Pear Jelly

Perfect for roasts in the place of apple jelly, maybe with a sweet pie pudding too! 

Ingredients:

2kg of pears

1lt of water

1-2kg sugar (this is depending on how much liquid you end up with. For everly 1.2l you need 1kg of sugar.)

1-2 lemons (1 lemon per 1kg of sugar.)

How to make pear jelly: 

First peal your pears, chopping off the tops and bottoms.

Using a large sauce pan, add the water and pears. (Keeping the peelings to one side if you wish to make vinegar.)

Bring to the boil.

Took a good hour to an hour and a half on a slow soft boil, to get them soft to squash.

Many people say to use a tea towel or muslin cloth and suspend the liquid and mashed up pears higher. I didn't have a muslin bag to hand so this is how I did it. 

Pour all the liquid and mashed up pears through. For best results, leave over night.

Measure out 1.2lt of the liquid and add 1kg of sugar. Add the juice of one lemon.

Heat slowly, allowing all the sugar to melt completely. Put a china plate into the fridge. 

Then bring to a gentle boil. 

Click here to see my blog about how to jar up!

A lot of people use the method of checking the temperature to check when it's ready to jar up. I don't have one, so I check with a cold plate from the fridge. Pour a little onto the plate, how does it move? Fast like water or slow like jelly. When it's ready it will stay still and not run.

Now, this way of doing it won't always set. Once you have left them to cool, if it doesn't set hard like jelly then you will need to re-boil and re-jar. 

Leave the jars on a drying rack to cool. It takes a few hours for them to set.

I made two batches, one to make jelly and one to make syrup. (The syrup is very much like honey. Not fully set but thick and perfect for everlything you would use honey for. It has a very zingy flavour and taste.)

This is the 'honey' style. 

Now this is where I had such a terrible time...in my defence I haven't made any jellies in about a year. They didn't set, so I repeated it again, with a little more lemon. I over heated/cooked it for two long and made candy!!

So what do you do when life gives you lemons? You make lemonade, right!?

So looks like we will be having some candy apples!! My next batch I will double check this and let you know of any changes to be made!