Easy Apple Jelly Recipe (Just 2 Ingredients)
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Learn how to make apple jelly with no added pectin to enjoy for fresh eating or canning with this easy recipe sweetened with sugar or honey.
The natural pectin in apples prompted the authors of Stocking Up III to call apple jelly “the simplest of jellies” because it is made with only apples and sweetener.
Make a little jelly or a lot – you can use the sweetener guidelines to adjust for the amount of apple juice you have available. You can also make a spiced apple jelly by adding spices during cooking.
Table of Contents
What is Pectin?
Pectin is a fiber naturally found in fruits. It’s a polysaccaride (a type of carbohydrate) that’s used for thickening and gelling. (It can also be used for some health conditions, like treating GERD and binding heavy metals.)
Fruits that are high in pectin include:
- apples
- crab apples
- currants
- grapes
- gooseberries
- plums
- cranberries
- quince
Because apples contain natural pectin, you can make apple jelly without adding artificial pectin. Natural fruit pectin works best for gelling jelly and jam when you have plenty of acid and plenty of sugar.
Tart fruit and less ripe fruit has more pectin than very ripe fruit. To help your apple jelly gel more quickly, be sure to include some less ripe (slightly underripe) apples or crab apples in the mix.
You can also experiment with combining high pectin fruits and low pectin fruits, or making your own homemade pectin. (Apples are often used to make commercial pectin, too.)
How to Make Apple Jelly with Honey or Sugar
You can use any type of apple for jelly, but varieties with deep red skins add pretty color to your jelly.
Ingredients
- 4-6 cups apple juice (about 6 pounds of apples)
- 3 cups honey or 4-6 cups of sugar
Directions
To juice your apples: Wash apples. Remove stems, damaged areas and blossom ends, cut into quarters or slices.
Don’t peel the apples – much of the pectin is in the peel. Place apples in a non-reactive heavy bottom stockpot (stainless steel or enamel).
Add enough water to half cover apples. Cook until fruit is soft, stirring occasionally to avoid burning and promote even cooking.
If you have sweet apples, you can add 2 tablespoons of lemon juice for a more tart jelly.
You may also make a spiced jelly by simmering whole spices such as cinnamon sticks, cloves or allspice (in a spice bag) with the apples while they are cooking to get soft. (Don’t add them to the boiling juice.)
To strain the apple juice: Place well-cooked apples into a jelly bag strainer or flour sack towel in a colander. If using a towel, gather ends of the towel and hang it from an elevated location. I hang mine from my kitchen cabinet handles because my cabinets are sturdy.
If you have lighter cabinets, hang from the back of a chair or other solid location. You can see my setup in the currant jelly post.
If you want a clear jelly, don’t squeeze the bag to hurry it along – just let it drip. If you like, you can cook your apples one day, let them drain overnight, and make apple jelly the next day.
Apple Jelly Recipe Proportions
Measure out your juice and sweetener:
- 1/2 cup honey for every cup of juice – OR
- 3 cups of sugar for every 4 cups of sweet apple juice – OR
- 4 cups of sugar for every 4 cups of tart apple juice
Measure juice and sweetener into pan. Mix well. Make sure to use a large pot, as the jelly will boil up and foam a great deal during cooking.
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This is an 8 quart stockpot, and at times the jelly reached close to the rim. You need to have enough space to reach a full rolling boil.
Cook at high heat, stirring constantly, until the gelling point is reached (220°F (104 °C)). When the gelling point is reached, the apple jelly will sheet cleanly off a spoon.
Alternatively, you can place a spoonful of jelly on a cold plate, stick it in the fridge for a minute, and then run your finger through it.
Jelly that has jelled should hold the shape of the finger trail for a bit, not run right back together. When jelling point is reached, remove from heat.
Smaller batches work better than larger batches. I ended up with around 10 cups of juice, so I made a larger batch. It took over an hour to boil down to jelly. Smaller batches cook much faster.
Canning and Processing Time
While the jelly is cooking, prep jars and lids. Jars and lids should be clean and warm, but do not need to be sterilized. I like to heat the lids and rings in hot water, kept warm but not boiling, but this isn’t essential. Fill water bath canner and bring to boil.
Ladle jelly into sterilized jars leaving 1/4″ headspace. Wipe rims clean and screw on the lids. Process for 10 minutes in water bath canner (add 1 minute for every 1,000 feet above sea level).
Makes roughly 5 cups of apple jelly for every 6 cups of apple juice. With 10 cups of crabapple juice and 5 cups of honey I ended up with 8 jars of jelly. The red skinned crabapples gave it a very pretty red color.
Simple Homemade Apple Jelly
This simple jelly is a great way to use up small or damaged apples to make a delicious treat.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 40 minutes
- Total Time: 50 minutes
- Yield: 4 cups 1x
- Category: Condiment
- Method: Canning
Ingredients
- 4–6 cups apple juice (about 6 pounds of apples)
- 3 cups honey or 4-6 cups of sugar
Instructions
To juice your apples:
Wash apples. Remove stems, damaged areas and blossom ends, cut into quarters or slices. Don’t peel the apples – much of the pectin is in the peel. Place apples in a non-reactive heavy bottom stockpot (stainless steel or enamel). Add enough water to half cover apples. Cook until fruit is soft, stirring occasionally to avoid burning and promote even cooking. If you have sweet apples, you can add 2 tablespoons of lemon juice for a more tart jelly. You may also make a spiced jelly by simmering whole spices such as cinnamon sticks, cloves or allspice (in a spice bag) with the apples while they are cooking to get soft. (Don’t add them to the boiling juice.)
To strain the juice:
Place well-cooked apples into a jelly bag strainer or flour sack towel in a colander. If using a towel, gather ends of the towel and hang it from an elevated location.
Measure out your juice and sugar.
Use
- 1/2 cup honey for every cup of juice – or
- 3 cups of sugar for every 4 cups of sweet apple juice – or
- 4 cups of sugar for every 4 cups of tart apple juice
Cooking and canning the apple jelly.
- Place juice and sweetener into pan. Mix well. Make sure to use a large pot, as the jelly will boil up and foam a great deal during cooking.
- Cook at a high boil, stirring constantly, until the gelling point is reached (220°F (104 °C)).
- While the jelly is cooking, sterilize seven 8-ounce jars, keep hot. Prep two piece canning lids. Fill water bath canner and bring to boil.
- Ladle jelly into sterilized jars leaving 1/4″ headspace. Wipe rims clean and screw on the lids. Process the apple jelly for 10 minutes in water bath canner (add 1 minute for every 1,000 feet above sea level). Makes roughly 5 cups of apple jelly for every 6 cups of juice.
- Once jars have cooled, remove rings, date and label jars. Store in a cool, dark location out of direct sunlight. Use within 18 months for best quality.
Notes
- If you want a clear jelly, don’t squeeze the bag when making juice to hurry it along – just let it drip.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 tablespoon
Can I start with apple juice to make jelly?
Yes, you should be able to make apple jelly from commercial apple juice. Most commercial apple juice is quite sweet, so it may take a little longer to gel than juice that includes some underripe apples.
How long does homemade apple jelly last?
If you’d like to cook up a small batch of apple jelly and keep it in the refrigerator instead of canning it, that’s fine.
The high sugar content will keep it shelf stable at room temperature for some time, but refrigeration is safer for longer storage if you don’t can the jelly. While some people feel safe keeping their homemade jelly in the fridge for up to 2 years, we recommend a shelf life of about one year.
Get apple jelly and applesauce from the same apples
This year we had a ton of crabapples gifted to us from a neighbor. I canned 14 quarts whole as honey-cinnamon crabapples, made some into applesauce, and used some for both juice and sauce. It was nice to get two end products out of the same batch of apples.
I cooked the apples up one night and made the jelly the next day, so the juice had time to drain.
After draining the apples for apple jelly, I ran them through our food strainer to make applesauce. This gave us a nice, thick sauce that would be great for fruit leather, since much of the liquid was already removed.
Even more ways to use apples
You can read more about making applesauce and other apple treats in the post, “Preserve Apples for Year Round Use 17 Easy and Creative Ways“. Here are some other recipe ideas using apples:
- Maple Apple Jam
- Apple scrap vinegar
- Hard cider recipe
- Apple cider drink recipes
- Maple fried apples
- Cranberry-apple pie
- Apple crisp
- Easy apple cake with caramel topping
Enjoy!
This article is written by Laurie Neverman. Laurie grew up in the kitchen, learning baking and home cooking from her momma. At age 15, she and her mom and two sisters created Irene’s Custom Cakes & Catering, which was her summer job through most of high school and college.
Last updated in 2024.
I put my apples in Alan and covered them half-way with water. By the time they were done I could not get much juice. Can I add water and retook the apples?
Did you mean to say that you put your apples in a pan? If you covered them halfway with water, there should be plenty of juice – unless you turned the heat too high and left the lid off. In the future, try low heat, a heavy bottom pan, and a lid to capture the steam and keep it in the cook pot.
You could try adding water and recooking, but I’m not sure how it will work out. I suspect by this point the flavor will be very cooked, although the resulting jelly would still be likely to gel. You may want to run these apples through a chinois or food strainer and turn them into apple butter or apple sauce instead, since they are so low in juice.
Thank you so much for this recipe! But like another comment said, mine turned into thick honey like stuff. It is good, but it is not jam. It kinda tastes like apple honey.
Can you use both honey and sugar?
Yes. Keep in mind that honey is roughly twice as sweet as sugar.
Would it be OK to refrigerate it in a bowl if it is going to be eaten as soon as it is set?
I don’t see why not.
Can I use guava necter instead of honey or sugar? Or a combination of the two?
I have seen no references that provide information on using guava nectar as a sweetener for jelly that will be canned. It’s possible to can fruit juice, so I’m guessing you could can guava, but I would have no idea about what proportions to attempt to use in a jelly.
I made one batch according to the directions but found the honey flavor a little strong, so I cut the honey down to 1/3 cup honey per each cup of juice. I found the taste so much better. I used sweet apples. I am off to pick more apples. Oh, by the way, the Apple sauce from the remains is beyond yummy.
This looks delicious! Do you ever can apple juice? I have 2 tinies & would love an alternate to store bought juice.
I haven’t because I haven’t had that enough to can, but it’s certainly possible. You pints and quarts should have 1/4 inch headspace, and be processed for 5 minutes in a boiling water bath canner.
Do you use the apple leftovers after they’ve drained? (I’ve never made jelly before, only jam, so I’m not sure what would be left after draining–f it would be enough to, say, make applesauce or apple butter).
Yes, if you’ll check the bottom of the post, I mentioned that I turned the drained apples into sauce. You could also cook them down more into apple butter.
I made this yesterday opened a jar today and it was like honey/gooey candy. What went wrong ?
If the jelly was runny, odds are you didn’t cook it long enough (to the jelling state). You may recook, or use it like syrup or a very soft spread. If it’s weeping (liquid separating from the jelly), this may be due to the use of beet sugar, which reacts differently in recipes than cane sugar.
Its thick like cold honey. Going to cook it some more and try and turn it into a hard candy.
Good luck. Be careful not to scorch it, which is easy to do once you get that hot.
I don’t understand why you go through the whole water bath canning thing if you pour boiling juice into hot, sterilized jars and immediately add the lids and finger tightened rings…?
10 minutes in a water bath canner is the recommended safe canning practice. With appropriate head space and time in the canner, all the air is driven out of the top of the jar, creating a vacuum. This adds another layer of safety to home food storage.
I simplified my canning steps several years ago by pour boiling water in jars during the last 5-10 minutes of jelly cooking. I have the lids in hot water, too. When jelly is ready, replace the hot water with boiling jelly.
Max size for apples to pack well in qt. jars = 1″. If bigger than 1″, pack in
2 qt. or larger jars.
My apples are from my apple tree, I’ve been following this recipes for over a week now ( had to wait for my local store to get more jars) but some of my apples are starting to get soft and the skin, wrinkly. Can I still use those apples?
Cooking up soft, wrinkly apples for preserving is a great way to save them from the compost heap.
I want to thank you for the recipe. I peeled three bags of apples and I am using just the peels and the cores for my jelly, I have never tried this before, will it have enough pectic in it to make the jelly? I use the apples for apple butter.
Thank you,
Kim
Ohio
The pectin is generally more concentrated in the peels, but I’m not sure how you’re making jelly out of just peels and cores.
I just boil them and then strain the juice out like you would the apples. But I pressure cooked it when I was done. I am not sure if it is going to set up or not. It was still runny this morning. This was the first time I tried it like this, but read that someone had did this before.
I suspect that the added water would interfere with jelling. With a cooked jelly like this with no added pectin, odds are if it didn’t gel when you were cooking it, it’s not going to gel later – but there’s always apple syrup.
I have made apple scrap jelly and it is very good.
I used just peels and cores to make my jelly and it turned out fine. I may have boiled it a little too long as the consistency is a little thicker than most jellies, but it tastes great!
Thanks for sharing your experience.
Me too it’s more like a thick honey which is why I am looking for an answer since I used this recipe but got honey consistancy rather than jelly but it is delicious .I also made it with spiced apple cider it is even more tasty but still same consistancy not jelly more honey spead if anyone knows the answer if I made it wrong or if that’s just how it’s suppose to be I’d love to know
Try including some greener apples in your mix for more pectin, or cooking it longer. If you used a commercial apple cider, it’s possible that it was processed with a pectin reducing enzyme, since many people don’t like a more cloudy drink (which comes with more pectin).
Thanks for your response I’ll try adding green apple next batch but it still taste great my grandkids love it
That’s the most important thing. 🙂
Laurie I made from app an cores my mother added lemon so also put in till what you want ithejuiceto taste like then she put ina box of sure jel it is pectioin juice cook till it boils an you can’t stir down then add sugar the same way till you can’t stir down cook 1 min then can
Do you have to use that much honey or sugar? Can you make it with less? Or even none?
To make a simple two ingredient jelly, sugar is required. If you want to do a low or now sugar jelly, you’ll have to add special pectin or another jelling agent. For different recipe options, you can check out the article “Jellied Products Without Added Sugar“.
How long does the apple jelly keep in the jars?
Once it has been processed, easily a year or more. If you were to just stick it in the fridge, a few weeks.
Is the finished cider fizzy?
The one consumed young is, the older ones often not.
could i use a juicer to process the apples and then go to the cooking up step?
thanks!
blessings
~*~
The cooking process helps release the pectin from the apples, so I don’t think raw juice would work as well.
I juiced my apples and tried it; it didn’t work. ‘CommonSenseIdea’ is correct, it needs the cooking to get the pectin. I now have jars and jars of apple syrup! After reading this, I made the jelly as directed, and it was great!
I also looked up making and jarring pectin from apples, so I can have home made pectin on hand for other recipes. Youtube has some good tutorials on that subject.
Do the apples have to be blemish free?
Not at all. This is a good use for apples that are a little bit ugly – just make sure to cut out anything rotten.
It might not have enough pectin in it and it would never jell.
If you got your juice and sugar to 220 Fahrenheit and let it boil for about 3 mins at that temp it won’t need pectin. So if your jelly has not set open the jars and put them back in the pan and reboil what you have. Get another box of pectin and when your new jelly gets a hard boil (218-220) let it boil for 1 min and remove from stove.
Quick question and I know it goes against the homemade. But if I were short on time, could I use apple juice from the start?
I haven’t tried it, but it should work, as I’m sure they don’t peel the apples before juicing commercially.
The first time i made jelly, I used store bought frozen apple juice and honey. It jelled perfectly. I had no idea what I was doing. I just got a recipe, replaced the sugar with honey and the juice from cooked apples with the store-bought juice i reconstituted in a pitcher.
No candy thermometer, no pectin, no canner I packed it into used (but clean) jelly jars from store-bought jelly, and it is a wonder I did not poison my friends.
Thanks.. I have save my old jars and was going to for the first time make a few jars of apple Jelly but everyone I discussed it with was saying I had to go buy the canning jars, & had to boil them.. .. Since I Have some jars & apples going to make Apple Jelly tomorrow
Hey my problem with jars is my wife is so proud of my jelly making she just has to give the jelly to friends and family. So much for keeping the jars.
Maybe put a tag on them indicating that they should return the jars for refilling? Many don’t realize that they get reused, but I’ve trained friends and family to return mine.
Yes you can use apple juice, orange juice and it works i’ve done it.