This fun canning recipe for candy cane jelly makes a sweet peppermint flavored clear jelly that is perfect for holiday gift giving. Serve the jelly as a dip for pretzels or stirred into a bowl of ice cream or put it on your morning toast!
Prep Time30 minutesmins
Cook Time9 hourshrs
Total Time9 hourshrs30 minutesmins
Course: Canning
Cuisine: American
Keyword: 10 Ingredients Or Less, 5 Ingredients Or Less, Apple, Candy Cane, Christmas Recipes, Jelly
Add apples and water to a 6 quart or larger slow cooker.
Cover and cook until apples are mushy (about 6 to 7 hours on LOW).
Line a colander with cheesecloth and place colander over a larger bowl and strain apple mixture. Gently squeezing the apple mixture to release as much juice as possible from the apples.
Measure out 6 cups of the apple juice and add back into the slow cooker. Recover and cook for 1 hour on HIGH.
Add unwrapped candy canes and sugar to the slow cooker and stir until candy canes are fully melted.
Recover and cook for an additional 30 minutes on HIGH heat.
Add Sur-Jell pectin and stir until dissolved.
Transfer liquid to a large pan and cook on the stove-top on HIGH heat until mixture comes to a rolling boil.
Test mixture on spoon to see if it gels.
Ladle hot jelly into sterilized pint sized canning jars. Wipe rims of jars with a clean cloth and put lids and rings on jars. Screwing rings on until just finger tight.
Process jars in a water bath canner for 5 minutes (increasing time if you are located above sea level).
Notes
Don't have a plethora of fresh apples that you need to use up and want to skip making your own homemade apple juice? You can skip the apples and water and cooking and straining bit of this recipe and just use apple juice from the grocery store!For water bath canning instructions and tips we recommend checking out this article on the Ball Fresh Preserving website on how to can jelly and preserves: Make And Preserve Jam & Jelly!Check out this guide for Adjusting For High Altitude Canning.