Join Our Mailing List

Perpetualplum's Weblog

Northwest Local Event Calendar

Flickr Photos

Mulled Apple Cider Jelly

For a real treat try making your apple jelly with mulled apple cider. You get to have delicious smells in your home twice. This is one of my brother in laws favorite jellies.

Ingredients

3 2" cinnamon sticks

1 to 2 tsp whole allspice

1 tsp whole cloves

1 tsp dried orange peel

12 cups apple cider

Directions

Since we have lots of apples, I usually make my own apple cider. We often use a press, but I've found that I can also make the cider using my electric juicer. I have an Acme Juicer. You can also make apple juice by boiling the apples in some water until they are mushy and draining off the liquid.

You will be putting the spices in layered cheesecloth, so don't unfold the cheesecloth. Cut a large enough square of cheesecloth to accomondate all of the spices. Take the cinnamon sticks, whole allspice, whole cloves, and orange peel and place them on the cheesecloth. Gather the ends of the cheesecloth up and tie it with a string.

Put the apple cider in a large stainless pot and place it on the stove to cook on high heat. When the mixture begins to boil, place the bundle of spices in the cheesecloth into the apple cider and turn the heat down, so the mixture is just simmering. Simmer for aobut 20 minutes.

At this point, I pull the pot off of the stove and let it cool. I place the whole mixture with the spice bag in a container and store it in the fridge over night.

Pull the spice bag out. You now have spiced or mulled apple cider. You can use this to make jelly using the instructions from the commercial pectin you can find at the grocery store. I find that the lower sugar recipes will make a more flavorful jelly because the ratio of sugar to juice is smaller.

Twelve cups of juice can probably be used to make 2 batches of jelly. If you have some cider left over, you can always add some brown sugar, heat the mixture up and drink some of your own homemade mulled apple cider.