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I tend to do crab apple and hawthorn jelly ... or just any sort of apples picked early if you can't get any crab apples. It's nice with meats and cheese - more like cranberry jelly than jam. Need to have the hawthorn berries when they are at their ripest and nice and juicy. Its dead simple really:
• 500g Hawthorn berries.
• 500g Crab apples cored and quartered.
• Juice of half a lemon.
• 800ml of water.
• Caster Sugar (I just use ordinary sugar).
Put the berries, apples, lemon juice & water in a pan, bring to the boil then cover and simmer until the apples and berries are both soft and mushy.Strain through muslin for a clear jelly or a sieve for a higher volume but cloudy jelly. Measure the juice and pour into a clean pan, for every pint of juice add a pound of sugar then gently bring to the boil, boil rapidly till a firm setting point is reached, then pour into a warm sterilised jar.
Note: level of water may need adjustment due to water content of both berries and apples.
It usually sets very easily as there is so much pectin in the apples it's almost impossible for it not to set ! You really do need to boil the syrup to reduce the water content and the usual cold plate test will tell you when you've reached the setting point ... I tend to like it rather firm so it sits on the plate rather than runs round the edge !
Tastes all the better for being almost free ....
