Hot apple and chilli jelly recipe
Posted by Fiona Nevile in Christmas, Jam Jelly and Preserves | 74 comments
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.
Leave a reply
I have some crabapple juice I made last year. Could I add the fresh chillis to the juice to make the jelly?
Help! Why isn’t my jelly setting?! ?
I doubled up on the quantities, but that, surely can’t be the issue? Any advice welcomed!
Hello, I love this recipe but was wondering how you would recommend adjusting it for eating apples that aren’t overly sweet but are still not cookers? Would reducing the sugar effect the jelly set? Many thanks, Lorna
I made twenty jars last year..opened last one Sunday..Its fine..just as good as the first jar..Kept in cupboard.
This jelly is super. I had intended to put some small jars away for small Christmas treats but it doesn’t look as if it will last that long !!! I also made the Hot Apple and Chilli Cheese with the pulp – it is fabulous – especially on crackers. It is worth all the faffing about with the jelly just for the cheese.
Will the cheese recipe work for other fruits?
I cannot find the Hot Apple and Chili Cheese recipe, do you know where it is located? Thanks.
Hi Fiona,
I picked, chopped and froze a lot of apples from our tree. I had no time to do anything with them in the autumn but have a bit of time now. Do you think they’ll be okay to make this recipe? I fancy trying the recipe but don’t know if the frozen apples will be okay.
Thanks!
Hi Emma
Yes frozen apples would be fine!
Thanks for such a quick reply Fiona. I wonder why the jelly bag method sets more easily – you would think it might be harder due to the added water. Very interesting. I will let you know how my traditional method jelly sets a bit later. I must try not to squeeze the bag! and will be looking for a recipe to use up the pulp. Thanks again, I do love your recipes.
Hi Mauramac
You can use the pulp to make fruit cheese! There are recipes on the site.
Fiona – can you help me please with what might seem a daft question. I have just cooked my 600g of apples and 35g chillies as per instructions with 1 litre of water. I didn’t use steamer this time as wanted to try both methods. The apple mix is now cooked and I have ladled contents of saucepan into jelly bag to strain. This obviously includes the water used to cook the apple/chillies and my question is this. Does it make the jelly more watery or harder to set than the steaming method. Or do you ever dilute the juice made from the steamer method? Sorry that’s more than one question! I’ve never quite got my head around the difference in the 2 methods of juice extraction as the steamed fruit does produce lots of juice with no water added you would think the results would be very different.
Hi Mauramac
The water and juice produced during the steaming method is from condensed steam – I find that less is produced during the steaming method but I never add more water as it would take longer to set. The old fashioned jelly bag method is easier when it comes to getting the jelly to set, I think but the results are not as crystal clear as the steaming method.
FANTASTIC FANTASTIC this is lovely and so easy I am so proud of myself, I also saved the pulp and made the hot aplle and chilli cheese, sounds daft but they look so pretty in the jars too, that i left them on the kitchen counter for evryone to see, had trouble getting jars but now people are bringing jars by the dozen for a taste of something!!!! isn’t life just grand in the kitchen
i made hot apple chilli jelly 600 grams of eating apples cause they were free and used 35 grams of dried chillies from my plants this year it took quite a bit to set will try next time with all the apples chopped up because i don’t have a miller i had to cut up the apples and squashed it through a sieve