Cherry Jelly tastes like cherry pie to me.
Delicious on fresh baked biscuits.
Delicious on fresh baked biscuits.
My cherry picking station. Joe was selectively pruning our 60 year old cherry tree today just in time for me to gather cherries for jelly. I set up this little area in the backyard and picked 3 of those red strainers full of cherries. Our tree grows sour cherries.
I found a recipe where you don't have to pit or cut the cherries. You just smash them with a potato masher. The full printable recipe is at the bottom of this post.
I used to think that canning was a difficult and time consuming task. I was wrong. It took about an hour to make a batch of jelly. Some tools you will need include a mesh strainer and jar lifter. I got a kit by Ball at Walmart for around $6. It has the jar lifter, magnetic lid lifter and bubble popper stick that doubles as a measuring guide and a wide mouthed funnel. I bought a 12 pack of 8 oz jelly jars and packages of dry pectin.
Bringing the mashed cherries to a boil to make the cherry juice. I added a pinch of cinnamon here. Don't worry about the color it ends up bright red. The sugar brings out the color. Speaking of sugar, I was a little put off by the 4 cups of sugar the recipe called for until I found a pectin box that reads: NO SUGAR NEEDED FRUIT PECTIN. It's a little misleading because sugar IS needed for sour cherry jelly but with this 'NO SUGAR' Pectin I reduced the sugar to 2 1/2 cups. You could also use Splenda or TruVia or honey in place of sugar. There is a chart that comes with the pectin. You can also check their website at http://www.freshpreserving.com/.
Carefully strain the cherry pulp to get the juice, those cherry pits are HOT!
Jar lifter is very important tool. I just used a stock pot for the hot water bath that seals the jars. No pressure cooker needed.
14 cups of cherries yielded 9 jars of jelly. We still have tons of cherries left on the tree so I will be making more in the next few days. I think they will make lovely Christmas gifts once I dress the jars up a bit.
Here's the printable recipe:
It's an 8.5 x 11 .jpeg format. Just click on the picture above to enlarge and "save as" or "print".
Enjoy!
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Cherry is my husband's absolute favorite. I make it every year from frozen sour cherries I buy at the farmer's market and he tries to hide a stash for himself because he is afraid I will gift too many away. You are so lucky to have that beautiful tree and your jelly is very pretty. Thanks for sharing the recipe!
ReplyDeleteThanks Doni!
DeleteI am trying this today! My first ever attempt at jelly (or canning for that matter). Thank you for your pictures I'm sure they will help me greatly.
ReplyDeleteWe made 36 jars of jelly last summer. We are still enjoying them. I know yours will be great too! I was amazed at the amount of sugar you have to use but the outcome is pretty amazing. I hope you'll come back and let me know how yours turns out.
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