My birthday was a few weeks ago and my amazing husband deep cleaned my kitchen for me. Well, I don’t know about you, but that just made me want to cook and get it all messy again! He didn’t approve of this at first but I promise, he enjoyed the end product, easy homemade jelly.
I grew up on a farm, we had cows, chickens, a garden, and all the amazing homemade food that comes with that lifestyle. I helped my mother can all sorts of foods, but my favorite was jams and jellies. At the end of cooking, everything would be sticky, messy, hot, and delicious. As far as we were concerned, you couldn’t spend all that effort and not have homemade biscuits and fresh jelly with dinner.
As I have grown, I have canned my fair share of items. However, one thing I had never attempted on my own was jelly. Well it was March and there isn’t much fresh fruit in Indiana right now. I wasn’t about to let that stop me!! Grape juice to the rescue!
Now for the good stuff, making the jelly!
I put 4 cups of 100% grape juice in my dutch oven on medium to start warming it up. Once it was nice and toasty, I added in 7 cups of sugar and whisked together. I know that’s a lot of sugar, just remember it is jelly. You aren’t supposed to use a lot at once.
Once that was completely combined, I brought that up to a boil over high heat. Don’t stop stirring or it will stick!! Once it was boiling I added a pouch of liquid pectin, in this case it was Sure-Jell.
I brought that back up to a boil that couldn’t be stirred down for about a minute. While this was boiling I added in about a tablespoon of butter. I have no concrete evidence that this helps, but my mother and grandmother put it in to stop it from foaming.
Once the minute was up I ladled the jelly into hot, sanitized half pint jars. I then processed them in a water bath canner as directed by the USDA website for my altitude. My 10 year old daughter helped, so it did end up being messy. After it was all said and done, I had 8 1/2 half pints of fresh grape jelly in the pantry for our family to enjoy.
For these jars I used a mixture of Ball canning lids and Harvest Guard reusable lids. This was my first attempt at using the Harvest Guard so as I become more familiar with them I will give my tips and tricks on how to use them.
I hope you enjoy this recipe, let me know if you try it out and what you think!
Easiest Homemade Jelly Ever!!
Homemade jelly, made with store bought juice
Ingredients
- 4 cups 100% juice (any flavor)
- 7 cups sugar
- 1 packet liquid pectin
- 1 Tbs butter (optional)
Instructions
Combine warm juice and sugar in a heavy bottomed cooking pan at medium to high heat. Allow mixture to come to a boil and add in Liquid pectin. Add in butter at this time if desired. Bring to a steady boil for one minute. Process in a water bath canner for time recommeded by USDA for your altitude.
Tool and supplies I used.
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This looks delicious! Can’t wait to try it!
I hope you enjoy it! We sure did!