Hot crabapple chilli cheese
Comments(41)
Photo: Crabapple jelly and crabapple cheese
I only discovered how delicious fruit cheeses are a few years ago. Until then I had rejected them out of hand – using the left over pulp from jelly making seemed skinflint behaviour to me. And anyway would this pulp have any flavour at all?
I didn’t even bother to taste the pulp when jelly making which was a big mistake as I missed out on this treat. Fruit cheese can be sliced and served with starters, chops, roasts, cheese and even with fruit desserts.
Crabapples, particularly when they first start to ripen often produce very little juice. But the jelly making process leaves a lot of pulp. By turning this into cheese you are using all of your foraged bounty (crabapples are not generally for sale in the shops as they aren’t grown commercially in the UK).
I’ve deliberately used a small amount of crabapples in this recipe as the less that you use dramatically effects time that it takes to make the cheese. Our quince cheese recipe (Membrillo) can take several hours to thicken.
I took a tip from Sarah who left a comment on our hot crabapple chilli jelly recipe and added some chopped dried chillies just before potting. Excellent. Thank you Sarah.
This recipe made just over a pound of jelly and four small straight sided jars of cheese.
Hot crab apple and chilli cheese recipe
Ingredients:
• 600g of crab apples washed and chopped
• 35g of medium red chilli peppers, washed and chopped with seeds in
• 1 litre of water
• White granulated sugar 320g to each 400ml of pulp
• 2-3 tbsp of fresh lemon juice
• 2-3 small chopped dried Bird’s Eye chillies to be added at the end just before potting up
Method:
1. Put the chopped crab apples and chillies in a large heavy bottomed saucepan.
2. Add 1 litre of water (they should just be floating). Bring to the boil and simmer very gently (lid on) until the crab apples soften and become pulpy. This took about 45 minutes. Stir in the lemon juice.
3. Strain through a muslin square or jelly bag overnight.
4. Retain the juice for hot crabapple jelly – our recipe is here.
5. Strain the pulp through a sieve
6. Add the pulp to a large heavy bottomed pan and add the sugar. Bring very slowly to the boil, stirring constantly to dissolve the sugar.
7. When the sugar is dissolved simmer gently stirring every now and then until the pulp thickens. This took me about twenty minutes as I was using a large pan, it would take more time in a smaller pan. Watch the sides of the saucepan, when you notice the pulp thickening on the sides the cheese is ready.
8. Dollop into well greased (I used olive oil) warm sterilised flat sided jars. Fit cellophane tops or lids and leave to cool.
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What a great idea. I have always dumped the pulp before, but I’ll give this a go. I have crab apple and clove jelly to make this week.
HmmmI tried this last year.
http://naivezebra.com/?p=978
But whilst the recipe and process looked nice , not enough pectin was produced and it never set , it ended up more like a lava lamp , so , being a person that hated waster , it became the principle bait in my slug traps , to great success.
Not the initial idea , Hot Apple and Chilli Slug catcher , but hey ho ever resourceful.
Hi Ma
If you heat up the pulp it’s easier to pass through a sieve.
Hello Native Zebra
I’ve checked out your post and unfortunately you can’t make jelly like that. You need to put the fruit in the top of your steamer and collect the juice below. The juice is used to make jelly – you have to make this in a separate pan and add sugar (like making jam). The pulp (the fruit in the steamer) is passed through a sieve and then put in a separate pan and sugar is added to make cheese.
You can make cordials by layering sugar and fruit in your steamer but not jelly or cheese
BTW I discovered a mini cookbook and instructions for a juicer steamer. I don’t know about you but I had no manual with my Lakeland steamer. The link to the booklet is here http://www.psychodame.org.uk/steamer.pdf
Hi As I understand it the fruit cheeses has a shorted shelf life and I wondered if you could freeze them to extend this?
Tricia
Hi Tricia
The fruit cheese should have a shelf life of about a year. I’m sure that you could freeze it but I don’t bother – I just protect well from mice who love it!
I love fruit cheese. The recipe I have uses the juice as well, I make cheese with the cherry plums around here, and I’ve also made it with apricots, both delicious. I used a flat dish to set it in, and a plastic container to keep it in. It kept in the pantry for well over a year, just got a bit crystalized at the end. My notes say you can freeze it as well.
I serve it on crackers along with real cheese
I love the idea of chilli’s added, Thank’s for the great tip.
Boo hoo – I’m still catching up on the posts after being away and have just thrown my crab apple pulp on the compost heap this morning bfore reading this! I did read that you could make cheese from the pulp left over from jelly making but didn’t know how and thought I wouldn’t have time to work it out! We got the crab apples on hol in Scotland too – never seen any down here in Westcountry. Never mind there’s loads of other things to do and not loads of time, it’s such a busy time of year, can’t do it all. Just have to go back to Scot next year! BTW fn I’ve had an email from Westfalia to say my juice extractor has been despatched so thank you so much for the info. Am off for more foraging this afternoon!
Hi
Daft me thought fruit cheeses only had a few months shelf life not sure why but thanks for letting me know. Will make some up ASAP sounds lovely.
Many thanks for this recipe it looks great. I’m hoping to have a go at spiced crab apple jelly (my aunt’s recipe) and this should compliment it nicely by using the pulp.
My only problem is time and I’m just hoping the crab apples will still be around by the time I want to do this in two or three weeks.
Hi what about using the pulp from brambles etc for bramble and crabapple cheese, I never throw any pulp away except the rowan pulp left from that jelly. (too bitter)you can always make a cheese of some variety just use imagination
Hi everybody,
I am just about to make some chilli crab apple jelly… I will keep you informed of the progress…
I was just wondering if anybody knew a good recipe for crab apple chutney?
Many thanks,
Laurence
thanbks for the good ideas, here’s a recipe for Crab apple chutney – very piquant, might need to add more suger if you like it a bit less sharp.
Pear/Crab apple Chutney
Ingredients:
• 3 lb (1.4 kg) pears/crab apples/apples
• 2 cooking apples
• 1 lb (450 g) onions
• 1 lb (450 g) seedless raisins
• 1 teaspoon hot chilli powder or cayenne pepper
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 garlic clove
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon nutmeg
• Juice and grated rind of 2 lemons
• 1 lb (450 g) soft brown sugar
• 1 pint (570 ml) white distilled vinegar
Method:
1. Peel, core and chop the pears and apples. Peel and chop the onions. Crush the garlic.
2. Put all of the ingredients into a large pan with the vinegar and stir well with a wooden spoon.
3. Bring to the boil, stirring occasionally. Reduce to a simmer and continue simmering for around 2 hours, stirring occasionally, or until it is thick.
4. Ladle into hot, clean, sterilized jars, cover and seal.
5. Label when fully cool.
Makes about 4 lb (1.8 kg) of Chutney.
Steve that recipe sounds lovely! We’ve so many apples (crab, cookers and eaters) on the trees round here and new recipes are always good. I’m gonna start on jelly and cheese next week, but will try to make some of this afterward too I think.
Hi everyone!
Thanks Steve for the great Chutney recipe. I will try it next week.
We made the chilli crab apple jelly over the week-end (phew!) and it is ab-so-lu-tly delicious!
We had so many apples in our garden that we ended up making different batches: chilli, extra chilli, plain (for the children) and cheese as well (hot and plain). We had some jelly with gammon on the bone at lunch and with pork the day before. Great with omelette as well. We feel very proud and quite exhausted, I must admit. But definitely worth the effort! My mother is going to try to make chilli cheese with quince back at home – I think it is a great idea. I will let you know if it works.
A tip: when you make the jelly, cook the apples with the chillies, strain the juice as in the recipe, but if you like it extra hot (as we do!), add some fresh chillies (slit in the middle lengthwise) with the sugar once you have skimmed the juice. Then leave them to simmer until it is all ready to be skimmed again just before you pour in jars. Delicious!
Thanks again to all of you. It was great to be part of the forum. I will visit again
Hi Laurence
Inspired by you, I’ve harvested some of my neighbours ornamental crab apples – thanks for the extra chilli tips. Will be testing out your suggestions this week.
Great! I feel flattered…
I have to add that the first batch I made, I used special sugar for jam making and it set really well (actually, I would say a bit too much as I prefer it when the jelly is not too thick, but slightly ‘runny’)and the chilli is sitting proudly in the middle of the jar…
For the second batch, I used half normal sugar and half special jam making sugar and, although I prefer the consistency, adding the fresh chilli at the end has added a bit of moisture in the middle and made it a bit runnier, specially where the chilli has settled. I personally don’t mind, but I thought I should let you all know… It also occurred to me this morning that, although quite unlikely, the sugar should preserve the chilli well and not go ‘funny’… I will keep an eye on mine, just in case, but my mother – the expert – reckons it should be absolutely fine…
Just FYI…
Laurence
If I don’t have straight sided pots to put this in, and just use jars instead, how hard is it going to be to get it out of said jars? Will it spoon out ok?
Hi Vialdana,
I am not sure I understand what you mean.
Do you mean how hard is it going to be to get the chilli out of the jar?
Laurence
No I mean the recipe talks about using straight sided containers because the cheese can be cut. I’m saying, if I put it into regular jars – same as you’d use for jam or jelly – will I still be able to get it out or is it going to be difficult (I’ve never made a fruit cheese before, so I’m not really sure what consistancy to expect).
Hi Vialdana
If you use ordinary jars you will be able to get it out with a spoon. I use straight sided jars so that I can cut it to serve. It is not rock hard
Hi Vialdana,
For any fruit cheese, I usually don’t use jars, but square or rectangular oven-proof dishes (tip from my mother – it makes it so much easier to cut it into any shape you want to serve it). I pour the hot paste in the dish (grease or slightly damp) and leave it until is has cooled down and solidified (about 2 to 3 days – cover it with a clean tea towel, but do not use cling film or foil or anything air-tightening). Once it has solidified, you can wrap it twice in baking parchment and leave it on a plate or a dish, or even a plastic box (but I don’t use plastic). All you need to do it replace the baking parchment from time to time as it will get a little sticky and damp from the sugar seeping from the cheese. You can keep it like that for a very long time indeed and it will gradually get drier and drier, but never really hard. Some people prefer to keep it in an airtight plastic container, I don’t because I can taste the plastic, but it is up to you. I hope that helps.
By the way, I made my last batch of crab apple jelly last night (not chilli, this one is for the children – I had complaints!) and I added some hard pears and Bramley apples AND… vanilla pods!! I cut them in half and then lengthwise to scrape out the seeds and left the whole lot to boil with the juice and the sugar until ready. I poured the jelly and stuck the vanilla pod/s in the middle of the jars. So pretty (you can also see the black seeds floating in the jelly) and so, SO tasty! The house was filled with the sweet, delicious aroma of vanilla, sugar and fruit…
The problem is, I STILL have loads of crab apples on the tree in the garden!! It pains me to leave them to the birds and squirrels… But I think we have enough jellies and cheeses… Should I have one last go? Any suggestions or ideas of one last easy ‘thing’ I could make?…..
Laurence
Thanks for that Lawrence – I’ve used jars this time as I needed to make the stuff, and couldn’t find any dishes that were suitable and wouldn’t cost me a fortune (I’ll keep my eyes open before next year to see if I can get some so I can do it properly then).
I am so excited about my little bag of crabapples- scavenged today- I cannot wait to make all these things- I have lots of mint and basil growing on my windowsill- I may add some to the jelly and cheese! I love all things with chilli, so clearly need to do that too, and cloves sound amazing, as does vanilla!
thanks very much!
Helen
Hi all,
My beautiful but somewhat stupid (lol) daughter has used the pulp from the crab apple and chilli jelly to make the cheese. Unfortunately she missed one very important line in the recipe, and that was to sieve the pulp. We now have a large amount of lovely flavoured but foul textured cheese. Is this destined for the bin or does anybody know if we can we remedy this.
Babs
Hello Helcatmichael
I made some wonderful jelly last night – sweet yet tart and with a real chilli kick!
Hi Babs
You could try putting it through a mouli or food mill.
I have just made a batch of crab apple and chilli cheese and, inspired by some apple jelly I bought last year, added some sage to half the batch. We had some apple, sage and chilli jelly last year with bread, cheese, pork and cider. It was one of the most glorious picnics I have ever had!
Fiona – I know that you recommend leaving damson cheese for at least 2 months before eating – would you advise doing the same for the crab apple cheese?
Hi everyone and Fiona in particular,
This is all very inspiring. I have made rather a lot of crabapple jelly- both spiced with cinnamon and plain, now I wonder whether I shoudl reboil some with some chilli after all…
I also made sloe and crabapple jelly and loathe to chuck it will use the pulp for cheese tonight, I’ll keep you posted…
Happy cooking!
Hx
This has all made fascinating reading. I’ve always hated throwing away so much pulp when making jellies and now I don’t have to anymore. Also love the idea of making them with chillies. Thank you.
Hi Kate
You can eat the crabapple cheese straight away.
Grest idea adding sage.
Hi Helen
Like the idea of using cinnamon.
The addition of chopped dried chillies is a)pretty and b) very tasty.
Hello Choclette
Thanks for dropping by.
I have 3 large quinces waiting to be made into jelly and membrillo, probably next week. I am concerned about leaving it out to dry as I have had mice in the house in the autumn every year since I moved into this house and they find any food not stored in tins or boxes. They haven’t moved in this year and I don’t want to tempt them. Any suggestions?
Inspired by your site, I bought a dehydrator from Westfalia to deal with a glut of pears and apples. I am not sure how long they will last (due to being eaten, not spoiling) but will use them in Christmas cooking. I make apple butter in the microwave as it is quicker and less apt to burn than traditional recipes.
Hello Barbara
Mice ate my membrillo one year! Can’t think of a way to stop it happening except I now put it in an old tin with holes (banged out with a nail) in the airing cupboard to dry out.
My dehydrator is used a lot now. I got 13 bell peppers from the market for £1.50 and they went straight in the dehydrator for later this winter. If stored in airtight containers they will last for at least a year.
Interesting that you make apple butter in the microwave. We don’t have one so the slow cooker is the best choice for me.
I’ve never heard of fruit “cheese” before but I’m definitely going to give this a try with the leftover pulp from the crab apple chili jelly I just strained. My only question is – what exactly do you eat it fruit cheese with? I don’t eat dairy cheese or meat, so I’m a little stumped. When I see recipes like this, they always say something like “goes well with Sunday roast or sharp cheddar.” Um, anything else? =) Looking forward to hearing your ideas!
Hi,
I made some damson cheese for the first time – I’m not sure if I overcooked it but it’s seriously sticky and pretty hard to cut, like the inside of a fruit pastille! Delicious once extracted, but.. does anyone know if it’ll get better if I leave it for the recommended 2 months or is it a wasted batch?
Could always melt it down as a sauce for duck if so!
Thanks for any help
Hi Finley
It will harden as it ages. But all is not lost – see my article here for resurecting your jelly http://www.cottagesmallholder.com/jelly-set-too-hard-514
Thanks for this, Fiona – I have made some today and it is excellent!
By the way, you might like this book for more recipes, if you don’t have it already; I’ve made some lovely chutneys and cheeses from it over the years.
http://amzn.to/bvbnGi
I always use my left over pulp to make fruit leathers. I have some extremely boozey cranberries left over from a christmas vodka I’ve been making. I was thinking the alcohol taste wouldn’t work well for leather so I will try the cheese method on them.
Disaster! I have just checked my crab apple & chilli cheese (which I made earlier this autumn) & most of the jars have either green or brownish mould on them. The ones that look clear have gone into the fridge. The cheese is greatly prized in our house, particularly by my 9 year old son! What do you think went wrong? I made some last year & it kept fine, I don’t think I did anything different this time. Should I store the Quince jelly I have just made differently?
Any suggestions would be gratefully received.
Me again – I meant to say Quince Cheese! I am worried that I will lose that too.
Hi there, I don’t know if this thread is still active but here’s hoping!
I’m about to make the chilli apple jelly recipe from some windfalls and scrubby apples …possibly including some maggots! Is it still ok to make the fruit cheese from this type of pulp or do you need good apples to start with?
Many thanks!
i’ve just made some from crab apples, think you can use any apples !!
I made variations on crabapple jelly by cooking one plain batch then putting a jarfull into a smaller pan then stirring in a sprig of rosemary, thyme or a couple of sliced garlic cloves, letting it infuse over gentle heat then pouring it into jars. Scrummy.