I was first introduced to the delights of haw jelly when it was given as a present from the secret selfsufficientish santa (a yearly tradition on our web forum) a couple of Christmas’s ago and I have loved the stuff ever since. Pretty easy stuff to make. The recipe that I use is inspired by some ofthe ishers on our web forum.
Ingredients
- 1 lb of Haws (500g)
- 1.5 pints of water (800mls)
- 3 crab apples
- 2 cooking apples
Method
Boil until the haws and the apples are all mushy. Then get a muslin cloth/jelly bag or an old CLEAN t-shirt pour in the mushy liquid, tie up some where (cupboard handles are a good spot) and strain through into a bowl. This is best done slowly even overnight as apparently squeezing it can make the jelly go cloudy, but I have no patience and tend to give it a helping hand. I am not puritan after all.
Measure our what liquid you have left and pour in the same amount of sugar. So one pint of sugar to each pound of liquid, 500g per 500ml. Then boil until you reach setting point. To test this put a saucer in the freezer for a bit, then dollup the jelly onto every now and then, when it seems to set and not run all over the saucer it is ready to put into sterilized jam jars.
It makes about three Marmite sized jars full. Unless like me you drop one into the rest of the big pile of haws and end up with a big jammy mess of haws.