Suggest that you add a can or two of frozen apple juice concentrate (undliuted!). This will bring up flavor and sweetness. I also like add an acid blend of citric, malic, and tarteric acids. These are all used in making wines and add 'character' to apple products. Adding water could have been cider instead. NEVER double a jelly recipe when using regular pectins! Always make sure that the proper amount of sugar is added as well. Cooking down some apple cider to a syrup will also help, but boiling it down takes a while. If your not planning on using a pectin, must be very careful not to burn or scorch the product. Usually more natrual pectin comes from the skins. Also check out Linda Lou's recipe for apple pie jam. That has small apple bits in it along with cinnamon and a few other spices.
Here, I must avoid high sugar things and so I use the Pomona pectin which can have triple and even quadruple recipes and requires no add sugars to set up.
Good luck!

Thanks for the advice, Ken. I must assure you that I never 'double up' the actual jelly batch recipe. All I was doing here was extracting 2 batches-worth of juice one day and then use the juice the next day. (A 2-part process is just easier for me.) I won't be using pectin. I used the whole apple (except for the blossom end and stems, hence the nice pink color) so have lots of natural pectin.

In the meantime I experimented this morning with 3/4C of the juice. I simmered it down to 1/2C and the flavor is definitely more 'apple-y' and sweet. The 2T of lemon juice (if desired) to the 4C of juice in the recipe should 'tart' it up a bit since the recipe also calls for 3C of sugar. So, instead of adding canned concentrated juice I'm going to make one batch of jelly with my (1/3 reduced) juice. I'll let you know how it turns out.

As for the very popular Linda Lou's recipe sounds -- I just might use the 2nd batch of juice for that. Nothing ventured, nothing gained! ;-)

Linda Lou's recipe I believe does require pectin. Without it, the set can get difficult when you add the apple bits just a minute before filling the jars. The 100% apple juice frozen concentrate is great too. No sugar or even fructose sugar is added. I like the acid blend. I just had some of my apricot preserves made with Pomona and the acid blend. A soft set, and nice and tart for my toast. There I used Splenda too. That apricot batch was about 16 pints.

I finally found Citric Acid hereabouts. Yay! What a quest, but worth it. I can add CA to my sweet apple juice instead of lemon juice. That way I just add 'sour/acid', not 'acid/lemon flavor'.

I've yet to turn up any Pomona, though. I may have to secure it off the web as it sounds exactly what I want. I much prefer tart and fruit-flavored vs. sweet jellies and jams. From what you've posted about Pomona, Ken, do you have some recipes for non-sugar, non-sweetened jelly or jam recipes that use Pomona to share? I would love to make some really tart crabapple jelly next year with little or no sweetening. My first batches of the crabapple jelly this year turned out so good that I will serve it for turkey dipping sauce this Thanksgiving. Deep red, clear, tart and tangy. Who needs cranberries?

As for Linda Lou's jam, does it require REAL butter? or could I substitute margarine (ala Olivio or Smart Balance)? To buy a pound of butter (only size sold around here) for a couple spoonfuls seems wasteful as I would not use the rest of the butter for anything...
Kris

A tiny amount of butter in LL's recipe is only meant to reduce foaming when its boiling. I believe its just a single teaspoon or less. You can do without it however, I wouldnt use an oil or margerine then. That tiny amount of butter is not going to affect safety. As to added acid, another way would be to use apple cider vinegar, which will give a milder acidic taste compared to a white vinegar if you cared to use it. The Pomona pectin is citrus based and uses a small amount of calcium to set properly. The calcium comes in a small packet with the powdered pectin. The nicest features of the Pomona is it will allow double as well as triple+ recipes. The pectin is powdered so I premix it in a blender with some of the juice I plan to make jam or jelly out of. Then whizz it about a minute. It the Pomona gets thick when its dissolved into the liquid, so add a bit more liquid until its not too thick to pour out. That way, you can add it to the simmering juice and it will not have any clumping. You do need to stir it in however. I usually get it all out of the blender and into a bowl where its easy to quickly get it all out using a rubber spatula. The calcium is a small packet of powder and is mixed with a little water. I usually make big jelly batches and use the whole small packet of calcium and Pomona, but they do give you extra of it anyway. Pomona is available on line and at many organic food stores. For me, its not really recipes that I refer to, as I just get the juices prepared as to sweetness and slightly tart taste. I use the acid blend as mentioned and that can be ordered from the following site:
http://www.beer-wine.com/product.asp?sectionID=1&CategoryID=47&productID=130

and Pomona:
http://www.canningpantry.com/pomonas-pectin.html
Barry Farm also has it for a buck less, and even carries the hard to find Clear Jel modified food starch thats suitable for mome canning as a safe thickener:
http://www.barryfarm.com/thickeners.htm

The Pomona web site as well as the booklet that comes with each box has some nice easy recipes too. I was curious recently, and even gelled plain water using the Pomona. A slightly cloudy test but was unusual to say the least.

The mixtures of different acids are more natural fruit acids as opposed to just citric alone. I used to make wines and liked slightly acidic wines, so it was easy to add the acid blend. I even shake the acid blend into cold sugar free drinks like Crystal Light, which tend to be sometimes too sweet or too plain tasting. Using very little, to no sugar can make it spoil quicker once opened, so refrigeration is necessary. With the extra acid added, I have not seen any spoilage even after opening a pint jar and not using it all for up to 6 months. I just finished a pint of grape jelly I opened back in about May. The added acid helps to prevent early mold or spoilage.

Here is a link that might be useful: Pomona site

Gosh, Ken, you know the skinny! And since I, too, prefer the tarty-acid flavors, I'm going to check out that wine acid blend for my future jellies and jams. Next year I'm putting in 8 elderberry bushes. Hopefully I'll be able to make up elderberry jelly next fall, even if only a little batch the first year due to what will be a small harvest. Hopefully I'll have laid in some Pomona by then. ;-)

Here, my house has about 25 high bush blueberry bushes my dad planted well over 30 years ago. Besides them, I have red raspberries, 5 apple trees of various sizes and types, 3 asian pear trees, the quince tree, and a 4 fruit grafted tree of plums peaches and apricots. All do quite well here. Jelly making is major task, unless the birds get to the berries before I do.

Spent the morning making the jelly. I reduced 12C of juice down to 7C - making much better flavor, so made one 4C batch and one 3C batch. While reducing I added a garni of cinnamon and allspice for flavor. When fully reduced I added 1 tsp CA to the 4C batch and 3/4 tsp to the 3C batch. The tartness was right on! Ended up with 11 half-pints of jelly. And very pretty - like a sherry topaz color. Thanks for all the help. :-) Say, any way I can attach a pic to a post? Show you my results?
Kris

Oops, that was 10C down to 7C, not 12C.

To post pictures here, you need a hosting site. Log onto PHOTO BUCKET and get a free account. You can send out photos in medium resolutions. Once you see the photos sent to your logged in page, you highlight the third box down, by clicking on it, press/hold CONTROL and C to COPY the HTML info, then on here, press CONTROL and V to paste the info below your post here.

OK, PhotoBucket activated. Pic uploaded. Hopefully there will be a pic of spiced apple jelly! X (

Looks great!! I made apple jelly out of very cloudy apple cider. Once it was boiled, all the cloudiness went away completely.

My cloudy pinkish juice didn't clear when it boiled, but it did clear up a lot when the sugar dissolved in it. It's semi-transparent now and a wonderful color. And the taste - like liquid apple pie. My partial jar never got a chance to set up... Within an hour I poured it right over a biscuit and ate it warm! I may have to get some more apples... (*sigh* and invest in more jelly jars... ka-ching!) ;-)

Maybe pint jars too?? I like using them as they fill up faster. as gift gving an 8 ounce jar is OK, but if you like the jelly and seem to eat a bit more, it would make more sense to also put some in pints. Apples or even fresh apple cider is now in season, so you have many choices. Yes, the sugar seems to clear up the appearance a bit. Add a bit of ground cinnamon and you have a nice apple pie taste.

How long would I have to process a pint of apple jelly? Same 10 minutes as the half-pint? Or double it to 20? Wouldn't 20 overcook the juice and make it hard to jell? Yes, I used both cinnamon and all-spice when I made my apple jelly. Just like apple pie. I sure wouldn't mind having a few pints of that stuff around this winter. And I do have a dozen wide-mouth pints going empty.... ;-) Thanks for the idea, Ken.

I believe the process time is about 15-20 minutes for pints, provided they were filled with the boiling jelly. Most BWB processing or even slightly over processing in a water bath will not usually 'break' the pectins' abilty to set. For a no pectin apple jelly however, I believe it would be OK, due to the natural pectin. Here, I use a bit of nutmeg and ginger along with cinnamon in my apple pie filling and jam. Another spice thats great with apples is ground cardamom. The low/no sugar pectins are very sensitive to overcooking, but that is not the case with the Pomona product. Here, most of my canning jars are regular mouth, as its easier to screw on and off the rings with my arthritic hands. I don't usually use allspice in an apple recipe, but that taste is fine with many other things.