Heat and Sweet Habanero Jelly

 My 2020 garden blessed me with great amounts of hot peppers.  This jelly is delicious and different.  It is based on a recipe from Cathy Barrow, the author of Mrs Wheelbarrow's Practical Pantry.  This is fast becoming a go to preserving book for traditional, and not so traditional, delicious preserves.  There are a few different ingredients in this jelly: honey, dried apricots and dried cranberries.  They mellow the heat of the habaneros and the cranberries add a ruby colour.

There’s a lot of mincing/dicing. I like to use the dicing attachment for my KitchenAid mixer, but you can also use your food processor to blitz everything until it’s minced up tiny but NOT liquified. Use gloves when handling the peppers or you risk burning eyes, lips, fingers from the oils in the peppers.

These make perfect hostess gifts- you can also use 125 ml jars for gifting.

Makes about six 250 ml jars

 Ingredients:

5 cups        sugar

1/2 cup       honey

1/2 cup       cider vinegar

2 lemons     juiced

8                  habaneros, stemmed and seeded, then minced to make 1/2 cup

2                  sweet red peppers, stemmed and seeded, then minced to make 1 cup

2                  medium red onion, minced to make 1 cup

1/2 cup        dried apricots, minced

1/2 cup        dried cranberries (optional but it gives the jelly a bright ruby colour)

1/2 tsp         butter (optional to reduce the foam before bottling)

Directions:

Put everything into a deep, non-reactive pot and bring the mixture to a boil

Stir relentlessly, so nothing sticks to the bottom of the pot and/or burns. The foam will begin to disperse when you are getting close to the end. When you get a solid boil you can’t stir down, boil hard for ten minutes. Check the temperature – the jelly will set at about 220°F. If there is still a little foam, and you like the set, add a pinch of butter to rid yourself of foam.  Turn off the heat and let it sit for three minutes.

The sign you have achieved good gel set: the surface of the jelly should wrinkle when pushed. And all those pretty pepper pieces will not be floating on the surface, but will be distributed throughout the jelly. If you like it firmer, boil longer, but be careful. It’s easy to go from jelly to rubber.

Ladle into warm, sterilized jars, leaving 1/4″ headspace. Add lids and rings and process in a boiling water bath for ten minutes.