Apple Blackberry Jelly Tutorial

Ok, so I have had a hard time posting on Mondays. LIFE IS BUSY right now! Ms. Sunshine has decided to sleep only in my arms and I have been really really trying to change that.

Anyway, I have been able to make jelly from the apples from our tree and blackberries that we picked while Paul has been home.

Here is a step by step tutorial:

1. Boil equal parts of blackberries and baking apples just covered with water. (I used about 5 cups of each). Keep the cores and skins on the apples--they have lots of necessary pectin for the jelly to set.

2. Once all of the fruit has cooked down to mush, line a colander with cheesecloth over a bowl and dump mix in to drain juice. Don't smoosh down--it will make the jelly cloudy.
Here is the juice. (I let it drain overnight.)
3. Use a big pot. Add the juice and sugar. Most recipes call for the same amount of juice as sugar, but I used 5 cups of juice and 3.5 cups of sugar and it turned out great.

4. Boil until the mix resembles maple syrup, about 220 degrees F, or passes the plate test (put a little of the mix on a cold plate and see if it sets up after a few seconds.)
4. Boil jars to sterilize for 10 min. Use tongs to extract from water.

5. Fill with jelly--it will be liquid-y. Tighten lids and put in a big pot of water and boil for 10 minutes to sterilize.

ENJOY!!