This crabapple jelly recipe comes to the rescue when you have lots of crabapples and are looking for apple recipe ideas! Since I don't like to waste anything, I'll show you how to use the leftover pulp to make some delicious applesauce, or should I say, crabapple sauce?
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I mentioned in a recent post that I went foraging for apples in an abandoned orchard. They weren't as good as the apples we used to get in Julian, California, but they were free!
Besides apples and pears, I also got some crabapples. In the past, I've made crabapple jam, so I decided to try my hand at making crabapple jelly this time around.
What I hadn't thought about was making applesauce with the leftover pulp. Not until I used my food mill to puree the apples and had beautiful apple puree left. After draining the juice from the puree, I knew I couldn't just toss out the pulp (in the least, I would have given it to the chickens).
This recipe yielded 3 ½ half-pint jars of crabapple jelly and 5 half-pint jars of crabapple sauce! The best part? You can make these delicious applesauce fritters with some of the applesauce! It's the gift that keeps on giving!
Here's another way to use every part of the apple: use the peels and cores to make this apple cider vinegar recipe!
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🔖 Ingredients & Substitutions
- Crabapples: You'll need roughly 4 lbs of crabapples for this recipe. If you have less, you'll have to scale down this recipe.
- Sugar: The sugar will need to be adjusted based on the amount of juice you extract from the apples. For every cup of liquid, you'll need an equal amount of sugar.
- Lemon Juice: Although crabapples are tart already, the lemon juice helps to keep the crabapples from browning as you're chopping them. Lemons also contain pectin, which further helps the jelly to gel.
- Optional Spices: If you like warming spices in your jelly, feel free to add cinnamon, cloves, and cardamom in step 3.
🍎 How to Make Crabapple Jelly
Step 1: Add 5 cups of water to a large Dutch oven, then juice a medium lemon and add the juice to the water. Next, wash and sort the crabapples. Toss out any that are badly damaged.
Step 2: Remove stems and blossom ends, then quarter crabapples to make sure there is no worm damage. If there is, simply remove the area that's affected, or toss it out if too badly damaged.
Step 3: Weigh chopped apples using a large bowl on top of a food scale until you have 1 pound, then transfer to the pot of water. The lemon juice will keep the crabapples from discoloring while you work on the rest of the crabapples, transferring 1 lb at a time, until you have 4 pounds in total.
Step 4: Bring the apple and water mixture to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat and simmer for an additional 15-20 minutes or until the apples begin to fall apart. Mash with a potato masher until the apples collapse.
Note: If you plan on water bath canning the crabapple jelly, fill your water bath canner (or a large pot) with cold water. Add four 8-ounce canning jars or eight 4-ounce jars. You may have an extra jar, depending on how much juice is extracted from the apples.
Step 5: Use a jelly bag to strain the liquid from the apples, then compost the solids, or use a food mill to separate the skins and seeds from the pulp, then strain the juice from the pulp. With this option, you can use the remaining pulp to make crabapple sauce! I recommend the second option.
Pro Tip: Straining the juice through a jelly bag or a colander lined with a few layers of cheesecloth can take up to a few hours, but will result in clear jelly. If you squeeze the bag to speed up the process (guilty), you'll have a cloudier jelly, but it still tastes great!
Step 6: Measure the strained liquid and pour it into the same (now clean) Dutch oven. Bring juice to a boil, then stir in an equal amount of sugar. Bring the juice to a rolling boil, add a candy thermometer, and cook until the jelly reaches the proper temperature for your elevation. See chart below.
I ended up with 31/2 cups of crabapple juice, so I added 3/12 cups of sugar. If I had been more patient and let the ground apples drain longer, I probably could have had 4 cups of juice.
Gel temperature based on elevation
| Altitude | Gel Point |
|---|---|
| Less than 1000' | 220° F |
| 1000'+ | 218° F |
| 2000'+ | 216° F |
| 3000'+ | 214° F |
| 4000'+ | 212° F |
| 5000'+ | 211° F |
| 6000'+ | 209° F |
| 7000'+ | 207° F |
Step 7: Skim foam off the surface, then ladle hot jelly into sterilized mason jars, leaving ¼ inch headspace. Wipe rims with a clean dishcloth, then add lids. Screw bands on hand-tight, then use a jar lifter to lower filled jars into the canner. Process jelly based on your elevation. See chart below.
Water bath canning based on elevation
| Altitude | Gel Point |
|---|---|
| 1000'-3000' | 5 minutes |
| 3001'-6000' | 10 minutes |
| 6001'-8000' | 15 minutes |
Step 8: Remove jars from the canner and place them on a rack or a dishtowel on the counter. Wait until they seal before labeling them. Store sealed jars in the pantry for up to a year. Place unsealed crab apple jelly jars in the fridge.
Make Crabapple Sauce with Leftover Pulp
Pour leftover pulp (free of skins and seeds) into your pot. I had 4 cups, so I added ⅔ cup brown sugar and ⅓ cup maple syrup. These amounts can be adjusted to your preference. Start with less, then add more if needed. If you don't have maple syrup, just add more brown sugar. I also added 2 teaspoons vanilla extract and ¼ teaspoon salt.
If the crabapple sauce is too dry, add a small amount of apple juice or water. Add any of the following spices: cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, and freshly grated nutmeg. I added ¼ teaspoon of each, start with less and add more, if needed. Simmer over low heat for 10-15 minutes then bottle!
🤷🏻♀️ Recipe FAQs
Crabapple jelly can be enjoyed in the same way you eat every other jelly! Serve it over buttered toast or with goat cheese and crackers. Add it to your fall charcuterie board or spread it on Pfannkuches (German pancakes) and crapes!
Crabapples have a high amount of pectin, which is why most crabapple jelly recipes don't require additional pectin. Crabapples are sometimes used to make pectin, which is then added to other types of jellies and jams.
👩🏼🍳 Pro Tips
- When processing the crabapples, I like to leave the skin on and the seeds intact since both contain pectin to help thicken the jelly.
- It is not recommended to double or triple any jelly recipe because it can affect how the jelly sets.
- Do not reduce the amount of sugar suggested in this recipe; it may cause the jelly not to set.
Can't get enough apple recipes? If so, try these yummy apple cider martinis or a cozy spiced apple cider!
🍏 More Apple Recipes
If you enjoy this crabapple jelly recipe, check out these related posts!
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📖 Recipe
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Ingredients
Equipment
Method
- Add 5 cups of water to a large Dutch oven, then juice a medium lemon and add the juice to the water. Next, wash and sort the crabapples. Toss out any that are badly damaged.
- Remove stems and blossom ends then quarter crabapples to make sure there is no worm damage. If there is, simply remove the area that's affected, or toss out if too badly damaged.
- Weigh chopped apples using a food scale until you have 1 pound, then transfer to the pot of water. The lemon juice will keep the crabapples from discoloring while you work on the rest of the crabapples, transferring 1 lb at a time, until you have 4 pounds in total.
- Bring the apple and water mixture to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat and simmer for an additional 15-20 minutes or until the apples begin to fall apart. Mash with a potato masher until the apples collapse.
- (optional step) If you plan on water bath canning the crabapple jelly, fill your water bath canner (or a large pot) with cold water. Add four 8-ounce canning jars or eight 4-ounce jars. You may have an extra jar, depending on how much juice is extracted from the apples.
- Use a jelly bag to strain the liquid from the apples, then compost the solids, or use a food mill to separate the skins and seeds from the pulp, then strain the juice from the pulp. With this option, you can use the remaining pulp to make crabapple sauce! I recommend the second option.
- Measure strained liquid and pour into the same (now clean) Dutch oven. Bring juice to a boil, then stir in an equal amount of sugar. Bring juice to a rolling boil, add candy thermometer, and cook until it reaches the proper temperature, based on your elevation. See chart in post.
- Skim foam off surface, then ladle hot jelly into sterilized mason jars, leaving ¼ inch headspace. Wipe rims with a clean dishcloth, then add lids. Screw bands hand tight, then use jar lifter to lower filled jars into the canner. Process jelly based on your elevation. See chart in post.
- Remove jars from canner and place on a rack or a dishtowel on the counter. Wait until they seal before labeling them. Store sealed jars in the pantry for up to a year. Place unsealed jars in the fridge.
- See post for directions on how to make applesauce with the pulp!
Nutrition
Notes
- Straining the juice through a jelly bag or a colander lined with a few layers of cheesecloth can take up to a few hours, but will result in clear jelly. If you squeeze the bag to speed up the process (guilty) you'll have a more cloudy jelly, but it still tastes great!
- When processing the crabapples, I like to leave the skin on and seeds intact since both contain pectin to help thicken the jelly.
- It is not recommended to double or triple any jelly recipe because it can affect how the jelly sets.
- Do not reduce the amount of sugar suggested in this recipe, it may cause the jelly not to set.
Janet says
It doesn’t give how much juice to use how much sugar or pectin where do I find the true receipe
Hilda Sterner says
Hi Janet, Step 7 says: Measure strained liquid and pour into the same (now clean) Dutch oven. Bring juice to a boil, then stir in an equal amount of sugar. Bring juice to a rolling boil, add candy thermometer, and cook until it reaches the proper temperature, based on your elevation. See chart in post. So whatever the amount of juice you get from the 4.5 lbs of apples, you add an equal amount of sugar. No pectin needed, plus the lemon juice called for in the recipe card at the bottom of the page. I hope that helps.
Christiana says
I tried this sans lemon juice. it did not set for me... I am recooking it all adding surejell pectin powder after the fact. I used a digital thermometer to make sure it reached 220F and the. immediately started ladling. I wonder if it was the lemon juice or if I measured the sugar wrong. also my crab apples were very very ripe whocvhch i heard means less pectin. it occurred to me next time I could pick some earlier in the season and freeze them and then save them so 25 percent of the crab apples would have more pectin. if lemons have a lot of pectin maybe that mattered. I made the pulp into fruit leather (homemade fruit rollups) in my dehydrator. Its so good woth very little added sugar.
Hilda Sterner says
Hi Christiana, Thanks for sharing your experience! You’re absolutely right, very ripe crabapples lose a lot of their natural pectin, and that can definitely keep the jelly from setting properly. The lemon juice helps with both acidity and pectin, so skipping it probably made a difference too. I love your idea of saving some earlier-season crabapples to mix in next time, that’s exactly what I recommend for a firmer set. And turning the pulp into fruit leather? Genius! Nothing goes to waste, I love it.
Teresa Evers says
This Jelly was very tasty, I rated it a 5. I spread it over my sourdough toast. The consistency was perfect. A great recipe to use at this time of the year, with all the apples available. Good to add to my collection of canning goodies to use all year round, or give as a gift. Thank you Hilda.
Hilda Sterner says
Thank you so much Teresa, enjoy!
Kelly Methey says
Your jellies are the best! Nice to have a recipe for crabapple jelly since I never know what to do with them!
Hilda Sterner says
My thoughts exactly!