Yes, the recipe is an exception, the reason being the original is an exceptionally small batch for that amount of liquid pectin. The "big-batch" is actually within the range for many other conventional recipes using that amount of Certo (or whatever).

The bigger recipe already has increased apricot. You could just eliminate the onion. It will be more monochromatic in color but no other issues.

Carol

Thanks, Carol! I kind of figured that was the case, but thought I would check with the experts here first, before trying it out.

I was thinking if I used a combination of peppers that were red, yellow, and orange it would be very fallish looking : )

I don't think the red onion, is out of place, and it is not over powering at all, I don't care for the flavor of red onion either, but it is awesome in this recipe, I dice it small, so much goes on when you pop it in your mouth, you won't even notice it! Try it in a stir fry for a sweet and sour and spicy treat!

I've tried searching, found ottawapepper's recipe using cranberry juice (there's also one in Small Batch), but does anybody have a recipe for cranberry-pepper jelly with just cranberries, not bottled juice, and (if it's not too much to ask), no pectin?

Oh, I also bought dried cranberries since they are less $ than dried apricots - anybody ever try these in Hab Gold recipe? If it won't work, my kids will always eat them (though I might try a conserve sometime using these instead of raisins).

Thanks

ajsmama,

I'm lucky, I live 40 minutes away from a cranberry farm. I get to use 100% fresh squeezed cranberry juice, no store bought bottled stuff.

I'll leave it to others to chime in on using just cranberries.

Bill

Ajsmama, I found this one online, which uses cranberries and no pectin, but I haven't tried it yet.

Here is a link that might be useful: Jalapeno Pepper Jelly

Thanks Bonnie - so which recipe do you use?

Bill - I wonder, do they squeeze the berries or simmer them to get juice (just wondering since I simmered 2lbs of grapes and probably about the same amount of apples today to get juice for wild grape jelly)? Or do they press them likes apples to make cider? OceanSpray closed their Plymouth MA visitor center and I don't remember what they said 15 yrs ago!

I was thinking the cranberries would have enough pectin that I wouldn't have to use Certo if I could use berries instead of juice.

ajsmama,

If I recall correctly, they wash, cold press and filter the juice. They then freeze in 1 liter (quart) containers. At least under CDN food inspection standards it's safe to sell to the public.

They suggest mixing 5 to 1 for drinking. Drunk fresh you'd have a puckered face for a week ;-))

Bill

Here's the one I use. I did find that it wasn't hot enough using Jalapenos, since the bits of pepper are strained off, so this year I solved that problem by using a mix of Serrano, Fresno, and Sante Fe Grande.

For me, the problem with using cranberries instead of juice would be the timing of it. Fresh cranberries aren't available until Nov. or Dec. and my peppers are ripe July - Sept. so one or the other would have to be frozen anyway, so I find it's just simpler to use the juice.

Bonnie

Here is a link that might be useful: Cranberry Jalapeno Jelly

yes, a lot of these recipes strain the peppers out. But since you found that one that doesn't use pectin (gets it from the cranberries instead), I will try combining cranberries (maybe apples too, as I do when making cran-apple or Paradise jelly) and then filtering the juice, cooking the pepper pieces in vinegar and adding the cranberry juice and sugar. Small Batch has a recipe (I wonder why she uses pectin in all her recipes when she has a recipe for apple pectin?), Joy of Jams has the Pepper Lime Jelly (that I never got to set last year) so I guess some experimentation is in order!

I'm lucky I still have 3 12oz bags of cranberries in the freezer from last year.

I haven't made Hab Gold or Confetti b/c of the cost of apricots, those don't strain out the pepper pieces either so I'd think they'd come out like jam but I guess not, I will let you know if I come up with a good clear jelly with pepper flecks in it.

Where can I find the Habanero Gold recipe?

I had Carol's version open (saved it in text file on my computer):

Carol's 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 cup 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-ounce pouch liquid pectin

Chop 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 Ball Hab Gold 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, gently twist (don't shake or invert) to distribute solids throughout the
jelly.

Makes 6 half-pints

Variation - dried apples instead of apricots, jalapenos instead of habeneros.

It's been reported you can make this jelly w/o added pectin, as the apricots (and probably apples) have enough pectin to make a soft set OK for use on cream cheese.
Just use the standard test(s) for gel.

Hab Gold is in Ball Complete book and a search (I think it's on the Greatest Hits thread) should also turn it up here. If you can't find it and really want it instead of Carol's bigger batch version, let me know and I'll find it/type it out for you.

Click link below for the original Habanero Gold recipe.

It's from the Bernardin (CDN version of Ball) website.

Bill

Here is a link that might be useful: Habanero Gold

Thank you ajsmama and ottawapepper. I've now clipped this post. Funny - but a search of this forum brought up tons of threads asking about substitions, but I couldn't find the actual recipe. I'll try the bigger batch.

Has anyone used powdered pectin with this? I don't have any liquid, so I'm going to try powdered. But if experience shows powder is a disaster, I'll save my powder for something else.

Ball has a recipe for a pepper jelly using powdered pectin on its website (I think I also posted it here), so should work if you remember to add the pectin b4 the sugar instead of after like you do with liquid.

But the notes I copied (from Greatest Hits thread?) along with Carol's recipe said you might not need the pectin, esp. if you want a loose set to serve over cheese.

Oh, here's the link to the Ball Pepper Jelly with powdered pectin:

Here is a link that might be useful: Ball Pepper Jelly

Found this one at the Univ of Calif peppers download. It had an apricot pepper jelly recipe that is very similar to the big batch but using powdered pectin. It has more apricots, more vinegar and less sugar. No onions but I could sub some for some of the bell peppers. I would finely dice the veggies rather than put them in the blender.

APRICOT PEPPER JELLY
Makes 6 half-pint (250-ml) jars.
1 1âÂÂ4 cups dried apricot halves, finely slivered 300 ml
1 cup red or green bell pepper strips 250 ml
(about 1 medium-size pepper)
1âÂÂ3 cup chopped jalapeno or other hot 75 ml
pepper, stems and seeds removed
2 cups cider vinegar (5%) 500 ml
4 cups sugar 1 L
1 package powdered fruit pectin 1 package
1âÂÂ2 tsp butter or margarine 2 ml
5 drops red or green food coloring 5 drops
(depending on the type of
pepper used)
1. Cover dried apricots with boiling water. Leave for approximately 10 minutes.
Drain.
2. Combine bell pepper strips, chopped hot peppers, drained apricots, and 1âÂÂ2 cup
(125 ml) vinegar in a food processor or blender. Process until partially ground
with small chunks remaining. Pour into a saucepan.
3. Mix 1âÂÂ4 cup (63 ml) sugar with pectin. Stir into fruit mixture. Add butter and food
coloring.
4. Bring to a boil quickly, stirring constantly. Immediately stir in remaining sugar.
5. Bring to a full boil, stirring, and boil hard for 1 minute. Remove from heat.
6. Skim foam off the top. Then ladle jelly into hot half-pint jars, leaving 1âÂÂ4 inch
(0.5 cm) of headspace.
7. Wipe jar rims with a clean, damp cloth. Secure lids and ring bands, and process
in a boiling water bath as prescribed in Table 8.

Table 8. Recommended Processing Time for Apricot Pepper Jelly in a Water Bath Canner
Processing Time at
Altitudes of 0-1,000 ft 1,001-6,000 ft above 6,000 ft
Jar Size
half-pint or pint 15 min 20 min 25 min

Melly - I like your recipe since you rehydrate the apricots with water, not vinegar. I also like that you don't have to let it sit overnight.

I'm going to attempt a batch this afternoon. I may go for the ingredient list on the big batch recipe, but the procedure on the U Cal recipe. I'll figure it out. I may have to add some dried cranberries since DH found the box of dried apricots last night and had himself a midnight snack.

Pixie Lou - did you make this yet? How did it turn out with the dried cranberries?

I didn't have to use cranberries - I had just enough apricots.

It also filled exactly 8 half-pints - so no left overs for sampling. And I haven't opened a jar yet.

You made Melly's (extension - I think I found it on Colorado) or Carol's? How much by weight of apricots (or how big a bag did you buy, I know DH ate some!)? I'm wondering if I can buy a small "snack bag" and have enough, dried apricots are so expensive! At least no one has touched the dried cranberries I bought last week...

Oops sorry it was CA - CO was the soil tilth experiment I did with the 2nd grade yesterday. Not that it wouldn't be on other extension sites. But I'd still like to know how much by weight to buy to make sure I had 1.25C of dried apricots.

And both recipes said it made 6 jars - you got 8?

I had a 12 oz pkg of dried apricots (cost me $3.99) - I don't know how much DH ate - probably 1/4 of the container (Trader Joes always seems to have the best prices of dried fruit and nuts, but I got these at my regular grocery store - and I'm amazed they were so cheap)

Here's what I did:

I chopped the apricots and rehydrated in boiling water, ~ 10 minutes I had just over 1-1/4 c. and I rehydrated in a 2 c. measuring cup

1/2 c. sweet pepper
1/2 c. hot peppers (I didn't write down the variety - it was a combo of matchbox, ring of fire and habanero)
1/2 c. red onion
1-1/4 c. cider vinegar
1/4 c. white vinergar (since I ran out of cider vinegar)
Brought this to a boil, then let it sit ~ 1 hour

Added the apricots (including the water since there was barely any water left), and dry pectin, boiled; added 4 c. sugar

My yield was 8 of the wide mouth half pints

Sorry about not noticing the formatting problems when I posted. You sort of did a mash up of the two recipes, didn't you?

melly - yep, I mish mashed. I find it very difficult to follow a recipe exactly. But I figured with a 1:1 ratio of low acid ingredients and vinegar it was plenty safe.

Yes, Carol's Big Batch uses 1.5C of vinegar to 1.5C of peppers/onions. You just used 1/4C more apricots, and rehydrated with water instead of vinegar. Though I guess that means all the vinegar was available to acidify the peppers instead of being tied up in the apricots.

You used 2C less sugar than Carol but got 2C more yield b/c the apricots were already rehydrated (additional 1/2C or so of water?). Rehydrated apricots are bound to be less acidic than fresh (assuming pH of apricot juice is lower than 7), but since the apricot flesh itself is probably pretty low, and they *did* soak up some vinegar, it's probably fine - as long as it set, the sugar will help too. I'd worry more about peppers than water-reconstituted apricots, and as I said, you made more vinegar available to the peppers. Though next time I think I'd just follow the UC Davis recipe to let the apricots sit in the vinegar longer (and 1/2C more vinegar) before boiling, just to be sure.