Loquat Jelly

 

This homemade loquat jelly is a delicious addition to your pantry. With only a water bath canner needed, anyone can easily create this scrumptious jelly.

 

 

Loquats are a juicy and sweet fruit that tastes like a combination of apricot, peach and plum – it is quite sweet when perfectly ripe. This jelly is just one great way to use loquats!

 

Loquat Jelly

Materials:

reduced sugar pectin
4 1/4 c. Sugar
Water
Loquats
Water bath canner
Half-pint or 4 oz. canning jars with lids and rings
Utensil set for canning

Instructions:

Cut each loquat in half, and remove the seeds from the center of each fruit. Continue to do this until you have about 4 packed cups of loquat fruit halves.
Pour the cut loquat halves into a large pot.

 

Add water to the pot until the loquat fruit is covered.
Place the pot of loquats on the stove over medium heat and cook covered for about 30 minutes until the fruit softens.

 

Use a potato masher to mash the fruit well to help expel the juices.
While the loquats are cooking, fill a water bath canner about half of the way full of hot water, and place it on a burner on the stove with the lid on to begin boiling.

 

Once the water in the canner has started to boil, you can add the canning jars to the jar rack inside the canner to help sterilize the clean jars while the fruit is cooking. Leave the jars on the rack out of the water, do not lower them down into the water at this time.
Place the jar lids and rings in a small pot of water, and heat over low heat on the stove, do not bring to a boil.

 

Once the fruit has been cooked and mashed, remove it from the heat, and strain it using some cheesecloth or a fine sieve. Press down gently on the fruit to squeeze out some of the extra liquid while straining.

 

 

Measure out 4 cups of the fruit liquid. If you do not have a full 4 cups, you can cook down additional fruit, or add just a bit of water to get to the full 4 cups of liquid needed. Do not add water if you need more than ½ of a cup of additional liquid. In that case, you would need to cook down additional fruit instead of adding water, to avoid a watered down taste to your jelly.
Mix ¼ of a cup of sugar with a packet of Sure-Jell no sugar needed/reduced sugar pectin in a bowl.

 

Place the 4 cups of loquat liquid back into the large pot, and put it on the stove over medium-high heat. Add in the pectin/sugar mixture, and stir well until combined. You can use a whisk to lightly combine the pectin into the juice mixture if needed.

 

Bring the pectin/juice mixture to a rolling boil in the pot. You want the mixture to form a boil that cannot be stirred away. Stir often during this step to avoid any scorching or burning.

 

At this point, add in the remaining 4 cups of sugar, and stir well to combine.

 

Bring the mixture in the pot back up to a boil, and continue boiling for 1 minute.
Remove the jelly mixture from the heat.

 

Use a jar lifter to remove the sanitized canning jars from the water bath canner rack, and fill each jar with the jelly mixture to within ¼ of an inch from the top.
Carelly clean off the rims of each of your jars with a damp cloth or paper towel to ensure a good seal.

 

Remove the lids from the pot of hot water on the stove with a magnetic lid lifter, and place them onto each of the filled canning jars.
Remove the rings from the pot of hot water with a magnetic lid lifter, and tighten them onto the canning jars over top of the lids.

 

Use the jar lifter to place the canning jars evenly into the rack in the water bath canner.
Lower the jar rack into the boiling water in the water bath canner, and process them for 5 minutes.

 

After the 5 minutes has passed, lift the jar rack out of the boiling water in the canner, and use a jar lifter to remove the jars from the canner. Place the jars on the counter, and wait for the lids to make a popping sound. You will notice that the buttons in the center of the top of the lids will push in when this sound occurs, indicating that a correct seal has been achieved. This process can take up to 30 minutes to occur. If at the end of 30 minutes, you notice the buttons on some jars have not popped down, you can apply pressure on the top of the lid in the center using a towel. If the button stays down, then the jar is still securely sealed. If it does not, you will need to place the jars that have not sealed back into the water bath canner to process for another 5 minutes.

 

 

Leave the jars on the counter to cool completely, and then remove the rings before storing the jars with just the lids on them on a shelf.