The end of summer brings about the bounty of the season, one of our favourites is the Elderberry and this year has seen a bumper harvest. This jelly is well worth the effort of collecting, cleaning and sorting as just one day of labour will give you at least a year of pleasure as you add the jelly to sauces for a rich taste, or just a little dollop with fresh cold meats and cheese rather than using the less flavoursome commercial alternatives. What can be finer than your own seasonal preserves to add a little of the sunshine to your winter meals? A few simple ingredients combine here to make something rather special.
1300g Elderberries
1300g Cooking Apples
Peel of 1 Orange
1 Cinnamon stick
Granulated sugar as per instruction below.
1 Go out on a warm sunny day and collect your elderberries, remove stems to leave just the berries.
2 Place elderberries in a large deep pan.
3 Chop apples roughly, including skin and cores and add to the elderberries.
4 Pour 500ml cold water into the pan, place over heat and bring to the boil.
5 As soon as the apples have softened, turn off the heat, allow to cool a little and pass the mixture through a sieve into another pan or large container. Push as much pulp through the sieve as possible.
6 Use a measuring jug to see how much pulp you have then put pulp into a large deep pan again.
7 Add sugar to the pulp in the ratio of 475g sugar to every 500ml of Elderberry and apple pulp, place pan over heat again and bring back to the boil. Add the peel of the orange and the cinnamon stick.
8 Turn down to simmer and allow to cook. As scum appears on the surface, remove it with a spoon.
9 After about 30 minutes of simmering, begin to check if setting point has been reached by removing a small amount on a teaspoon and placing on a cool plate, in about 5 minutes touch the cooled preserve, if it feels jelly like then it is ready. If still too runny then continue to simmer and check every 10 minutes until the setting point is achieved.
10 Pour the jelly into sterile prepared kilner jars or jam jars, seal quickly and allow to cool.
11 Store until you are ready to use, enjoy.
