Hi Chewsies!
My cousin, {{The Lady}} has been trying to wrangle me into writing a post about canning for months now, so here it goes. =)
I make up a lot of my recipes (once you have this canning thing down, you will too) BUT ’tis the season for giving homemade canned goods as presents, and there are some staple recipes I like to use. Simply Recipes has an amazing apple butter recipe I use all the time and for the first time, I’m trying out Food In Jars cranberry apple jelly recipe.
Now here’s the secret people who can don’t want you to know…Canning is REALLY easy! Once you get the basics down, you just rinse and repeat for all of your other recipes. “And what are you basics?” you may ask.
Here they are: first, sterilize your jars. Wash them out with hot soapy water, rinse, and put them in an 200 degree oven until you’re ready to use them. Take your jar lids and sterilize them in boiling water. Make your jam (more on that below). The key to a good jam is pectin; pectin is your best friend. I try to stick with fruits that have a lot of pectin naturally (apples, cranberries, grapes) to avoid having to add the artificial kind later. Then comes the canning. You can buy a Ball Canning Discovery Kit if you’ve never done this before. The things to remember with canning are that the jars do not touch the bottom of the pot you’re boiling them in, there needs to be an inch of water over the top of each jar as it boils for 10 minutes, and finally, when the jar cools and you press down on the center of the lid, you know you did it right if the top does not move.
So I made some alterations to the cranberry apple jelly recipe, as you can see below. I doubled the water in the recipe because I wanted the final product to have to be more smooth (which means it just has to cook down a little longer) and I added orange and spices. I chose orange versus two lemons because cranberries are tangy enough, I wanted to keep the citrus flavor without making it too tart.
Cranberry Apple Jelly
Ingredients
8 cups of peeled and diced apple (approximately 5-6 large apples, 1/2 inch dice. Use a softer apple like a Golden Delicious. Firm apples won’t cook down as well.)
4 cups of whole cranberries
6 cups sugar
2 cups water
1 lemon, zested and juiced
1 orange, zested and juiced
1/4 tsp of cloves
1/4 tsp of allspice
Instructions:
Combine all of the ingredients in a large pot (use a big one, this jam will bubble) over high heat. Bring to a boil, skimming off the foam that develops on the top of the fruit.
Cook for 20-30 minutes, until the cranberries pop and the apples soften.
Stir constantly so that the mixture doesn’t burn or stick to the bottom of the pot.
Ladle into prepared jars (you can do this while it’s still hot), wipe rims, apply lids and process in a for 10 minutes.
And that’s it folks! You’ve canned! Label those bad boys, tie them up with a bow, and put them under the tree or into the mail. IT’S HANDLED!! 
CHEWS gifts made with love this season! Merry Christmas and Happy Canning!
M.W.A.H.,
The Honey Hostess
Nicole is an education policy worker by day, crafter, baker, and undercover homemaker by night. When she is not walking around D.C. in her Olivia Pope-esque coats handling things, she is in her kitchen covered in flour, after rolling, kneading, or canning delectable goodies.