Apple Jelly

Name: Apple Jelly
Total time: 2 h
Yield: 4 to 5 cups
Ingredients: 3 1/2 pounds cooking apples, such as Granny Smith, Pink Lady, Jonagold, Braeburn or Honeycrisp, or a combination, scrubbed; 4 cups granulated sugar; 1/4 cup lemon juice (from about 2 lemons), plus more as needed; 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt (Diamond Crystal)

By Yewande Komolafe

Total Time: 2 hours, plus cooling and canning
Rating: 4(156)
Notes: Read community notes

This delicate fruit preserve can help you use up your bounty of peak fall apples. A crystal clear jelly is what you are after here, so look for cooking apples — you want firm, crisp fruit that will hold up to stewing and straining without falling apart. Once the apples are cooked and their juices are extracted, the resulting jam is reminiscent of floral honey and tart citrus. Serve with a buttery croissant, warm toast, as a filling for pastries or a glaze for fruit tarts and cakes.

Featured in: Preserving the Season at Its Peak

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Ingredients

Yield:4 to 5 cups

3½pounds cooking apples, such as Granny Smith, Pink Lady, Jonagold, Braeburn or Honeycrisp, or a combination, scrubbed
4cups granulated sugar
¼cup lemon juice (from about 2 lemons), plus more as needed
½teaspoon kosher salt (Diamond Crystal)

Ingredient Substitution Guide

Preparation

Step 1
Cut the apples into 1-inch pieces without peeling or coring, but discard any damaged or spoiled spots.
Step 2
Place the apples in a large nonreactive pot and pour in 8 cups water. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Lower heat to maintain a simmer and cook without stirring until the apples soften, 35 to 40 minutes.
Step 3
Remove from the heat. Set a fine-mesh sieve lined with cheesecloth or a muslin bag over another large pot, and pour the contents of the pot into the sieve. Do not press on the apples to prevent the jelly from becoming cloudy. You should have at least 7 cups of juice. Some apple varieties absorb more water and may need 2 to 8 hours for the juice to naturally strain out. If that’s the case, refrigerate the pot.
Step 4
Place a small plate in the freezer to use for testing the setting point of the jelly. Set the pot with the juice over medium-high heat. (Discard the fruit.) Add the sugar and lemon juice, and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Bring to a boil, skimming and discarding any foam that rises to the surface. Reduce the heat to medium and simmer until the liquid reduces by about three-quarters and a candy or deep-fry thermometer registers 225 degrees, 40 to 50 minutes. To test for doneness, spoon a small amount of liquid onto the cold plate from the freezer and return to the freezer to cool completely, about 2 minutes. Drag a spoon through the jelly. The setting point has been reached if it wrinkles and the wrinkles hold their shape. If they don’t, continue to cook the jelly and test every few minutes on the cold plate.
Step 5
Once the jelly is done cooking, add the salt, stir to dissolve and adjust with more lemon juice, if needed, for a nice balance of sweet and tart with a floral taste. Ladle the hot liquid into clean, sanitized jars, screw on the lids and follow steps to can, or allow to cool to room temperature and store in the refrigerator for up to 4 weeks.

Ratings

4 out of 5

156 user ratings

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Private Notes

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Cooking Notes

MK Cunniff3 years ago

You could reduce the sugar by a half cup, or even 1 cup. This jelly recipe has no added commercial pectin, which would facilitate using less sugar as well. But the beauty of jellies and jams made without added pectin is that there is no metallic aftertaste, at least to me. And apples have a lot of pectin on their own.

Christine Y.3 years ago

By how much can I reduce the sugar and still have a jelly result?

Lou3 years ago

Why would you discard the strained apple mash, instead of making applesauce?

pat3 years ago

When chopping the apples, be sure to remove the calyx or those little black threads will ruin the juice.

JA3 years ago

Made with apples from my trees, don’t know what kind they are and added 4 red chilis from the garden when simmering apples, and made it into a hot pepper jelly. Color, clarity was beautiful. Wish I could post the pic. Did take much longer than expected to get there.

Mia3 years ago

Cloves! I think that’s what my grandfather in Ireland used. I used to love his apple jelly on buttered toast, but any commercially produced ones here have been horrible, just sugar. I’ve never attempted to make jams or jellies, but I a think I’ll give this a try.

Christina3 years ago

Great recipe and so timely posted! Our apple tree (not sure what type) for the first time in years produced. Much of the fruit on lower branches were not perfectly formed but perfect to consume. Having a recipe that did not require peeling or coring convinced me to give it a try. Made 2 batches as the recipe was written and 2 batches with the recommendation of cloves. This yielded 16 half-pint canned jars, the flavor and color are absolutely lovely. So glad I have a subscription!

Catherine2 years ago

I love this recipe's simplicity & deliciousness, the taste of the apple at the end of all of that cooking is exquisite. Taste it before deciding to add salt or lemon juice at the end. If you like how it tastes do not add anything. The first time I made this even the smallest amount of salt & lemon totally overwhelmed the batch. It was much better without it the second time.

JRR3 years ago

My Grandma used the spoon test to check to see if the jelly had cooked long enough. When the drips off the side of the spoon coalesced into one wide drip, the jelly was done. She sieved the contents of the cheesecloth bag and made apple butter—that was delicious.

The master of cooking1 year ago

You can also make peach or pear jelly, since they are reletive to apples.

Selma2 years ago

If you've tried this recipe a few times and want to shake things up, I'd recommend replacing the apples with pears!

me2 years ago

So if you start out with 8 cups of juice and sugar and you reduce by three-quarters, you end up with 2 cups of jelly which contains 4 cups of sugar total? Is this correct?

Bianca2 years ago

Just like Lou asked, I was wondering if the remaining apple mash couldn’t be used instead of thrown out. What about peeling and coring the apples, putting it all in a little cooking ‘bag’ (made of cloth?) and cook all this with the apples? It seems such a waste otherwise. But would it work?

sharon2 years ago

This was delicious. Put the mash through a food mill, added cinnamon, warmed it, canned it. The texture was perfect

Bee2 years ago

Added a bit of boiled cider to darken color

Stephanie2 years ago

My jelly didn't set. I boiled it down to less than half. I wonder if I didn't boil the apples long enough to get the pectin out?

Chris B.2 years ago

Incredible. Like honey I used 3 1/2# Gala apples. Simmered them covered for 1 1/2 hrs. Let drip for an hour and got 6 cups of juice. Used three cups of sugar, 3 tablespoons lemon juice, scant 1/2 teaspoon Diamond Crystal salt. Reduced to 3 half pints and (1) 4 oz. jar. Then processed the jars in water bath for 10 minutes, then let the jars sit 5 minutes with the heat off.

Joan Butler2 years ago

First time making jelly and impressed with how it turned out. I used apples from a neighbour’s tree and not sure what type but they resulted in lovely pinkish jelly that tastes great, although a bit too sweet. It did take much longer than the recommended time and I had to skim a lot but worth it. I will make it again and add some type of hot pepper and experiment with less sugar.

Stephany Madsen2 years ago

This was a forgiving recipe for a jelly newbie. Made yesterday with apples from our old trees--not sure what kind! Used about 4 lbs with scant 4 c. sugar (1 c. Demarara) and lemon juice & salt. Cooking down juice took much longer than 40-50 min. using the frozen plate test. In fact, turned off cooking, put outside on cool porch and finished cooking this morning for about another 30 min.! Turned down too low after 1st boil? Got 4 3/4 c. jelly that tastes great and is lovely clear, red-gold.

Rosy2 years ago

What do you eat this apple jelly with other than toast? Has anyone tried adding sliced jalapenos?

rainyseattle2 years ago

I don’t recommend cooking the mixture to 225 degrees. That is almost soft ball stage for sugar and it turned out too firm for jelly.

Andrew2 years ago

I make my jams at 216-217F, on the slightly looser side.

Bagoody2 years ago

Oops, forgot the salt. Got distracted by how good my spoon lickings tasted. A great use for the plethora of apples falling in our yard. Worth picking another batch for. This recipe yielded five half pint jam jars.

Bagoody2 years ago

Oh, and saved the apples themselves, blended as applesauce and made baked oatmeal with it. Froze the rest for baking.

Dave2 years ago

None of the apples mentioned are in fact good cooking apples. Choose golden delicious or jonathon if you are limited to the grocery. If you have access to orchards, choose early gold, spartan, winter banana, or other true cooking apple. The apples themselves can be used for pies, tarts, other deserts, or eaten out of hand. Only the cores and peels need be used for jelly.

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