I had planned to make a few batches of jelly in readiness for our Church Christmas Fayre. I am supposed to be selling jams, jellies and chutnies and am hoping to make enough money to pay for a child from a poor family to have Cleft repair surgery through a charity called the Smile Train which I have supported for the past few years.
http://www.smiletrain.org.uk/?utm_expid=30401148-2&utm_referrer=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.smiletrain.org.uk%2F
The Smile Train is a wonderful charity that helps children in poor countries around the world to have the surgery that their families simply can't afford. It isn't simply a case of vanity either as often these children come from cultures where the child is shunned by the community or bullied by the local children. The Cleft may mean the child cannot eat or speak properly. Often the child is unable to make friends or attend school until they are given the cleft repair surgery which would simply be widely available for free in the Western World.
Anyway it was my friend Rosey who suggested that I sell chutney at the Christmas Fayre and I thought why not. I like to try and pay for one child to have the cleft repair surgery each year and this year it has been more of a struggle to find the money so this seemed like an ideal opportunity to make some money to put towards it. However, I am finding it hard to know what price to charge for anything.
I have already made some Strawberry and Vanilla Jam and a first batch of Caramelised Onion Chutney.
Anyway so yesterday I set to making a batch of Red Wine Jelly, a batch of Pineapple and Mint Jelly and a batch of Red Pepper and Chilli Jelly.
As you can imagine - it was a long and tiring afternoon, chopping and preparing the ingredients, straining, boiling and bottling.
And none of it set!
Disaster!
I don't have a clue why it didn't set. Last time I made the pineapple and mint jelly, if anything it was a bit too stiff and gloopy. This time I have a lovely Pineapple and Mint syrup!
It might be because I had doubled all the quantities to try and make as many jars as possible.
I also am never completely satisfied because I can never seem to get my jams and jellies up to the correct temperature on the jam thermometer.
How very frustrating.
After church David went for a run and he took Nathaniel with him in the pushchair.
I opened all the jars, batch by batch, added more sugar and pectin and reboiled. Re-washed and re-sterilised the jam jars and then rebottled each batch.
I was really excited to get the Red Wine Jelly and the Pineapple and Mint Jelly to nearly jam temperature by adding an extra pound of preserving sugar. I also added an extra 100ml of liquid pectin.
I think I might have cracked it with the red wine jelly - it looks pretty well set now.
The pineapple and mint jelly is a little more on the loose side. The little bowl of excess jelly has set really well but the jars are not quite as well set as the red wine jelly.
With the Red pepper and Chilli jelly - it was so runny and I couldn't seem to get it anywhere near jam temperature despite adding an extra pound and a half of sugar (it was a six pint batch of jelly). I therefore thought I would try adding some gelatine. I added twelve leaves of gelatine to my jelly (it is supposed to be four leaves for every pint) but I had already added pectin so didn't want to overdo it.
Four hours later . . . .
I have a lovely Pepper and Chilli syrup. If I had bottled it in bottles rather than jars I might have been able to pass it off as sweet chilli sauce!
Am thinking maybe it needed more sugar - or more pectin?
Third time lucky??????
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