Does anyone have a great tried and tested bramble (and apple?) jelly recipe? I'm after a nice, clear slightly lighter jelly, since I already have Blackberry and blueberry, blackberry, and Hedgerow (including blackberry) and fancy a little bit of variation.
Thanks in advance :)
Moggle
http://www.malcbro.demon.co.uk/fruitjelly.htm
If you can call my method a recipe ;)
Col
I use a pretty standard method
Whatever brambles I've picked get simmered for 45 mins in a pan with a little water, a tablespoon or so of lemon juice and a cooking apple or two (chopped but doesn't need peeling or coring). That sorts out the pectin and the acid.
I strain it first using a large metal sieve, pressing out the pulp as much as I can with a ladle. That gets shot of the pips, though next time I try I hope to use the passata machine instead!
Then I pop the juice etc into a jelly bag and strain for as long as it takes to stop dripping. I often run out of patience here and squeeze it!
Measure the juice that drops through, add 1lb sugar for each pint of juice and boil to set.
If you don't use apples in the first stage, then sugar with pectin is a good idea or the swine takes ages to set.
If you want apple and bramble seedless jam, measure the pulp after the first straining, add the usual lb/pint sugar and boil that to set, but be careful to stir or it'll catch.
If you don't want to waste the strained seedless pulp, add sugar to that and turn it into a fruit cheese!!!
moonbells
ps if you put a whole sliced lemon in with the brambles, you end up with lemon and bramble jelly which is... interesting. I did this accidentally and the jury's still out!
pps if you want a *really* clear jelly, use underripe brambles and no apple or added pectin. You will need the lemon juice here and be prepared to boil for an age...
Thanks Col and Moonbells!
Picked a few more brambles on the walk home from work this afternoon, and made sure I got a few under-ripe ones. Will probably chuck in an apple or two any way.
That sounds like a great idea to sieve and then strain moonbells. You could probably use the strained pulp in a crumble too?
I guess you could use it for that too. Or even just a bramble jam rather than jelly. Or milk shakes. Or as ice cream sauce.
Mmmm wish I didn't think of these things when I can't get to the fridge!
moonbells (large bowl of brambles waiting to be processed tonight...)
Quote from: Moggle on August 24, 2006, 21:34:28
You could probably use the strained pulp in a crumble too?
Mixed with apple the puree makes a delicious crumble.
Tricia
Lovely recipe. Made two batches. Even hubby helped with picking the blackberries whilst wandering round the local lanes. Tried it at lunch time, Yummy.
Half my batch set and half didn't ??? ???
Will reboil tomorrow!
On closer inspection today when I went to reboil, it turns out that they all set, but one had a lot of liquid around the edge. I think I didn't empty the water out properly from my tricksy microwave sterilising method. Now reboiled and sorted :)