A hot but sweet jelly with chillis and windfall apples.

This apple and chilli jelly is one of my favourite preserves that I make each year. I love it even more because I tend to use windfall apples that people give me rather than anything fancy, but it winds up being as swell as jelly can be.

This is, funnily enough, a hot jelly. But the sweetness of the apples (and the sugar) makes it bearable. It’s especially good with cheese on toast, or spread atop some really good hard cheese at a cheese and wine evening. Nothing better than a homegrown cheese and wine evening, is there?

apples for jelly

I use the whole apple for this recipe as it gets strained before the jellymaking process, so pips and all can go into the first phase. The only thing I do bother to do is cut out any windfall-ish bits - you know, the bits with a little visitor in them - and throw them to the chickens. But this really is a super recipe. The only way it can go wrong is if you try to be clever and use jam sugar. This sugar has added pectin, which you do not need for this jelly recipe. Your preserve will become over-set, which is a danger if you overboil it, but also if you give the mixture too much of the setting ingredient. Save your jam sugar for something sloppy droppy that needs it.

recipe chilli apple jelly

Here’s what you do need to do to make this marvellous jelly:

windfall apples
chopping apples
apple chilli jelly recipe
jelly making
testing apple and chilli jelly
apple chilli preserve

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Apple and chilli jelly
Author: 
Recipe type: Preserve
Cuisine: British
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
 
A hot but sweet jelly which you can use your windfall apples in.
Ingredients
  • 2 kg cooking apples
  • 150 ml cider apple vinegar
  • 950g sugar (NO added pectin)
  • 6 chillis - a mix of green, red and yellow looks loveliest
Directions
  1. Chop up the apples and throw into a heavy-bottomed saucepan. Cover with water and bring to the heat, stirring roughly. Cook until the apples have fallen apart and turned to a consistent mush.
  2. Pour in the cider vinegar and bring to the boil.
  3. Pour the mush through a muslin strainer so that a clear liquid drips through. This is best done overnight, or first thing in the morning so that you can finish up in the evening.
  4. Pour the juice and the sugar into the pan and bring to the boil until the sugar has dissolved. Add the chillis and boil for 15 minutes. Do not leave the pan unattended as it could overboil and then overset. Test your mixture by dropping a bit of it onto a chilled saucer. It should wrinkle when you push it once it has cooled.
  5. Leave to cool for half an hour, give a final stir then pout into sterilised jam jars and seal.

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