Apple Jelly Recipe That Tastes like Apple Pie (2024)

Make this unique apple jelly recipe with apple pie like chai spices, and create awesome homemade preserves. This apple jelly makes a great festive gift, thanks to the additional spices. It’s like a hit of apple pie on your morning toast, and goes great in oatmeal, on toast, bagels, waffles, and even on thumbprint cookies!

This apple jelly recipe can be made with any type of apple, from crab apples to sweet apples like Macintosh, Goldens, Granny Smith, or even Gala or Honey Crisp. There are many apple varieties to make jelly from, use a combination of varieties for the best flavor. If you combine a tart apple with a sweet apple, you can get the best flavor blends from both of them.

This apple jelly recipe can be made closer to a jam by putting the cooked apples through a sauce mill, rather than just straining it down to juice before adding the sugar and other ingredients. This will make it more like apple butter, rather than a clear jelly. This is a versatile way of preserving apples, and the jelly will stay good for many years.

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Apple Jelly Recipe:

Yield: 7 — 250ml jelly jars

Ingredients:

• 24 cups of crab apples or other tart apples (8 lbs.)
• 8 cups of water
• 1 cup lemon juice
• 4 cups of organic sugar
• 2 teaspoon sweet cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon ginger
• ½ teaspoon cardamom

How to Make the Jelly:

Wash the crab apples. Sort them for any imperfections or bruises. Remove the stem and blossom ends and cut them in half. If you are using other tart apples, quarter them, after removing the stem and blossom end. No need to remove the seeds and cores. They will add extra pectin. Cut out any bruises or bad spots, there is no need for peeling. Add water and the apples to an 8 quart pot, or other large pot.

Simmer on low heat until the crabapples are soft. Stir with a spoon to make sure the apples soften evenly.

Mash the apples with a potato masher to release as much juice as possible.

Wet a cloth, cheesecloth, or jelly bag and wring out excess moisture. Line a colander with the wet cloth or use a jelly funnel. (I use a gauze diaper, purchased specifically for kitchen use.) Pour the cooked and mashed crabapples through the cloth, catching the juice in a clean bowl. Tie up and suspend the cloth over the bowl to catch the drips. Leave it overnight. Don’t squeeze the cloth or your jelly will be cloudy. You can use this apple juice as a base for apple cider if you don’t wish to make the jelly.

Add the juice, at least 7 cups, to a large sauce pan. Add lemon juice and sugar, and spices. Bring the juice, lemon juice, and sugar to a full rolling boil, keep over medium heat rather than high heat to prevent it from scorching. Boil for 15 to 18 minutes until the liquid passes the gel test, use a candy thermometer to help.

Remove from the heat. Skim off any foam.

Pre-warm the jelly jars, or half pint jars, by washing in hot water. You can make sterile jars by placing them in a 250F oven for 20-30 minutes. While still hot, pour or ladle the jelly into 7 — 250 ml/ 1 cup jelly jars, leaving a 1 inch headspace. Wipe the rims with a hot cloth to remove any spilled jelly. Cap with sterilized lids and rings. Screw on and tighten rings until finger tight. Process the apple jelly mixture in a boiling water bath in your water bath canner for 10 minutes. A hot water bath is a safe canning method, but if you’re concerned you can also pressure can the jelly instead.

Remove from the water and cool on a tea towel for a few hours or overnight. Jelly will solidify while the jars cool. Sometimes it takes a few days for the jelly to become more solid. Don’t despair. If it passed the gel test, it will gel when it is cool.

For Clear Jelly:

Since powdered spices are used in this recipe, the jelly will not be crystal clear. If you are making this jelly for a competition, use whole spices rather than powdered spices and tie the spices in a cloth bag. Boil the bag of spices in the apple juice, remove the spice bag before adding the sugar and lemon juice and then proceed with the recipe. I haven’t tried it this way so I can’t advise on how much dried spice to use. You’ll need to experiment on the amount of whole spices and how long to simmer them in the juice to get the flavor to your liking.

Using Apple Pie Jelly:

This is a fun jelly to use as a side or glaze for pork dishes, or any meat dish where you want a sweet glaze.

If you cook down the apples with the spices, and run it through an applesauce mill it makes a wonderful applesauce. Just add enough sugar to satisfy your taste buds, rather than the amount the recipe calls for.

If you have multiple different types of apples, you can make batches of this apple jelly recipe using different types of apples to get different nuances in the flavor profile. Or, switch up the spices and make completely different flavor combinations.

If you’ve made more jelly than you have jars, the freezer is your friend and you can temporarily freeze the apple jelly until you have the ability to can it, or use it.

More Canning Resources:

There are many more types of jelly that you can make in the autumn. Black current chutney is a great, tart and sweet condiment with many possible uses, and it’s more adventurous than black current jelly.

If you have Oregon grapes in your area, another lemon-y jelly to try is Oregon grape jelly. While the berries can be difficult to pick, the resulting jelly is well worth the work.