This past weekend was such a perfect fall weekend in upstate NY. The sun was shining and it provided a perfect opportunity for our family to be out enjoying nature and doing a little bit of harvesting. As you can see - the leaves up by out pond and back field are starting to change.
There's not much that screams fall more than picking apples. So we ventured out back and came back with buckets (and bellies) full of fresh wild apples and beechnuts.
In addition to the traditional pies, crisp, cider and apple sauce I have a bit of an apple crush on Apple Hot Pepper Jelly. It's such a great combination of sweet, hot and tangy that I can't resist making it every year. There's little better than a smear of cream cheese and some apple pepper jelly to make a cracker feel like fall.
Apple Hot Pepper Jelly
~5 lbs apples (need total yield of 5 cups juice)
7 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup apple cider vinegar
1 1/2 cups chopped your choice hot peppers
Cut your apples roughly into a halves or quarters. You do not need to peel or core your apples - this will get strained out later. I almost always use a combination of wild apples for this. I like a mix of a sweeter juicer apple and a tart apple. Apples with nice deep red peels will also give you a beautiful pink color to your juice...and ultimately your jelly (more on this later). Place apples in a large pot and fill with just enough water to bring almost level with the apples.
Place the apples on the stove, bring to a boil, and boil hard for 20-30 minutes - until your apples are pretty mushy. I mush my up a bit with a large wooden spoon while they're boiling to get the juices out. Strain your apple mixture through a food strainer into a large picture, bowl or pot.
After straining, you'll be left with your apple peels, cores and some mush. You can go ahead and toss, compost or feed to your animals.
You should now have a nice pitcher of pink liquid.
Now I take an extra step to strain out the rest of those apple solids and create a nice jelly liquid. The easiest way to do this is strain your liquid through some cheese cloth over a large pot or bowl, but if you don't have cheesecloth (like I didn't the day I made this) coffee filters will work just fine!
To do this, I put my strainer back in the pitcher. Push a coffee filter down into the bottom of the strainer.
Slowly pour your liquid into the filter - careful not to slosh over the sides. Let it sit for a few minutes until the liquids strain through and you're left with just the solids. You will need to periodically switch out our coffee filter for a new one and dispose of the captured solids (or add to your peels and other mush you're composting!
When you're done, you'll be left with this gorgeous pink liquid
Next, return your liquid to your pot. Add your sugar and apple cider vinegar to the liquid and bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally.
While your liquid is coming to a boil, prepare your hot peppers. The first time I made this jelly I was using beautiful red and orange Hungarian hot peppers - which have heat similar to a jalapeno. I hadn't handled peppers a lot before. Apparently I have a sensitivity to them because I ended up with extremely red, burning hands for over a day. (The jelly was amazing though!) Since then I've come up with my own perfect way to cut a hot pepper without letting my hands come in contact with the seeds or getting them all over.
Start by cutting out around the pepper stem. Pull out - most of the seeds will come with it - and dispose.
Next run your knife gently around the inside of the pepper to loosen up any remaining peppers and invert the pepper into the garbage to dump them. If you still have a lot of lingering seeds, you can run some water into the pepper cavity, swoosh and dump.
Now that those seeds are gone, you can easily chop up most peppers with your bare hands. If you're using a really hot pepper or unsure of your body's reaction to peppers - just wear gloves (it's worth it - trust me).
Back to the jelly - which should be close to boiling now with all the sugar dissolved.
As soon as your liquid starts boiling, add your hot peppers. Boil and stir your peppers until "gelled".
Turn off the heat, and continue to stir for about 5-6 minutes. This is going to distribute the peppers through your jelly while it cools a bit and help ensure that your end product has peppers suspended throughout it rather that all floated to the top.
Ladle your jelly into hot, sterilized jelly jars. Top with lids and process 5 minutes in a boiling water bath. Turn off heat and allow to sit for 5 minutes before removing. Allow to cool and check for sealing.
Your resulting Jelly should have a beautiful pink color and those suspended peppers adding additional color throughout. This jelly makes for an amazing appetizer - served over cream cheese or alone and smeared on crackers. I've also added to the crock-pot with sliced smoked sausage or kielbasa for a delicious main dish. This is also great for gifting!
