Easiest Apple Jelly EVER!

From those three things pictured (and a little spice) you can get the EASIEST cinnamon apple jelly ever, I SWEAR IT! (Spice is optional of course :) ) No fruit to mess around with peeling and coring and dicing and washing and squishing, etc....Just need a little juice and sugar and pectin :)

Okay - a note on the ingredients here. The juice is KEY! It can be frozen, it can be in a bottle ready to drink BUT - IT NEEDS TO BE 100% APPLE JUICE NO SUGAR ADDED JUST THE JUICE! I dunno if other juices work, I can't tell you - I just know in this recipe what does work. I have heard, but never tried, grape juice, pomegranate juice, and a host of other juices will work...maybe I will experiment sometime...but for now, let's stick with apple juice.

Go ahead and get your jars and lids prepped and all (wash, heat up the water bath, etc...) This goes together FAST so before you even drag out the sugar and juice, get those jars prepped! You will need about 5 pint jars OR twice as many half pints.

Gather together: 1 can (12 oz usually) of frozen 100% apple juice
                          1 box (1.75 oz) of pectin
                          1 4lb bag of sugar
                          cinnamon (1/4 tsp) and nutmeg (1/8 tsp) OPTIONAL

A note here as well - the pectin I use is always just plain jane original pectin - I don't use the no sugar/low sugar stuff and I can't give any help with them. Sorry, I'm not that good, I LOVE my sugar LOL :)

Take your apple juice and add water like the can says - I usually buy store brand/generic and mind almost always ends up making 48 oz of juice. If going with the bottled ready to drink juice, shoot for 48 oz...

Once your juice is juice again, add your pectin and mix it up, add spices if you are going that route ( I love them, makes it taste like pie in a jar haha!), then bring to a rolling boil.  At that point, add your sugar, mix it up, and bring back up to a rolling boil and hold there for a minute (I usually let mine boil for closer to 5 minutes, but that's just me - I forget how long it's been as I am stirring).....here's where it gets a tad bit tricky...Don't forget! You CAN, if you want to, add about 1/2 tablespoon of butter if you want to cut down on foam...I usually do and I add it when I add the sugar....

Some people can use various methods of testing (plate in the freezer, cold spoon, etc) to test to see if it is "setting" - while all of these things are peachy great and work....you gotta keep something in mind here...I am more confident in my jams when I test the temperature they have reached.  See, the sugar makes them kind of like candy. Sure, when making candy at home you have all sorts of nifty tests you can do (usually involving cold water). BUT you can also take a temp a things and be fairly sure you will get the right end product. Jelly and jam are the same way.

I always check that mine have reached a temperature of 220 - 225 degrees...usually they go to the 225* mark...because, like I said, I forget how long I have been there most times. You want this to get that hot so the jelly and pectin and all "act right" later when they cool down. Trust me, you will see :)

Now, let it rest just a bit off of the heat - go ahead and pull your sterile, clean jars out of the water (if you are like me and boil them in the canner) or dishwasher or oven (wherever you stash them) and have your jar tongs, funnel, lid lifter and ladle ready.  Take a moment to skim off the foam IF you want to....let's be honest, the foam isn't the prettiest thing to look at on the top of the jelly in the jar, but leaving it there won't hurt anything either! Since this is just for us, and not a gift, the foam stays where the foam is :P But if you want, skim it off and ladle everything into your clean jars, I usually leave about 1/4 inch head space, wipe the rims, slap those lids and rings on and process at a full rolling boil for 15 minutes (I think some people do half pints for 10 minutes, but I usually do both size jars when doing jams and jellies and I time UP to the biggest jar).

Take it out and wait for the blessed "PINGS"!!!!

See...before I put the lids on, there really wasn't any ugly old foam that much anyways :P

A note - this jelly sets up BEST once it is opened and refridgerated! It will look a bit loose in the jars after a day - don't worry! Once it gets nice and cool a day or 2 later it looks even thicker and once you go to use it and pop it in the fridge it is about the consistency of jell-o. Nice and thick :) See....

That glob is the last of it from the pot I cooked it in....yes, I licked the spoon when I was done LOL...But it stuck very well just at room temp even to my finger for the photo shoot!

So...easy peasy! AND CHEAP! I paid $2 for sugar, $1.18 for the juice, $1.99 for the pectin and I'm not splitting hairs on the spices....that's $5.17 for 5 pints of jelly....or $1.03 per jar! Home made, ingredients I can pronounce, so corn products (like high fructose corn syrup....hmmmm...just saying) and freaking DELICIOUS! Unless were are talking questionable tasting 99cent store jelly....you can NOT beat the savings there! YUMMY too!