Crab apples have become our entertainment around here,Â
and a huge new favorite.
and a huge new favorite.
And since it is:
We want to share with you how amazing,
how richly colored,
and how incredibly deliciousÂ
this tart little apple makes so many things.
this tart little apple makes so many things.
At first glance, it does not even seem like the time spent on it would be worth it, because it is so small. But that tiny little apple packs one heck of a powerful apple flavored punch when you use it to make jelly, or juice, as we did.
Simple directions, and as an added bonus, great entertainment.Keep on reading and you will see why. 🙂
Blessings to you and yours,Â
Heather
To make Apple Juice from Crabapples:
Take whatever size jar you choose, and fill halfway with crabapples, both ends cut off. Throw out any that are rotten, or bug infested—who wants that in their juice? The ones we used were given from a friend, and were between nickle and quarter sized apples…….and they smelled really REALLY good.
Anyhow, wash and clean, then trim the ends off. Put into a glass jar (we used glass gallon pickle jars), and once the jar is half full, then put 1 tsp of Fruit Fresh into the jar to keep the color nice and bright. Our jars were so big, we used 4 tsp (think 1 tsp to a quart of whatever).
Now, fill the jar to the top thread with boiling water, and cap. Let sit all day, or even overnight, and you will slowly see the water transform from clear to a bright or soft pinkish red. As an added bonus, you have just made your own natural lava lamp, which provides for hours of entertainment for your kids as the apples go up, and then sink down in the jar while the water is hot. My kids keep checking the new jars this morning and exclaiming when an apple takes off and rises. 🙂
Once the jar has sat for 12-24 hours, strain out the apples, and then do a second strain with a smaller strainer to make the juice crystal clear. Add to a stock pot, and for every quart of juice, add 1/2 cup of sugar, or to taste, because these are really tart apples.
Heat to a simmer to dissolve the sugar.
Heat to a simmer to dissolve the sugar.
Ladle into hot jars and process in a water bath cannerÂ
for ten minutes.
for ten minutes.
We used gallon jars, and got about 2 1/2 quarts from every gallon jar.
To make Apple Jelly from Crab apples
This is pretty simple too.
Jelly can be made from clear juices very easily. You will need powered pectin, and the instructions on the back of the box. Normally it is 4 cups of juice to 2 cups of sugar, add the pectin, let it boil for two minutes, and then process, but each pectin is different and you have to follow their instructions. This makes THE BEST apple jelly we have ever had, and we are apple jelly fans.
All in all, I will never make juice from regular apples again.
Crab Apples, hands down, make the best juice and jelly in comparison.
Tomorrow come back for a wonderful tutorial on making your own apple cider vinegar from those cores and peels you have been saving!!
Shared with Upside Down Kids Apple Link up,
Shared with Upside Down Kids Apple Link up,
Heather, this is great. I love crab apples. My son ate some last year and I also made a pie and applesauce from them. They take a little more work but are so worth it. Unfortunately this year the late freeze and large hail took them all out 🙁 I’m hopeful for next year and my FIL will be so happy that I have new recipes to use them for.
aren’t they so good? I have three more gallon jugs on the table making more juice for us. I am so busy with so much coming in from the garden, but this is simple and incredibly rewarding (not to mention tasty!).
Thanks for coming by!
~Heather
So this is actually more of an infused water than an actual juice or cider? As a kid we crushed apples to make juice or cider. Does it actually infuse enough of the apple flavor to be able to taste the apples?
The crab apples’ taste is so strong, that it makes a very rich, very strong apple juice. I would not at all classify it as an infused water at all. I have made regular apple juice and cider with crushing standard apples, but that is not necessary with crab apples. 🙂
Thanks for commenting. 🙂
~Heather
This is so timely. As you may know, we have only been in this house about a year and a half. Recently, I was outside and discovered three bushes filled with fruit, which I believe to be crab apples. Unfortunately, the worms got there before me. So, next year we are going to try to preserve some of them for us. I don’t mind sharing the occasional fruit, but, really, would it hurt for the worms to have shared with us? Anyway, I am going to hang on to your recipes so that I can hopefully use them next year. Thanks so much for sharing. Your site is one of my absolute favorites because you always have such good information and recipes on here. Thank you, thank you.
Heather, I’ve been lurking and reading for quite some time. I really enjoy your blog. Today, I will share what I do. I like to push my apples to the limit and use every bit for something. Stem and blossom end goes to the chickens. I make apple juice by using the Ball Bluebook recipe. Then I turn that into jelly (just juice and sugar). Then I take what is left of the apples (core, seeds and all) and make apple butter. What very little bit is left gets tossed to the chickens. It is amazing the amount of product you can get out of apples. Be blessed, Staci
Glad I came across your post. We are camping right next to a crab apple tree and its loaded! I am going to pick a bunch and give the jelly a whirl. Thanks!
Liz
Crab apples are great! I used to eat them off the tree till my belly hurt. Too bad I can’t find them anymore or I would absoluteil try my hand at the jelly. A hot English muffin with crabapple preserves sounds heavenly
With the recent popularity of “juicer” machines I can’t help but wonder if extracting the juice for use as jelly this way would be much quicker and get all the juice. Have you any thoughts on this? Would you remove the core/seeds first? Add water?
Thank you,
Gosh Terry. Here are my thoughts.
I love doing things the old fashioned way.
Not that there are not better ways to do it, I still think I would try it once, but probably stick with the old way. I have a juicer, one that supposedly saves up to 30% more of the juice out of hte pulp. I still end up with a lot of waste. So…
If you want to look into something easier I would probably turn instead to a steam juicer instead. 😀
I just came across this, Do you add powdered pectin or just sugar when making jelly? I thought crabapples were high in pectin
Just sugar. Crabapples are high in natural pectin.
They will make a loose jelly on their own without any added pectin.
AND different types have more or less pectin, so your jelly will depend on that. 😀
Blessings
~Heather <3
Thanks for this lovely post, Heather! I have put a jar of crabapples to steep last night. Just to check, when you wrote ‘strain out the apples’ , did you mean just to drain them or do you mean push apples through the strainer? Cheers, will read through your other posts… thanks 🙂
Strain all debris out of the liquid. 😀
Sorry that was not clear. <3
Blessings to you and yours,
~Heather