Last year we got very little fruit from our apple and crab apple trees; this year the crop is bountiful but seems to be dropping early because of the warm and dry conditions here. Making jelly is time consuming and experience helps – but it’s like putting summer sunshine in a jar. Apple or crab apple jelly is the finest companion to peanut butter ever invented. Get away with your grape jelly or marshmallow Fluff.

If you’re new to preserving, do your homework first. Youtube is full of ‘jelly for beginners’ and there is a legion of blogs. My recommendation is to identify your ‘method’ and stick to it. I was making jam, jelly and preserves from a young age – my sisters and I were our mother’s kitchen slaves. And I remember making (and eating) lots of crab apple jelly because my grandparents had a big and bountiful crab apple tree. So I come to this with a fair amount of experience but a friend gave me a copy of her favourite preserving book by Thane Prince. I have found it a helpful guide and reference tool and I stick with it as a method.

Making preserves reminds me that all cooking is basically conducting chemistry experiments and then feeding the results to people.

Jelly is made by cooking and straining fruit to make juice, then adding sugar and cooking the juice into jelly that will ‘set’, putting it in sterilised jars, topping with paraffin and then sealing up. It keeps well for six to nine months. Making jelly means the fruit can be roughly handled, does not need to be ‘pretty’ (keep the pretty apples to eat) and is suitable for fruit from your own trees.

Ingredients to make approximately 5 x 330 ml jars:

• 3 kilos of apples or crab apples
• 2.5 litres of water (roughly 830 mls per kilo of fruit)
• 500 grams of sugar for every 600 mls of fruit juice
• 1 tablespoon of lemon juice for every 600 mls of fruit juice
• fresh rosemary if you’re feeling fancy; 1 sprig for every jar plus the rest for cooking with the fruit

Steps in the process:

• assemble equipment
• prep and cook fruit
• drain the juice from the cooked fruit (overnight)
• measure the juice, add sugar, lemon juice (and pectin depending type of fruit and degree of ripeness)
• cook until set
• put in sterilised jars, top and seal
• offer a sacrifice to the kitchen gods that your jelly ‘sets’ well but not too tight

If you’re still reading, it’s time to go on to the recipe.

Method

1. Assemble your equipment
   – preserving pan, heavy, wider than it is deep. I use a 30 cm cast iron enamel le Creuset pan
   – a jelly bag stand (see photo below) and several jelly bags
   – a scale and a couple of big Pyrex glass measuring jugs (see photo below)
   – a jar funnel (see photo below)
   – spoons; wooden, metal and a slotted spoon for removing scum (trust me)
   – jars, lids and if needed either wax or cellophane covers to seal (lids with rubber or plastic sealing rings mean no need for waxed paper circles, cellophane or paraffin wax). I use paraffin wax on jelly.
   
2. Prep and cook fruit
   – rinse apples, rough chop, cut out any visible rot or insect incursions
   – place in pan, cover with water, add rosemary if using
   – bring to a boil, turn the heat down, cover and simmer for 30 minutes until the apples are pulpy
   – spoon into a jelly bag, hang to drain overnight or for at least six hours DO NOT SQUISH THE FRUIT TO GET MORE JUICE QUICKLY. It will make your jelly cloudy. No, I don’t know why but I have experiential learning that says this bit of jelly wisdom is true.
   
3. Measure your juice into the preserving pan, add sugar and lemon juice. Bring it slowly to the boil, stirring to dissolve all the sugar. I do add a drop or two of food colouring if I don’t like the colour of the juice. Err on the side of caution – it impacts your chemistry experiment.
   
4. Multi-task and get your jars and lids sterilised and covers ready. I put my clean jars in a cool oven and turn it up to 150C. I put the paraffin wax in a metal jug at the same time. Finally I put the lids, the jelly funnel, the ladle and the tongs in a pan of boiling water on the stove. It works for me.
   
5. Your jars are ready and your juice is starting to boil. Now, it’s time to be brave. Bring it to a rolling boil (boiling sugar is a hazard and this step can be scary – be careful) and boil it for at least five minutes. Back it down and skim off the scum. I use a big spoon with lots of holes in it and it dip it in a bowl of hot water to clean it. DO NOT STIR THE SCUM BACK IN. Or it will make your jelly cloudy.
   
6. Do your first test for a set – I use the flake test. Scoop up a small amount of jelly in a wooden spoon. Count to 10. Tilt the spoon to pour the jelly back into the pot. If the final part forms a flake and not a stream, it’s ready. Google is your friend – find a method that works for you.
   
7. My jelly never seems to be ready at the first test. I do a second rolling boil for 2 minutes, then skim and test again. Repeat until your jelly is ready. Best advice I was ever given – if you pot up your jelly and it does not set, you can always empty the jars into a clean pan and give it another boil. (This is a statement of genius from my friend who makes amazing preserves). So don’t sweat this one.
   
8. Your jelly is ready! Carefully fill your jars: I take the pan of jars from the oven, use the sterilised tongs to move the funnel and the jars around (keep the water boiling and dip them), fill the jars with a ladle, then top with liquid paraffin wax and gently put the lids on with the tongs.
   
9. You cannot judge the ‘set’ until the jelly is completely cool. Control your anxiety and give it overnight.

And enjoy your jelly. Thank you for reading the blog, subscribing, cooking the recipes. Tag me on Twitter and Instagram if you post photos @mamadolson on both.

These muffins are the first recipe I made with my King Arthur Whole Grain Baking cookbook and they remain a favourite.  One of these muffins is the perfect breakfast for busy people.  The cookbook itself was a gift from my elder sister, Rachael.    It’s a gift that keeps giving and has given me and my family lots of joy.

This is a muffin recipe and it really is one of those that anyone can bake.  It’s full of fruit, vegetables and seeds as well as whole grains.  I’ve done the ingredients in metric (except for teaspoons and tablespoons). I have done the instructions in the order that I do them – not the order they are in the cookbook.

Ingredients

225 grams whole wheat flour

210 grams light or dark  brown sugar

2 teaspoons baking soda

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon salt

200 grams of carrots – grated

2 large tart apples – grated

85 grams  raisins

45 grams desiccated coconut

45 grams slivered almonds

60 grams sunflower seeds

3 eggs

130 mls corn oil

55 mls orange juice

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 190C (or 170C fan).  Put paper liners in a 12 cup muffin tin.  Line a small (450 grams) loaf tin.  You might not need it, but I always do.  You’ll see why below.
2. Prep the dry ingredients.  Combine the flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger and salt in a big bowl.
3. Prepare the carrots.  I don’t peel the carrots and I’m not precise about the amount.  I cut off the tops and bottoms, weight the carrots and err on the side of more carrots not less.   I use a small electric chopper (like this one from Amazon – I actually have 2).  The electric chopper is a great gadget and is priceless for people who use lots of fresh fruit and vegetables.  Chop the carrots small and throw them in a medium bowl.
4. Prepare the apples.  I use two big green Granny Smith apples.  I core them – like the carrots, I never peel them. Chop the apples into big chunks and then chop them small, like the carrots.  You don’t need to be too precise with the apples either and I always err on the side of more apples.   Put the apples in with the carrots.
5. Add the coconut, almonds, sunflower seeds and raisins to the bowl with the apples and carrots.  Stir it together and then add the contents to the dry ingredients.  Mix well using a big wooden spoon – DO NOT USE YOUR MIXER.
6. Beat the eggs in a separate medium bowl with a fork until they are well mixed.  Add the corn oil, orange juice and vanilla to the eggs.  Stir together and add it to the dry ingredients and the fruit vegetable and seed mixture.  Mix well with your wooden spoon!
7. Time to fill your muffin tins.  I use my trigger ice cream scoop (like this one on Amazon).  A generously filled scoop is perfect for a muffin cup.  Don’t overfill the muffin pan.  You may well have enough left over dough for a small loaf.
8. Bake the muffins for 23 to 25 minutes; the tops should look dry.  If you make a loaf as well, that needs to be baked for about 35 minutes at the same heat.
9. Take the muffins out of the oven, leave them in tin for about 5 minutes, then tip them out onto a cooling rack.   The muffins are sturdy; they travel well, they freeze well and kids love them.  The kids never notice the healthy bits.

Sturdy muffins that travel well.