Forever Amber: Versatile Apple Jelly

Despite its curious appearance, this is not Jelly With Preserved Insects. The upper jar does, as noted by a friend, resemble amber with prehistoric inclusions (in a pretty way, IMHO). Instead, however, it is a lovely, fragrant apple jelly with vanilla bean.

I have gone on a bit about apple jelly before, in particular regarding its handy applications in the making of other preserves, providing pectin where it is lacking in other fruits and vegetables. In my FPS class, I learned a slightly simpler method for making the basic jelly, as well as the vanilla bean idea, which is just delightful. Apple jelly is the perfect almost neutral vehicle for herb and other single flavored jellies. This is a special one.

Just before you pour the hot jelly into jars, slit a vanilla bean and scrape the innards into the jelly. The shell of the bean can be cut into as many pieces as there will be jars, and one piece tucked into each just before you pour the jelly in. You can make specially flavored herb jellies this way too. Stack leaves of your fresh herb of choice, roll them into a cigar shape, and sliver them as thinly as possible: "chiffonade" it is called , I think. If you add the herb just before jarring the jelly, most of the fresh color, and all the fresh taste will be intact.

Despite its neutral, carrying qualities, the apple jelly is far from boring in its plain state. It has a good, clean, refreshing taste on its own. And it can be used to great advantage in the glazing of fruit tarts and the like. If you heat it up, and brush it on over the apples or berries, or stone fruit on top of the tart, it will dry to a shiny transparently rosy gloss, and make your fruit pastry look posh and polished.

It is best, for pectin purposes, to use unripe apples. My CSA farmers were kind enough to let me have a box of windfall apples from their orchard, which are perfect for this purpose.

Here is the somewhat simpler recipe, adapted slightly from the French Pastry School Version:

Green, preferably unripe apples 1500g
Water to cover
juice of a lemon
sugar 900g

Cut apples into 8 pieces each. Remove stems, but do not peel or core. Pour water over, bring to a boil, and simmer 1 hour. Put in a nonreactive container or bowl, and refrigerate overnight. In the morning drain through a very fine mesh strainer or chinois into a wide bottomed , heavy pan. (My copper preserving pan has proved so superior to any other I've tried, that I can actually say it has been a good buy. Also, it is very pretty. I am aware that it is slightly ridiculous to own such an object. But there you are.) Push on the apples slightly but not heavily. You want apple flavored liquid, not a cloudy puree.

If you leave the seemingly solid remains of the apple poised over a bowl, several hours later, you will have half again as much liquid collected. If you chill all the liquid in a ceramic or glass bowl overnight again, it actually seems to jell even more readily. This is not necessary, however. Add lemon and sugar, bring to a boil, and cook until it is clearly jelling- 65 brix*, or until a drop blobs, rather than runs, on a chilled pottery plate.

Pour into sterilized jars, allowing 1/4" space, top with new lids, and invert. Leave upside down overnight, check seals for boingers, and refrigerate all such deviants to use up quickly. I made eight ounce jars of plain apple jelly for multiple uses. The vanilla or herbal jellies are nicest in the bitty 4 oz. jars, I think. This makes 3 of one, and six of the other.

*Yes, I did buy an analog refractometer. You knew I would, I'll bet. It's pretty cool, and makes things way easier. But you can use the old fashioned methods too, and they have certainly always worked for me in the past. It would be a silly toy if you don't do much jam. Probably a silly toy for me anyway, but I do love it. And it takes very little storage space. Unlike the big old jam pan.

Comments

[Joanna]

Hi Lindy, that sounds WONDERFUL, looks great too ... I'm a great jelly maker, but I'd never have thought of putting vanilla into an apple jelly (I do all sorts of combinations, esp mint, also sage, and I use apples to firm up other fruits ... I can't wait for my fruit to be big enough to use ...

Thanks so much for sharing
Joanna

[Julie]

I'm laughing over the bit about the apple jelly with vanilla resembling amber with insects but I agree it does look pretty and it certainly sounds delicious. You're getting a nice start on Christmas gifts.

[stefanie]

I've been shopping around for a preserving pan but have not yet been able to reconcile myself to the price, frugal shopper that I am. I did recently purchase an Emile Henry butter keeper, though, so I seem to be headed down a slippery slope toward shiny, hammered-copper bliss.

[eg]

I bought my mother a copper preserving pan as a christmas gift last year. I found it at Tuesday Morning, if you have those where you live, so it made it much more affordable. The real challenge was fitting it in my suitcase at the last minute.

[julibelle55]

I love your site! I have a jelly/pectin question....do you know of a way to use just the apple pectin (sans sugar/lemon) in making jelly/jam. I think I understand adding the apple jelly to other fruit and how that works but I'm wondering if there isn't some way to avoid the additional sugar & jars expense. Any ideas -pro and con. Again, I enjoy your site and love your curiousity!

[Lindy]

Thanks, julibell. No, I don't know any other way. I suppose you could combine apples directly with a low-pectin fruit, but I don't have a recipe. You would still need sugar and lemon, proportionally. The jars are reusable, though- there's really no extra expense except the new lids..

[ben wolfson]

I notice that you don't say how much liquid you expect to recover from 1500g apples, and I assume it's that amount, rather than the initial apple-mass, to which the amount of sugar is matched. I was thinking of subbing some quinces, which I don't expect to yield as much juice, for some apple—any tips?