How To Make Orange and Apple Jelly

Homemade Jam Recipes

Ingredients: Orange and Apple Jelly Recipe

4 large, sweet oranges
3 lb / 1,300 grams of cooking apples
47 fl oz / 1,400 ml of water
White sugar (caster or granulated)

Method - What To Do

Wash the apples and the oranges. Slice the apples, leaving the skin on and including the core. Place the apple pieces into a preserving pan and pour over the water. Also slice the oranges in a similar fashion, keeping the skin on, and add these orange slices to the pan, being careful not to waste any of the juice on the chopping board.

Simmer the fruit slices gently, on a low heat, for around one and a quarter hours (75 minutes), so that the fruit has become really soft and tender. If you have oranges with a particularly thick and tough skin, you may need to simmer for a few minutes longer.

Take your pan off the heat of the stove and then strain the apples and oranges through a muslin bag or similar straining device. Collect the juices in a large bowl or saucepan beneath the strainer, and allow the juice to drip freely (without any pressing or squeezing). This will take a number of hours and so it is often easiest to leave your juices dripping overnight and return to your fruity jelly recipe the following morning.

Using a jug, carefully measure the collected orange and apple extract, and pour this liquid back into the saucepan. For every pint that you have measured (16 fl oz / 475 ml), add 1 lb / 500 grams of sugar. If you are not a sweet tooth, this amount of sugar can be reduced to no less than 14 oz / 400 grams per pint. Warm up the jelly mixture and stir well, so that by the time it begins to boil, all of the sugar has completely dissolved.

Allow the orange and apple jelly liquid to boil strongly for ten minutes, stirring occasionally during this time. Test the jelly to see if it has reached its setting point. Do this by placing a teaspoon-full of the syrup onto a chilled plate, leaving this jelly to cool for a minute. Run a fingertip through the mixture and if it wrinkles, due to the formation of a skin, you will know that it will set well. If it does not wrinkle in this way, then boil for another five minutes and re-test once more, boiling and testing in this manner until you reach a firm set.

Finally, take the pan off the stove and skim the surface, before pouring the jelly into sterile glass jars, topping with wax discs in the same way that you would with freshly bottled jam.

Orange and Apple Jelly Recipe - More Jelly Recipes.