Recipe Hot Pepper Jelly

kaneohegirlinaz

kaneohegirlinaz

Wannabe TV Chef
Joined
19 Nov 2021
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7:30 PM
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Location
Central/Northern AZ, gateway to The Grand Canyon
Website
mykitcheninthemiddleofthedesert.wordpress.com
I made this recipe originally to sell at our Community's Craft & Bake Sale this past March.
It did very well, I sold out and have recently been commissioned to make another entire batch for a gal in our neighborhood.

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Hot Pepper Jelly

Ingredients:

1 ½ C. Red Bell Pepper, seeded and finely chopped
1 C. Yellow Bell Pepper, seeded and finely chopped
1 ¼ C. Green Bell Pepper, seeded and finely chopped
¼ C. Jalapeño, seeded and finely chopped
1 C. Apple Cider Vinegar
1.75 oz. package powdered Pectin
5 C. Sugar
6 8oz. Canning Jars

Method:

Sterilize canning jars in boiling water.
Place Red Bell Pepper, Yellow Bell Pepper, Green Bell pepper, Jalapeño in a large saucepan over high heat.
Mix in the Apple Cider Vinegar Pectin.
Stir constantly, bring to a rolling boil.
Remove from heat.
Add the Sugar and place back on high heat.
Return to a rolling boil for one minute.
Remove from heat. Skim off any foam from top.
Ladle jelly evenly into sterile jars, filling to ¼ inch from top of jar.
**Note: Scoop one ladle of pepper jelly in each jar to evenly distribute peppers before completely filling each jar. The peppers rise to the top. If you do not evenly distribute them, you will have no peppers left for the last jars.
Cover with lids and screw on screw bands tight.
Place jars into canner with hot water that is not boiling. Water should completely cover jars by 2 inches. Cook on high heat to reach a boil.
Process for 5 minutes (high altitude canning process may apply).
Remove from heat.
Remove jars carefully to cool on a rack or board for 12-24 hours.
When jars are completely cooled, check seals by pressing centers of lids with finger. (If lid springs back, lid is not sealed and refrigeration is necessary.)

*Cook's Note:
If you'd like a hotter Pepper Jelly, leave in the seeds and ribs from the Jalapeño, or even use a higher Scoville Scale rated Pepper.
In addition, I will usually prepare 2 extra 4oz. jars, just in case you have more jelly than jars.

Keep in mind, a recipe is simply someone else's idea, you take it and make it your own.

Serving Suggestion:

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This Hot Pepper Jelly is lovely over a room temperature block of Cream Cheese, scooped on to Crackers or a slice of freshly baked Bread slices.
 
Congrats, kaneohegirlinaz, pepper jelly is a fantastic and versatile condiment.
When I first started my Conserves company, some 15 - odd years ago, a friend gave me a jar of green pepper jelly and red pepper jelly. The green pepper jelly didn´t sell well because I think people were a bit put off by the colour. The red, however, sold like hot cakes. I had clients who would buy a whole case; leave half at home for entertaining, and take the other half to the beach, where they´d snack on pepper jelly, cream cheese and crackers.
I then created a sweet chile jelly (from ají dulce), a jalapeño jelly, a balsamic jelly and even an habanero jelly. You can make them hotter, or milder, with chunks of pepper or smooth (buzz them in a processor), with or without the seeds - depends entirely on your market.
 
To the question of how much pepper per cup, it looks like 1 average jalapeno fits in about 1/3 of a cup, so that 1/4 cup in the recipe is probably a whole pepper, minus the ribs and seeds. A bell pepper equates to about 1 cup when chopped. So, the proportion is:

3 cups mild pepper
1/4 cup hot pepper

I like your proportion of spicy pepper to not spicy pepper here. It can function as a dip or a salsa this way.

My Serrano Pepper Jelly Recipe had 1 bell pepper to 10 serranos, or about 1 cup of mild to 2-1/2 cups of hot. I made a habanero pepper jelly that had the same proportions, and it was absurdly hot...nearly inedible, though I did eat all of it. It functioned more as an accent carefully added to hors d'oeuvres than something I could use as a dip or sauce.
 
I bet that and the cream cheese would make a great empanada filling! I love the pastries that Cubans make with cream cheese and guava paste, which are basically empanadas with a sweet pastry dough. I've also seen guava paste laid over a block of cream cheese and eaten spread over Cuban crackers.
 
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To be honest, MaximumSam, I don´t think it´ll make much difference. Just buy 2 red, 1 large yellow and 2 medium green peppers and see where it goes. My experience is that it´s not really a big deal.
But I also weigh everything in grams, rather than cups, in order to be more precise.
 
MaximumSam said:
How many peppers do you need for four cups of peppers?
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I think that's going to vary greatly, since when I buy peppers they can be anywhere from 2" long to 6" long and they are going to vary in circumference as well. So yeah, karadekoolaid has the right idea about weighing them, but I don't have a kitchen scale so I wouldn't be able to do that, obviously.
 
MaximumSam said:
How many peppers do you need for four cups of peppers?
Click to expand...
Here's what I did: I used 1 each Red, Yellow and Green Bell Peppers, seeded and finely chopped (not too fine, you still want a bit of texture) which when measured out in a 4 cup pyrex measuring cup, came to just about 3 3/4 cup and then for the Jalapeno Pepper, I keep already seeded and chopped peppers in the freezer at all times in the form of pre-measured 1 tablespoon portions that I've made up into ice cube trays with just a touch of water, freeze and bag. So for this recipe, I portioned out 4 ice cubes to de-frost and Bob's Your Uncle. But as I mentioned in the recipe, it's just someone else's idea, you take it run with in dude!!! You want it hot, use the Scotch Bonnet, can't digest Green Bell Peppers like my Mother, omit that!
I think this is such a pretty jelly, it reminds me of a necklace sparkling in the sunshine.
I've used this jelly as a glaze on a Ham, a Chicken ...
and CraigC I love your idea of an Empanada filling!!!!
 
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