Hot apple and chilli jelly recipe
Comments(22)
Photo: Hot apple chilli jelly
Danny doesn’t like things to be too hot but strangely the combination of sweet and heat in this jelly gets the thumbs up from him. Apple chilli jelly is brilliant with sausages, pork, lamb or any rich meat. Pork chops baked with a few tablespoons of this jelly are yummy. In fact it’s a very versatile preserve and well worth making. I’ve even added a little to winter salad dressings to give them a bit of a lift. The health benefits of eating chillies are amazing.
I thought that I’d written up this recipe and spent ages looking for it on the site. Basically it’s the same as hot crab apple jelly with the addition of a little lemon juice. I’m writing it up as the left over pulp is the main ingredient for my new recipe – hot spiced apple and cranberry sauce which I will post in a couple of days.
If you are lucky enough to own a fruit steamer like me. You can extract your juice and make the jelly immediately. If not then this is a two day recipe.
Hot apple and chilli jelly recipe
Ingredients:
• 600g of cooking apples washed and chopped
• 35g of medium red chilli peppers, washed and chopped with seeds in
• 1 litre of water
• White granulated sugar 500g to each 500ml of juice
• 1 tablespoon of lemon juice
• 5 dried birds eye chillies chopped
Method:
Put the chopped apples and chillies in a large heavy bottomed saucepan.
Add 1 litre of water (they should just be floating). Bring to the boil and simmer until the apples soften and become pulpy (lid on). This took about 45 minutes.
Strain through a muslin square or jelly bag overnight. (Retain the pulp to make hot apple and chilli cheese)
Add the juice to a large heavy bottomed pan and add the sugar and the lemon juice. Bring slowly to the boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar. When the juice and sugar has come to the boil remove from the heat and skim well. Return to the heat and bring to a rolling boil until setting point is reached. This took 15 minutes.
Stir in the chopped dried chillies and pour into warm sterilised jars. Seal immediately.
These make great little Christmas or anytime presents.
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Apple and chilli work suprisingly well together. Thanks for this!
Hello Scott
I love this jelly and use it a lot in cooking
Hi Fiona PLEASE CAN YOU HELP HELP ME
The first time I made this wonderful jelly it was fantastic – started to make an other batch yesterday but I ran out of fresh chilli peppers so I tried dried ones WOH will blow your head of -any idea how I can pull this round unless I keep making more apples to add to it (this has created quite a lot of laughter in our house) here is what I used ——- I wanted a double batch the first time round
1200 gms cooking apples
35gms dried chilli peppers – how daft is that
2 ltr water
woh woh disaster so I made another batch of
1200 gms cooking apples
2 ltr water
and added this to the first lot——- now have lots of wonderful liquid and plenty of mush apples which I hoped to make inton apple/cranberry sauce — but oh sooooooooooo hot – how can I rescue this – have thought of making up more apples to add to mix yet again – I have not yet added the sugar – (dont want to waste more ingredients if it cant be saved)hope you can make sence of this rambling.
Mary (now a real hot Mama)
Hi Mary
What I would do is cook up 1200gms of apples plus 2 litres of water. Then add some of the red hot mixture a tablespoon at a time until you have the right amount of heat. Note how many spoonfuls you need and divided the super hot chilli apple mixture into the same sized portions to freeze to add to a plain apple mix next time.
Thanks Fiona
Have just put on another 1200gms of apples – will add small amounts of red hot mixture (at this rate I will end up with dozens of jars)
I am busy making space in the pantry for all my jars of goodies. Have cooking some ‘Gingered Spareribs with brown sugar’- in slow cooker they will make a wonderfull supper dish on this cold sunday evening.
Once again many thanks for your help and all the wonderfull receipts.
Mary
Thank you for this idea; we have SO many apples, and peppers are an easy thing to buy when we’re in the city, because a few go such a long way. I’m looking forward to trying this when Bob comes back from the city with cargo… I’m going to call and ask him to get a few chili peppers.
Hello Betsy
This apple chilli jelly is extremely popular on our gateside stand. In fact I’m going to make another batch today!
Do the apples need to be peeled and cored?
No just chop them up!
Hi
This recipe sounds fantastic, and I’m just starting my first batch.
I have some preserving sugar to use up (without addded pectin) do you think this would work just as well as granulated sugar?
Also, should I store the jars of jelly in the fridge or will they be OK in a dark cupboard, and how long will the jelly keep?
Many thanks
Hi Jules
Preserving sugar leaves a nasty aftertaste I reckon. But it would work. The jelly lasts for months in sealed jars, store in a dry place.
This jelly is fab. It is great to use in so many ways. I put a big dollop on my dinner last night, which was pork loin, and it was lovely, much more tasty than boring apple sauce! I also use it on cheese sandwiches etc, yummy.
Hi,
I am in the UK. Where is the best and cheapest place to buy jars from. I have found somewhere locally, but they are quite expensive.
Thanks
Frances
Hi, Lakeland sell jars, lids, labels etc, but I just use old jars from food stuffs I have used, jam, curry sauce etc. Wash in hot water thoroughly, rinse, then sterilise in the oven. You can buy labels at W.H Smith for a few pence.
Hi
This jelly sounds great. But, I am confused about the sugar quantity. You advised 500g for every 500ml of juice – does that mean I use 1000gms for the recipe above? I am getting that calculation from the water.
Thanks
Hi Morag
You need to measure the juice obtained – when it has dripped through the jelly bag. Then you work out your sugar ratio
This jelly turned out amazing!
One tip — I made the jelly just as instructed, with 35g of chilis. I tasted the broth and thought, “much much too hot!”. I even took out some broth and mixed it with sugar and still thought it would be too hot. So, I made a second batch, adding chili to taste.
I ended up jarring up both batches, and the original batch ended up perfect! The more dilute-chili batch is still lovely… but it is not nearly hot enough.
I thought I would share that for anyone who feels the need to dip their paws in the jelly-broth and make adjustments. Fiona’s recipe as-is is just right.
Hi,
Have you ever made this with plum jelly instead of apples. I made the apple one last year and it was delicious, have now got 5 pints of plum juice and wonderedd if I could add chillis to that?
Also, can I make plum cheese from the pulp and if so, what is the best way.
Thanks
Hi, Chris here.
I am just about to make this jelly and realised I have bags of fresh chillies but no dried birds eye ones for the finished jelly. Will fresh ones work just as well or I do have a jar of crushed chilli flakes, can I use them?
Also, having grown so many chilli plants this year was wondering if anyone has a method of oven drying them. I have some frozen but wondered if I could oven dry them too?
Hi Chris
Use the chilli flakes at the end – they should include the seeds
Hi fn,
Just wondered if you had missed my question above???
Thanks
Hi Frances
Apologies. I did miss your question.
Yes I reckon that you could make plum chilli jelly – as these are not so high in pectin as apples I’d put in 4 tablespoons of lemon juice.
Re the plum cheese. I’d follow this recipe
http://www.cottagesmallholder.com/hot-crabapple-chilli-cheese-3733 and up the sugar to 400g if you want it to last more than 2-3 months.