Jalapeno Pepper jelly is one of those treats that we just love to make, eat, and give away, as it just leads to good time and memories. I use Jalapeno peppers fresh from the garden to make it. If you don’t have any in the garden, then pick some up at the grocery store, or use some other kind of peppers, and make yourself some pepper jelly. Eating pepper jelly with Ritz crackers over cream cheese is just delicious. Plain and simple, its good stuff.
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Harvesting the Peppers
First step in making the best Jalapeno Pepper Jelly is to go into the backyard and harvest some Jalapenos from my organic raised-bed garden. I have 8 Jalapeno plants in my garden including Craig’s Grande, Pumpkin Spice, Orange Spice, and Brown Jalapeño varieties.
Preparing the Ingredients
The two main items to prepare before cooking is to prepare the peppers and prepare the jars. There is plenty of heat in Jalapeno peppers so we will want to remove the seeds and membrane. Then we’ve got to dice them up. Note: Do yourself a favor and put on some gloves as you work with the peppers so you won’t burn yourself up every time you touch your fingers to your face (or elsewhere)!
The other primary task is to prepare the jars by sterilizing the jars, lids, and rings in boiling water or in your dishwasher.
Cooking it Up
The recipe for cooking the pepper jelly up is really simple. You only have a few ingredients including peppers, sugar, vinegar, and liquid pectin. The basis for the recipe did come from a really good book, Complete Book of Home Preserving, where I learned a lot about canning and other preservation methods. I doubled the recipe as well since I had plenty of peppers. You pretty much bring everything to boil except the pectin. Then that’s added under boil for about a minute. Next, you are ready to transfer to the jars.
Canning Pepper Jelly
The final part is to fill your jars with the pepper jelly, wipe the rim, place the lid on and screw the band on finger tight. Next transfer them to the canner where they are to be processed (boiled) for a minimum of 10 minutes.
Pepper Jelly
This pepper jelly recipe uses fresh jalapeños from my garden to make some excellent pepper jelly you can enjoy year around. It is a favorite at our house over cream cheese and crackers. It's a staple in south Louisiana for LSU football watching parties and holiday snacks.
- 12 oz Jalepeno peppers, stemmed, seeded and deveined (Wear latex gloves while processing the peppers)
- 2 cups Vinegar, Apple Cider
- 6 cups Sugar, Granulated
- 2 pouches Liquid Pectin (each 3 oz.)
- 1 box Crackers, Ritz (Can be substituted with any other crackers)
- 1 box Cream Cheese
Prepare canner, jars and lids. Makes about five 8-ounce jars.
Dice up peppers finely.
In a large, deep stainless steel or ceramic saucepan, combine peppers, apple cider vinegar and sugar. Bring to a boil over high heat and boil, stirring constantly, for 10 minutes.
Stir in pectin. Boil hard, stirring constantly, for 1 minute. Remove from heat
Quickly pour hot jelly into jars, leaving 1/2" headspace. Wipe rim. Center lid on jar. Screw band down until finger-tight,
Place jars in canner, ensuring they are completely covered with water. Bring to a boil and process for 10 minutes. Remove canner lid. Wait 5 minutes, then remove jars, cool and store.
Serve over cream cheese with crackers.
This makes a great gift or serve your pepper jelly poured over some cream cheese, with crackers, and make memories with your family and friends. Please let us know how you like this post or have suggestions on future posts. Please visit our YouTube channel as well.
Enjoy! Remember, if you can dream it, you can do it!
If you enjoy this content, please check out other garden to jar posts including Salsa Verde and my Tomato Jam post here.
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Great appetizer for get togethers. Yummy with chicken and other recipes.
It is pretty good!