Jalapeño Jelly

HI THERE.

I’m pretty excited to be bringing you today a recipe that I’ve been meaning to share with you for some time now.

JALAPEÑO JELLY.

Now, if you’re ready to stop reading because you steer clear of jalapeños or anything hot, don’t stop! This isn’t hot. On the other hand, if that made you want to stop reading because you’re all about spicy food, fear not! You can make it hot. 🙂 You can make it as hot as you want.

The level of heat (or lack thereof) in this recipe all depends on what type of pepper you use and how much of that pepper you use. There are too many different types of peppers to list them all and their heat levels, so you can search “hot peppers” or “mild peppers” if you’re in question. This chart is a pretty good pepper reference, too. Next, using the whole pepper will increase the heat level noticeably. A pepper’s heat lives primarily in its ribs and seeds, so removing these will take the heat down.

I have pretty much zero tolerance for heat, so when I make this, I use jalapeño peppers (which rate 4 out of 10 on the heat “Scoville” scale) and remove most (probably about 80 to 90%) of the ribs and seeds.

You can also use whichever kind of bell peppers you like in this recipe. Most people probably think of jalapeño jelly as that bright green stuff you see at the grocery store, but I like to use yellow and orange bell peppers. Any color will do the trick though.

My love of jalapeño jelly was sparked last year when Rob and I went to a restaurant we had never tried, and I ordered a grilled cheese sandwich with smoked cheddar and jalapeño jelly. Ohmygosh, it was so good. As soon as we got home, I hit the Internet, searching recipes to make it myself. I then called Rob’s mom, who gave me her no-fail jalapeño jelly recipe. When I got around to making it, I was so excited to taste this amazing sandwich again, but there was just one problem: The recipe didn’t specify to use liquid pectin. So I used the powder kind I was familiar with and was left with runny jalapeño syrup. 😦 Not cool.

After some troubleshooting with Mom, I figured out the problem, went and bought some liquid pectin, and was able to save my jelly. Hurray! So when you make this, be sure to use liquid pectin, and be sure you’re using 6 oz, (two packets with the brand I used).

As long as you’ve got those small factors right, this recipe is super easy to make!

Ingredients:

• 3 jalapeño peppers (or your preferred pepper)
• 3/4 c. bell peppers chopped (Any color is fine.)
• 1 1/4 c. distilled white vinegar
• 1/4 c. water
• 5 c. sugar
• 6 oz. liquid pectin

Instructions:

• First, sanitize your jars. You can wash them by hand or run them through the dishwasher.
• Chop the bell peppers and jalapeño peppers. *Handling jalapeños causes skin irritation, so wearing gloves is a good idea while chopping them; if you don’t wear gloves, avoid touching your eyes or sensitive skin for 24 hours.* For mild jelly, discard the ribs and seeds of the jalapeños.
• Pour the sugar, vinegar, and water into a large pot, and add the chopped peppers. Cook over medium high heat and dissolve the sugar for 5 minutes.
• Remove the pot from the heat, and let it sit for 20 minutes.
• During this time, I like to get my jars ready. Instead of a water bath, I bring water to a boil in a tea kettle and then pour it into the sanitized jars. If you prefer using a water bath, feel free to omit this step.
• After 20 minutes, add the pectin to the jelly, mix well, return it to the heat, and bring it to a full boil.
• Remove the jelly from the heat, pour the hot water out of the jars, and pour the hot jelly into the jars. Using a funnel is very helpful! Screw on the lids, and the heat from the jelly will be enough to seal the jars. Sometimes I pour a bit of water from the tea kettle over the lids just to be certain they seal fully.
• That’s it! Store unopened jelly at room temperature, and store opened jelly in the refrigerator. Recipe yields three pints.

As I mentioned above, jalapeño jelly is phenomenal on a grilled cheese sandwich (especially with smoked cheddar), but we put it on pretty much any kind of sandwich– fried egg bagel sandwich, grilled chicken sandwich, turkey sandwich, you name it. Of course, you can’t go wrong with the traditional jalapeño jelly and cream cheese topped crackers either.

You may remember from my last post, but this stuff is also great on a burger, specifically a Black Bean Quinoa Burger!

Honestly though, jalapeño jelly really is amazing on so many foods.

What’s your favorite way to enjoy jalapeño jelly?

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