Green Apple Jelly with Vanilla and Rosemary

The original recipe comes from Mes Confitures, which if I haven’t mentioned I am absolutely loving.

Green Apple Jelly
3 1/3 pounds green apples
4 2/3 cup granulated sugar
6 1/3 cups water
Juice of 1 small lemon

Rinse the apples in cold water. Remove the stems and cut the fruit into quarters without peeling or coring them. Put in a pan and cover with the water. When the mixture comes to a boil, simmer for half an hour on low heat.

Collect the juice by pouring the preparation into a fine chinois sieve and pressing lightly on the fruit with the back of a skimmer. Now filter it a second time through cheesecloth, which you have wet and wrung out.

Pour 4 1/4 cups of the juice into a preserving pan with the lemon juice and the sugar. Bring to a boil, skim, and continue cooking on high heat for 5-10 minutes. Skim again if necessary. Return to a boil. Check the set, jar, and seal.

This is the “pectin stock” jelly that you can add to jams such as pear or cherry that have very little natural pectin: it will facilitate the jell. Choose very green apples, preferably at the beginning of July when they haven’t ripened yet. You can make a compote with the pulp by putting it through a food mill (coarse disk), adding sugar and spice to your taste.

My notes:
I wasn’t ready to can this when it was technically ready to be canned — the boiling water bath wasn’t yet boiling. So I added fresh rosemary leaves from the greenhouse and a couple cap lids of vanilla extract, and cooked it on low for a while longer. The jelly is gorgeous — the rosemary leaves float in the jelly, and it’s just stunning. Peter says it tastes like honey, probably because I cooked it too long but he really really likes it anyway.

This made seven 4-oz jelly jars and almost a full half-pint. Really, just gorgeous.