Wednesday 31 October 2012

rosehip and apple jelly

I haven't made much jam this year, we didn't have much of a plum harvest and no apples and there didn't seam like much about to scrump. Then I noticed all the rosehips. I've always fancied making some rosehip jam but wasn't really sure what you do about all the itchy stuff inside. Luckily the internet had the answer, straining through muslin should do the trick.

Rosehips are full of vitamin C but low in pectin so I decided to combine them with apples as they tend to have lots of pectin especially if they are on the tart side. As it happened we had a few scrumped from next doors tree that were not great eaters as they were a bit sharp. Perfect for jam.

The local graveyard is great scrumping ground, elderflowers, elderberries, black berries, cherries and it turns out, rosehips (from the wild roses not anything planted on a grave).

We picked as many as we could be bothered, which was not a huge amount. I topped and tailed them, then boiled them with enough water to cover. They took about hour to get soft then I mashed them with a potato masher, topped up the water and boiled for another 15mins. I roughly chopped the apples core, skin and all and boiled them separately, they only took 20mins. I left both both fruits to strain separately over night.

I had a hoped that by not squeezing the fruit through the muslin it would make a clear pink jelly. But both fruit juices looked cloudy so I gave the apples a squeeze to make a bit more juice. I ended up with 2 cups of rosehip and 3 of apple. I boiled it with 4 cups of sugar and ended up with a really nice pinky orange, slightly cloudy jelly. But more importantly it tastes lovely.

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