This year a majority of our gifts to others will be handmade/homemade. Making this decision has been part blessing, part curse. (I have seven more gifts to finish in the next week or so and am battling an epic cold...NOT FUN!) Next year, my goal is to start earlier and finish all handmade items by Thanksgiving.
So without further ado, let me share with you one of our homemade gifts...
Spiced Apple Jelly!
I googled recipes and came across this one, which I modified, of course. Instead of using whole apples, I saved the pulp from our applesauce making efforts this year as well as all peelings and cores from the apples we have eaten this fall. I froze the pulp, peelings and cores in freezer bags until I was ready to make the spiced apple juice. When I made the juice, I pulled two gallon-sized bags of peels and cores and all of our applesauce pulp. And I doubled up on the spices. Once I had everything in the stockpot, one round of spices just didn't seem like enough. After straining the juice through cheesecloth, I tasted the juice (yum!) and froze approximately seven cups of spiced juice until I was ready to make the jelly.
To make the jelly, I thawed the juice and used a recipe from a SureJell insert my mom kept from the 70s(!). Every single cooked jam or jelly I have made using this insert has turned out perfectly each and every time.
Why try something new when the old tried and true works, right?
Seven cups of juice yielded 14 pint jars of jelly. Perfect little gifts for some very special people in our lives!
No comments:
Post a Comment