Here are the two different recipes. The first one is the one I used.

Habanero Gold Jelly Recipe #132932
Love the hot and sweet of this jelly. Like most hot pepper jellies, it is wonderful spread over a block of cream cheese. I also sometimes melt it down and use as a final baste on grilled back bacon, pork chops or chicken. Prep time does not include sitting time for apricots and vinegar.
by Jan in Lanark
45 min : 30 min prep
3 250 ml jars
1/3 cup finely sliced dried apricot
· 3/4 cup white vinegar or cider vinegar
· 1/4 cup finely diced red onion
· 1/4 cup finely diced red pepper
· 1/4 cup finely diced habanero pepper, with seeds or finely diced jalapeno, and scotch bonnet peppers combined
· 3 cups white sugar
· 1 (3 ounce) envelope bernardin liquid pectin
1. Cut apricots into 1/8 inch slices and measure into large stainless steel saucepan with the vinegar; let stand for four hours.
2. Cut onions and peppers into 1/8 inch slices; cut slices into a 1/4 inch dice.
3. Add to apricots and stir in sugar.
4. Bring mixture to a full rolling boil.
5. Stirring constantly, boil hard for one minute.
6. Remove from heat and immediately stir in liquid pectin, mixing well.
7. Stir for about 3 minutes to mix solids, but put into jars before it gets too firm.
8. Pour into hot sterilized jars, dividing solids equally and fill to within 1/4 inch from top of jar.
9. Apply snap lids and process in boiling water bath for 5 minutes if you choose.
10. Once sealed you can rotate or invert jars while still warm to distribute solids if needed.

Big Batch Habanero Gold (Carol calls it Hot N Sweet Confetti Jelly)
1 cup minced dried apricots (1/8" dice)
Note: Could use dried peaches or pears instead.
1 1/4 total cups minced red sweet pepper and minced red onion (1/8" dice), approximately half-and-half.
1/4 cup Habanero peppers
Note: For extra-hot, increase Habaneros to 1/2 cup and reduce red sweet pepper/red onion combination to 1 cup total.
1 1/2 cups white vinegar
6 cups sugar
1 3-oz. pouch liquid pectin (I used Ball, which I've decided I like better than Certo.)
Prep apricots, peppers and onion. Place in a large, stainless or other non-reactive pot. Add sugar and vinegar. Bring to the boil and cook 5 minutes. Pull off the burner; allow to cool, cover and let sit overnight.
Stir occasionally if convenient.
Note: 4-6 hours would be plenty, so the time doesn't need to be any greater than the soaking time for apricots in the original recipe.
Next day, bring the mixture back to the boil. Stir in liquid pectin. Boil hard 1 minute. Pull off the heat. If necessary, skim foam. (I did need to skim a bit.) Let cool 2 minutes, stirring to distribute solids. Pour into jars. Stir to distribute and remove air bubbles. Do the usual with the jars and lids, BWB 10 minutes.
When jars are sealed, "agitate" to distribute solids throughout the jelly.
Yield: 6 8-oz. jars.

That's my recipe, not Annie's. I developed it after a discussion with Annie about the expense of liquid pectin for such a small yield.

The Big-Batch recipe is correct. I changed the method somewhat and doubled the yield obtained from one package of liquid pectin; I also increased the apricots, so the jelly is ever-so-slightly less clear than the original, which was developed by Bob Rouleau for Bernardin.

I was very careful to maintain the original ratio of vinegar and low-acid ingredients. There have been many previous threads on this jelly (both versions) including one which gives the measures for the Big-Batch by weight rather than volume.

Both versions call for liquid pectin. I have no idea if either would work with powdered. Their characteristics are different.

Carol

Carol,

Yes great. Glad you showed up. I kept reading threads and found out that this is your recipe. Thanks.

Now, I have to ask though, what happens to the jelly with less pectin in it. Is it just thinner due to the cost savings here? Will the original smaller version be too thick then?

Also, I noticed that the sama amount of habs are being used. 1/4 cup. I did the small batch so I assume I will now be on fire tomorrow morning at breakfast.

Thanks.

I keep forgetting to ask. How lang can this stuff last after putting into the jars?

It will have the same thickness as the original jelly, allowing for the fact that there's always a certain unpredictability to liquid pectin. It's hard to get every batch exactly the same, even if it is the same recipe.

Maybe not on the habs. I've made the original recipe and the heat is fine. You're not eating it plain. There's cream cheese usually. But again, it varies from batch to batch. The habs I've grown tend to be hotter (incendiary) so I like the lesser amount. You'll have to see what your preferences are.

Sealed in a boiling water bath it's going to last on the shelf like any other jelly. A year at least. I've kept some two years (I generally can in a two-year rotation cycle.) with no noticeable change in quality. With all that sugar and vinegar plus canning it's not likely to deteriorate.

Carol

Really, the original recipe is quite delicious and has a fine texture! It's definitely got a zing to it, depending, as Carol says, on how hot your habs are. But don't worry---just because Carol developed an also-delicious (and more economical) variation, you needn't think there's anything wrong with the original, which was a huge hit in Bob Rouleau's Ottawa gourmet food business. Bernardin (the Canadian canning-supply brand purchased by Ball) published it in their canning recipes book in a special section featuring recipes of Canadian entrepreneurs, and it has since appeared in other publications of theirs, and become a big fave among many on this forum.

Taste what you made, and adjust your next batch of it (or of Carol's terrific big-batch variation) according to what you like!

Happy canning,

Zabby
P.S. I've had it keep for well over a year with no problem, like any other jelly, as Carol says. I never had any last longer than that, however! ;-)

Thanks Zabby and Carol.

I did have some this morning. My wifes throat is still tingling. I have a very high tolerance for peppers. Love em. It was definatly hot though. Also, habs have a different flavor than what I think I wanted. I may try the larger batch but I think I might aither use half jalapenos or maybe even cut all habs out of it. Still deciding. Or if someone has an equally impressive and tasty recipe for an apricot/some other fruit jalaeno recipe I'd be interested in it too.

Again, thanks for all the feed back and this forum in general.

You guys are tops.

Also, the jelly firmed up very nicely. The color was pefect or at least what I thought it should look like although not crystal clear but a wee bit murky. The heat was fine by me but I think I like the flavor of a jalapeno more so that is why I want to go that way. The bits and pieces could have been better if I was able to get them seperated more. I think this is more astethics though. The end result gave me 3 8oz jars with a bit of liquid I threw away as I don't have a jar that small. Next batch of whatever will be 5 jars.

In the small batch it says to let the apricots sit in vinigar for 4 hours. The big batch cooks the apricot, sugar and vinager and then it sits for 4-6 hours. Whay one way over the other way?

Also why 4 hours? I left mine for 2.5 hours and got restless. Hope I am going to be alright.

Sigh. Couldn't you ask BEFORE you make the jelly? In the original version I doubt it makes much difference IF your apricots are nice and plump. Drier apricots would need the longer time. In my version you're not just soaking the apricots. You're soaking the apricots, the peppers and onions. That acidifies the low-acid ingredients for greater safety.

Also, in the version I came up with the longer soaking allows the sugar to dissolve completely. So the jelly is less "murky." It also allows the sugar, the natural pectin in the fruit and the acid (vinegar) to interact, increasing the likelihood of a set with half the pectin of the original recipe (by volume). I was improving the odds of a set and reducing the amount of time the jelly needs to cook.

Carol

The end result gave me 3 8oz jars with a bit of liquid I threw away as I don't have a jar that small.

HORRORS! You actually THREW some out???? No need to waste this wonderful stuff, just put it in a dish and eat it up.

I've made both versions and they are both wonderful. I personally prefer Carol's big batch for several reasons - it's bigger!, I like the extra apricots, and I also prefer using less pectin.

So in the first small batch recipe it is for plumping up the apricots which mine were already nice and fresh anyways. I thought I might have made botulism by accident. Next time I'll follow the recipe more closely.

Sorry but my thinking patterns are a real mess now that I have two small children under foot all day long. That and very little sleep are going to be the end of me.

Hey, it happens. Anyway, it's not a safety issue and that's the main thing.

Carol

OK, so I made the large batch last night. I let it cool overnight. This morning I got up extra early to do the canning process. Everything went fine. I left between 1/4" and 3/8" space between the lid and jelly. Opting for less rather than more head space. I wiped off the rims and put the lids on. I boiled them for about 10 minutes. Took them out and left them cool. I came home for lunch and checked the 6 jars.

About 3 jars have some jely that ran down the sides of the jars. How is that possible and is it a bad sign? I tightened the lids carefully to finger tight strength before the water bath so I do not understand how I have some jelly that ran down the sides of these jars? The lids are all tight. No click clop sound when I push down on the lid.

Did I do something wrong now?

Thanks.

Well, it's been about one year and I am down to about 3 jars of jelly. Just opened one up and started in on it and it tasted fine.

I'm watching my habanero plants waiting for the peppers to turn orange.

Man it's killing me but I think in about one week I will be making more.

usmc, me and you both. I also like Carol's recipe best because it makes more, I was making numerous small batches and that's when Carol was kind enough to help me out with the big batch recipe.

Here we have the coldest July ever on record in Michigan and I won't be having any habaneros, so I'm going to have to go shopping for some.

Happy Canning.

Annie

Last night I made the small batch recipe and have a few questions. Since I have seen on other post not to double jam recipes I did two seperate batches to process at once. Chopped apricots soaked in vinegar overnight(Fri), next morning I had to leave so I put the apricots into 2 seperate plastic containers(Sat) Arrived home too late to do , so Sunday afternoon I continued, chopped and measured peppers and onions and cooked into 2 seperate bathces. I measured very carefully. The first 3 jars (1/2 pints) there was about 1 tbs. left, the second 3 jars, there was about 1/3 pints left. Why? All set up quiclky as I wasn't even able to move around to mix in the peppers and onions. Is the jam still okay considering the fact that the apricots were soaking for two days? Cuppboard or fridge? Next time I will try the big batch. Any difference in taste as I really liked the flavor of this one?

gardener, I started with the small batch and it just didn't make enough, then Carol was kind enough to help me out by developing the big batch recipe. They taste exactly the same.

Soaking the apricots the extra time is fine, your jelly is perfectly safe to store in the cupboard. I'm glad yours set up so well, my experience with liquid pectin is so darned inconsistent that I never know what I'm going to get.

As for the difference in yields, you could have put a little more jelly into the first jars, or you could have cooked the fruit a bit longer or at higher heat and got a bit more evaporation, any number of things. Homecanning is not an exact science, in most instances, and as the commercials say "milage may vary".

Enjoy that gold, it's good stuff.

Annie

Annie, Thank you so much for addressing all 3 of my concerns. And yes, it is good! I am going to make more today using the big batch recipe now that I know it taste the same.

gardener, you are so welcome. Now I need to make some of that Gold, I'm nearly out, but beets are ready and tomatoes finally are ripening and....the Gold will have to wait.

Happy Canning

Annie