Pepper Jelly

Have you started thinking Christmas gifts yet? Not usually right! But Canning season is the perfect time for making up a extras for Christmas gifts, and this festive pepper jelly makes a wonderful gift at Christmas time.

After receiving a couple jars as gifts, years earlier, I asked myself why I had not made this fabulous festive sweet tasting jelly yet? So when summer hit, I started collecting pepper jelly recipes to can up and find the perfect one! And this one made the mark!

Now I want to encourage you to give pepper jelly a try, and can some extra jars up for gifts and I think you’ll be glad you did.

Pepper Jelly is festive to have on hand to serve at Thanksgiving, Christmas and even New Year’s Eve! You can make it red or green, even jeweled, but however you choose to make it, it turns into a wonderful ordurv that is super easy to serve and so festive for the holidays, tasty and enjoyed by many.

Now I always thought of pepper jelly as something hot and spicy but it’s actually sweet and yummy! Perfect on a bagel with cream cheese or with a tray of crackers as an hord’oeuvre. This pepper jelly is also excellent served along side turkey, pork or duck and chicken of course.

It’s Quick to take to any party at Christmas time… and you’re sure to get compliments!

To serve, use half a package  of cream cheese and spread it on a small plate (I use my fingers for this and just press it out on a plate nice and easily, you want a few dents in it – see photo below).

Then spread on the pepper jelly to your liking (I use about 1/2 the jam jar or so, and a jam jar is lil less than 1 cup, so I used about 2/3 to 3/4 of a cup on top of mine) next add some crackers,  and It’s that easy!    Tip: see in my pictures that I use 2 plates, one for the pepper jelly topped cream cheese and then 2nd plate which holds the crackers – this keeps your crackers crispy and your tray neat as people enjoy it. Also I usually put 2 small fancy knives by it, for people to spread it on to their crackers or get a good amount onto their plate and dip their crackers into. (see in top photo above also)

Red Pepper Jelly
Though called jelly, this really isn’t made like a jelly, but more like a jam therefore it’s super easy to make. This is a low sugar recipe.

Ingredients:
4 cups red sweet bell peppers – (or green bells if want green jelly)
1 jalapeno pepper – optional, if you like your jelly to have a hint of heat!
1 cup white vinegar
1 cup water
1 cup apple juice
few shakes of salt
3 cups sugar  (taste it and if you want it sweeter add more sugar)
7  teaspoons of powdered  “No-Sugar-Needed Fruit Pectin”  by Ball
(I use No-Sugar-Needed pectin by Ball because then I can adjust and lower the sugar and still have my jams turn out without any problems. With other pectins, you MUST use the FULL amount of SUGAR called for or the pectin does not set your jellies properly, and most jams have waaay to much sugar for my liking.)

Wash and finely dice your peppers, removing all seeds. Put peppers, water, apple juice, vinegar, salt, and powdered pectin in pan and whisk your pectin in so its well mixed.  Then bring to a full boil. Boil 4 minutes, stirring so as not to scorch it. Then add in sugar and stir well and boil another 4 minutes, test jam on frozen plate for sheeting –  it will thicken upon cooling and again when refrigerated.  Skim off  foam if there is any, and Pour into hot sterilized jars, seal and process in water bath for 10 minutes. (or as recommended in canning book) Remove jars and let cool.  Yields  6 half-pint jam jars.

Jeweled Pepper Jelly
This is my sister’s recipe and it’s fabulous! She made it with 3 colors of peppers and it was the prettiest jeweled jelly I ever saw. She uses no dye in hers. It looks like small pieces of jewels floating everywhere in a clear colored jam. For the jeweled look, use a total of 2 cups bell peppers, I used red, green, and yellow bell peppers.

Ingredients:
2/3 cup red bell peppers and  2/3 cup yellow bell peppers
2/3 cup green bell peppers
1/2 of jalapeno pepper (w/ no seeds)
1/2 cup each: white vinegar, water,  & apple juice (you can omit the apple juice and use 3/4 c  water and 3/4 cup vinegar or you can use all vinegar – but do not delete or lower vinegar amounts)
4 teaspoons powdered “No-Sugar-Needed Fruit Pectin”  by Ball
2 cups sugar

Dice peppers finely and remove all seeds. Bring peppers, vinegar and pectin to a quick rolling boil. Boil for 4 minutes. Next Stir in sugar and return to a rolling boil. Boil for another 4 minutes. Test for jelled stage on a cold plate. Pour into hot sterilized jars, seal and process in water bath for 10 minutes. Note if you want to actually taste heat, you really have to add more jalapeños, because this amount you really can’t taste any heat. These first 2 recipes are a thicker jam and I think the apple juice in them causes it to need less sugar and also helps it to gel better. Just my opinion.

Green Pepper Jelly
Now lastly here is one a sweet friend from church gave me. After I tasted how delicious hers was I decided to include it also as hers has no hot peppers, just the bell peppers in it. Hers was very yummy too and she served it at a Christmas Tea, the jelly was so festive and sweet tasting. Again, you could use either red or green bell peppers it just depends on the color jelly you want! I have tasted the pepper jellies in both colors and with and without the hot peppers and well, I think they all taste great!

You can add 2-3 drops of green dye or red dye in your pan,  most recipes call for it, but see how the color looks before you pour into your jars and try to avoid it if you can, but you decide. I did not use any. Beet powder is also great option to consider using for adding color to make things look lovely red, and its completely natural. You won’t need much of it and it really doesn’t add any taste.  I didn’t use any dye in any of mine and I thought my jelly color was perfect. So that’s why you don’t see any added to my recipes.

This was my friends recipe, it was a bit sweet for me but it was so kind of her to let me share it.

Ingredients:
4 cups green bell peppers
1 cup apple cider vinegar
5 cups sugar
1 box No-Sugar-Needed fruit pectin by Ball

Chop peppers finely and remove seeds. Put peppers and vinegar in pot and stir in pectin. Bring to a boil and boil for 3-4 minutes. Next stir in sugar. Keep stirring and bring to a full boil again for another 3-4 minutes.  Add dye here if you want to use it and then pour into your hot, sterilized jars, seal as normal and process in water bath for 10 minutes.

Now if you try this and you get jelly that doesn’t set firm enough, fear not, its excellent to cook your meat in, Brings chicken or pork in the crock pot to a whole new level. So don’t throw it out!  You can do the same with jelly that got a little too thick, use it on meat like a BBQ sauce to brush on as you grill… its not a loss, and then well try again!  Now I didn’t have any problems with these recipes setting, they were quick to cook and worked every time I made.  The only problem I had was keeping everyone out of it so I had some jars left by the time the holidays got here. I usually make a couple dozen jars each summer.

Well I’d love to hear how you used it, if you liked it and what color you made!