide at 300 dpi. Click on the images for the full sized versions.

Here's the layout I'm using with the sticker paper.

Quick note about the Avery project sticker paper, back in January, I posted this template and Pokemon themed printable Nintendo DS Lite "skin", it's been on my son's DS lite since then. Yes, it is repositionable and easy to remove, but if you don't pick at the label, it lasts where you apply it. With his DS lite, I spray coated the paper with clear acrylic spray and let dry before peeling and applying. It's still in fairly good shape. However, if you don't want to buy the paper, you could also use a spray adhesive on the back of plain paper then apply labels that way. I've had better luck with repositionable spray adhesives than any other kind of glue on slick surfaces.

While I was drawing the strawberry, I decided it needed a peanut for the start of one of the world's great love affairs.

Coloring page 100 dpi

Peanut Butter Loves Jelly mini book and note card

I make these little tiny printable mini books for fun and you can find a few plus assembly instructions here.
This is one I wrote and illustrated yesterday.

Here's the story which you can print out to use for a notecard or anything else you might like.

If you print it at 200 ppi, you get the tiny version and two copies will print on one page. If you choose 100 ppi, one copy with fit on a page and that makes the larger version. I've seen my miniature books used in earrings, doll houses and other crafty uses. I've done a layout for both 200 ppi and for 100 ppi. Click on the images to download the full sized versions.

200 ppi

100 ppi

I hope you like them! I told my husband I wrote a book and made him read it. He said it was very sweet and maybe it needs more plot development which led to a very silly conversation about writing a 32 page children's book and illustrating it, then selling the movie rights and being very disappointed when the movie version had explosions and all sorts of things that weren't in the original story. At which point we concluded that maybe it was best not to develop the story more completely and just leave it where it's at. A little bit of whimsy.