Sweet Cherry Jelly

 

Summertime means cherry time.  A mature cherry tree produces an abundance of cherries. I love fresh cherries off the tree. A good harvest means there are plenty to eat fresh and there are lots of options to preserve cherries.  Some of my favorite cherry pie filling, cherry syrup, sweet cherry jam, dehydrated cherries and freeze dried cherries.  Cherry fruit leather is also a delicious option.  One of the easiest ways to preserve cherries is to make cherry jelly.  No pitting needed!

Jellies

Jellies are firm enough to hold their shape when you spoon them from the jar but soft enough to to spread easily.

Juice for Jelly

Wash cherries and remove any damaged cherries. Use fresh cherries. The recipe below calls for 4 cups of cherry juice.  Around 12 cups of whole cherries will give you approximately 4 cups of juice. If you are a little shy add a half cup of water to the pulp to extract more juice or add unsweetened apple of grape juice.

Put cherries is a large stock pot and add water to cover the bottom around 1 cup.  Bring to a boil.  I like to partially cover with a lid.  Occasionally mash with a potato masher.  Cook until cherries a soft and fall apart and are pulpy.  

Pour into a dampened jelly bag or  strainer lined with cheese cloth.  Set over a deep bowl.  I use a pyrex 8 cup measuring bow.  Press and stir with a spoon to remove all the juice.  With most fruits you would leave the juice undisturbed to drip from the bag for around 2 hours to prevent solids from going into the juice.  Some juices will be clearer if you let the juice set overnight.  The solids will settle to the bottle leaving the clear juice at the top.  Doing this means you need more juice.  Cherry juice will darken so I like to extract quickly,  You can freeze the juice to make the jelly later.

Jellies with Liquid Pectin

Jellies made with liquid pectin take the least amount of cooking time.  The pectin is dissolved and bonds quickly with the juice and sugar mixture.  It produces a clear, beautiful, translucent jelly.

With liquid pectin the juice, sugar, and lemon juice are brought to a full rolling boil you cannot stir down BEFORE adding the liquid pectin.  The entire contents of the pectin pouch is stirred in and then the mixture is brought to a boil for 1 minute.

Be sure to check the expiration of the pectin. Do not substitute powdered for liquid the process for cooking method is different. 

Sweet Cherry Jelly Recipe

4 cups sweet cherry juice

4 Tbsp lemon juice

7 cups sugar

1 3oz pouch of liquid pectin 

1. Prepare lids and canner.
2. Add juice, sugar, and lemon juice.  Bring to a full rolling boil you cannot stir down.  
3. Add liquid pectin. Boil hard stirring constantly for 1 minute.
4. Remove from heat and skim foam off.  The foam traps air so it is important to skim off.  
5. Pour hot jelly into jars leaving 1/4 inch headspace.
6. Wipe the rim, center lids, and screw band on.  Don't over tighten.
7. Place jars in water bath canner.  Bring to boil and begin timing for 10 minutes.  You do need to add time to adjust for altitude.  See chart below.  In my area I add 10 minutes.

                                     1001-3000  add 5 minutes

3001-6000 add 10 minutes

6001-8000 add 15 minutes

8001-10,000 20 minutes

Remove lid and leave jars in canner for 5-10 minutes then remove jars and let sit undisturbed.  Test that all lids sealed. Label and remove rings to store.

Makes 7-8 half pint jars.  Half pints should be used because the processing time ensures contents are heated to the right temperature with a larger jar that the center of the jar may not get hot enough.