Homemade Pepper Jelly

It’s Christmas season! Our house is in full crazy schedule mode and I have barely had a chance to slow down. Sound familiar? Between Christmas parties, homeschool, church events and family stuff we are doing with the kids I have barely been home. Sadly enough blogging has taken a backseat this month. I usually post DIY Christmas gifts I’m making as I go. So better late than never, here is a simple recipe for a yummy gift I’m giving to some friends this year!

We love pepper jelly in this house! Especially poured over some cream cheese with ritz crackers. When it’s homemade it’s all the better :). So naturally I want to give others something I enjoy too.

Ingredients:

3 large red bell peppers
8 medium size jalapeño peppers
2 cups apple cider vinegar (white works also)
5 cups of sugar
3 ounces of pectin

First chop your peppers. I always wear gloves when chopping jalapeño peppers. I also scraped out about 1/2 of the jalapeño seeds from each pepper I cut. I kept the other 1/2 seeds in the mix for a bit of heat.

Next put chopped peppers in the food processor.

Pulse a few times until the peppers look like this:

Next scrape the peppers into the center of a cheese cloth and wring the juice out. I love the red color! It makes the jelly look so pretty.

Put the peppers in a large pot. I use a stockpot. Add sugar and vinegar at this point and stir.

Place over medium high heat and bring to a boil.

Add the pectin and bring back up to a boil. Use a candy thermometer if you have one to keep it at about 200-210 degrees for 10-15 minutes.

Remove from the heat and it will look like this.

Pour into prepared jars and let cool. I refrigerate mine once they cool for 12 hours before using or giving to friends.

I will probably put cute labels on them and a decorative ribbon before gifting them 🙂 but they are pretty just the way they are I think!

Our favorite way to eat them, as I mentioned before is on top of cream cheese. It’s fun to slice the cream cheese at an angle and make a tree before pouring the jelly on top. If you’re serving it at a Christmas party or event. I also used the top of a jalapeño as a trunk.

Yum, yum, yum! My husband’s favorite 🙂 thanks for stopping by!
Johanna