Disclosure: I received a Ball Jam & Jelly Maker from the company to test and review. No other compensation was given. All opinions of this product are my own.
Making jam and jelly
One of my favorite holiday gifts to give is jams and jellies. I enjoy the process of making it and I love to share that with my friends and family. It’s the gift that keeps on giving. They have something to enjoy whenever they please and I feel good about giving something I made myself. I am not a particularly arts & crafty person so anything that involves sewing or gluing is usually out of the question. But making jelly I can handle.
In the summer, I like to use lots of fresh fruits and I’ll take a couple of days and blitz out a bunch of jams. Of course, you can make jam in the winter too. Frozen fruits work just as well and they are frozen at the peak of freshness so you still get a tasty end result. And jellies are even easier to make because you can use store bought fruit juices. So don’t just think of canning and preserving as a purely summertime venture. You can have fun making jams and jellies any time of year.
I was recently given the opportunity to try out the new Ball Jam & Jelly Maker. I thought it would be fun to try it out and see how it compared to my usual way of making jams and jellies. I was intrigued by the SmartStir technology that stirs the jam and jelly back and forth while it cooks. First it stirs clockwise, then counter clockwise. It does that several times while cooking.
The Jam & Jelly Maker even comes with it’s own recipe book so you get perfect results every time.
So as I was browsing the cookbook, I saw a recipe for Apple Jelly. And that got me to thinking. I wonder how good this jelly would be if I made it taste like Apple Pie. Apple Pie Jelly…now that got my engines to turning.
So, I decided to take Ball’s Apple Jelly and make it into Apple Pie Jelly. I thought my friends and family would really love this flavor this time of year. I just tweaked the types of sugar used in their recipe and added spices. But I kept all other measurements the same to ensure that it would set up properly.
All I can say is it turned out so scrumptious. It has such a great apple pie flavor that a little jelly goes a long way. We even warmed a little up and poured it over some vanilla ice cream.
I cannot even begin to describe how much we loved that little treat. All those apple pie flavors – in a jelly. I think y’all are really going to love this one.
Ingredients:
3 cups unsweetened apple juice
4 tbsp. classic pectin
1 tsp. butter
2 cups white sugar
1 1/3 cups light brown sugar
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
Directions:
Put apple juice in a medium bowl. Slowly whisk in pectin to the apple juice.
The pectin should dissolve into the apple juice. This is really important to ensure your jelly sets up. Pour juice mixture into the pot of the jam maker.
Add butter to the pot. Butter helps reduce foaming when making jams/jellies.
Press “jelly” button. The cook time will automatically default to 25 minutes.
Then press enter.
Cook’s Note: I created this recipe using Ball’s Apple Jelly recipe as a base. The Apple Jelly recipe in the Jam Maker cookbook did not state whether to put the lid on the Jam & Jelly Maker while making this jelly. However, I noticed in other recipes in the cookbook, it would say specifically to put the lid on. The mixture does boil and therefore it may pop a little and possibly get onto your counters. So I ended up putting the lid on after a few minutes.
I don’t think this affected my end jelly result. I did, however, go in the last few minutes of cooking and whisk the jelly mixture because some of the sugar had clumped up a bit. Which was not a problem and the jelly ended up coming out fine. Just keep this in mind if making this jelly with the jam & jelly maker. 
Wait 4 minutes for jam maker to sound 4 short beeps indicating that it is time to add sugar. Whisk in white sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon & nutmeg while the stirrer is still running.
The appliance will continue to automatically stir your ingredients while it cooks. Stay within earshot of the Jam& Jelly Maker. The appliance will beep again at the end of the process signaling jelly cooking is complete. As I stated earlier, I did whisk the mixture about 2 minutes before cooking was complete just to get rid of a few clumps of sugar. This is probably because I used some brown sugar in this recipe and that tends to easily clump. Press cancel and unplug the appliance.
Your jelly is ready to go. Remove the stirrer and begin pouring into your jars.
This recipe makes enough to fill (4) Half-pint jars. I’m using these wide mouth jelly jars because I thought they looked pretty and were something a little bit different.
At this point you can preserve it, freeze it or pop it in some jars and into your fridge where it will last up to 3 weeks. I decided to preserve mine using Ball’s canning procedures so that I could give them out as gifts.
Note: For directions on how to make this without the jam and jelly maker, please see the second printable recipe below.
Enjoy!
Apple Pie Jelly (with Ball Jam Maker)
Print Pin RatePrep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 25 minutes
Total Time: 35 minutes
Servings: 12
Ingredients
- 3 cups unsweetened apple juice
- 4 tbsp pectin
- 1 tsp butter
- 2 cups white sugar
- 1 1/3 cups light brown sugar
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
Instructions
- Put apple juice in a medium bowl.
- Slowly whisk in pectin to the apple juice.
- The pectin should dissolve into the apple juice.
- This is really important to ensure your jelly sets up.
- Pour juice mixture into the pot of the jam maker.
- Add butter.
- Butter helps reduce foaming when making jams/jellies.
- Press "jelly" button.
- The cook time will automatically default to 25 minutes.
- Press enter.
- Wait 4 minutes for jam maker to sound 4 short beeps indicating that it is time to add sugar.
- Whisk in white sugar and brown sugar (breaking up as many clumps as you can) while the stirrer is still running.
- The appliance will continue to automatically stir your ingredients while it cooks.
- Stay within earshot of the Jam & Jelly Maker.
- The appliance will beep again at the end of the process signaling jelly cooking is complete.
- Press cancel and unplug the appliance.
- Your jelly is ready to preserve, freeze or refrigerate.
Notes
I did whisk the mixture about 2 minutes before cooking was complete just to get rid of a few clumps of sugar. This is probably because of the brown sugar in this recipe and that tends to get clumpy easily.
Did you make this recipe?Share it on Instagram @thecountrycook and mention us #thecountrycook!
Ingredients
- 3 cups unsweetened apple juice
- 4 tbsp classic pectin
- 1 tsp butter
- 2 cups white sugar
- 1 1/3 cups light brown sugar
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
Instructions
- PLACE apple juice in an 8-quart saucepan. Gradually whisk in classic Pectin. Add butter. Bring mixture to a full rolling boil that cannot be stirred down, over high heat, stirring constantly.
- ADD entire measure of white and brown sugar, stirring to dissolve. Return mixture to a full rolling boil. Boil hard 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and quickly whisk in cinnamon and nutmeg. Skim foam, if necessary, from top of jelly.
- Ladle hot jelly into a hot jar, leaving 1⁄4-inch headspace. Remove air bubbles. Wipe jar rim. Center lid on jar. Apply band, and adjust to fingertip-tight. Place jar in boiling-water canner. Repeat until all jars are filled.
- Process jars 10 minutes, adjusting for altitude. Turn off heat; remove lid, and let jars stand 5 minutes. Remove jars and cool.
Did you make this recipe?Share it on Instagram @thecountrycook and mention us #thecountrycook!
liked them both! love your site!!!!
The contest seems to have closed early (it is now 6:00pm PST on November 15) but I did "like" Ball on Facebook. I made about 20 batches of jam for our fall Boutique this year and there are only 24 jars left.
from Nancy.
I love Ball Canning on facebook and can't wait to try your Apple Pie Jelly. Thanks for including the recipe without the Ball jelly maker.
I don’t know what I am doing wrong, but I am not finding the recipe NOT using the jam/jelly maker. Can you please post it or send it to me?
Hi Julie, I apologize. It got deleted somehow. It is at the bottom of the post now 🙂
This is such a perfect recipe! And so easy! Adding the Apple Pie spices gives real pizzazz to the jelly. I have used it on breads and muffins of course, but try it on sauteed chicken tenders! to die for! Thanks so much for the inspiration!
Thanks so very much Wendy!!