In an effort to make all of her holiday gifts this year, Camilla at Culinary Adventures with Camilla invited some of her favorite foodie bloggers to share recipes for hand-crated edibles. Over the course of twelve weeks, we’ll be sharing recipes for all your homemade holiday gifts. Hope you’ll follow along for inspiration. You can find out more information, including the schedule here.

Today’s theme is jams and jellies. Homemade jam or jelly makes for a great gift that lasts the whole year – except odds are it won’t.

I am re-sharing the recipe for Concord Grape Jelly that my mom and I made last year. This jelly was the best jelly I’ve ever had! It definitely didn’t last a year – it only last a couple of months. And this year there weren’t grapes to be plucked from the vine. Are grapes an every-other-year type of crop?

I promise you, if you give someone a jar of homemade jelly they’ll say a big “thank you” every morning.

This recipe made 12 4oz Jars and 4 8oz jars.

Grape Jelly

Ingredients:

• 5 lb concord grapes
• 7 C sugar, divided use
• 1 pkt pectin(or 8 tbsp)

Equipment:

• blender or juicer
• cheesecloth
• jelly jars with lids and rings
• jar funnel
• jar grabber
• magnetic lid grabber
• large stock pot(s)

Steps:

1. Sanitize your jelly jars. I did this by running my dishwasher on a very hot cycle. Keep jars warm until ready to fill to prevent the glass cracking. If you do this in a dishwasher, simply don’t open the door until you’re ready to fill the jars. If you sanitize jars by washing with soapy water and boiling in water for 10 minutes,keep the jars in warm water until you’re ready to fill them.
2. Place jar lids in a shallow skillet over low heat (do not boil) to get the seal gummy, remove lids from water.
3. Place grapes in a blender (this will need to be done in batches) and pulse until juiced. Pour and press the juice through a cheesecloth lined strainer and strain into a large measuring cup. Squeeze cheesecloth to extract all the juice. Do this until you have 5 C of juice. (Any extra juice is a delicious tart treat for you to enjoy!)
4. In a small bowl, combine the pectin with 1/4 C of the sugar.
5. Warm the juice, but do not boil (yet). Stir in the pectin. Bring to a full boil.
6. Add the rest of the sugar and return to a boil. Boil for 1 minute.
7. Fill jars with jelly, cover with lids and rings. Seal by placing the filled jars in a boiling water bath for 5 minutes. Remove and allow to cool in a dry place over night. (I did this in my oven.)

*This recipe is adapted from http://www.pickyourown.org/grapejelly.htm#.VELDzfl4ofg*

To give homemade jelly as a gift, place it in a nice basket with a loaf of fresh bread.

Here are some other jam and jelly treats:

• Amy at Amy’s Cooking Adventures shared Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie Jam
• Sarah of Fantastical Sharing of Recipes made Tomato Bacon Jam
• Nichole, the Cookaholic Wife, posted her Honey Lemon Apple Jam
• Terri of Christmas Tree Lane created Blueberry Lavender Butter
• Wendy from A Day in the Life on the Farm made Jalapeno Jelly
• Camilla, Culinary Adventures with Camilla, shared a spicy jar of Apple Jalapeño Jam

Next week, check back for our recipes for pickles. Or check out our #handcraftededibles pinterest board.

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