I made Linda Lou's apple pie jam for the first time yesterday and it is delicious! It filled up three pint jars for canning with little leftover for eating now, so I wanted to make more. But I had only gotten the one box of pectin. Since apple is supposed to have pectin in it, I did an experiment. I took the peelings and cores from the apples I used in the first batch and boiled them. I strained them, squeezed the cores, and put the cooked peelings in the blender with the liquid. I then used that for the liquid in the second batch (I used apple cider instead of water for the first batch). Once the mixture was boiling steadily I added the sugar. I cooked it until it formed two drops from the spoon which ran together when I dripped the syrup from a spoon. The second batch, however, did not jell. Maybe there wasn't enough pectin or maybe I didn't cook it enough (I'm wondering if I had prepared the apples for the second batch before I tried making pectin if the peelings and cores from two batches would have had enough pectin). Anyway, in case any of you were thinking about boiling apple peelings and cores to try to get away without buying pectin, I thought I'd relate this experience. The second batch tastes great and it's wonderful syrup. I don't use a whole lot of syrup, though, so I started thinking of how I might use it. This afternoon I experimented with an apple cake. Here's the recipe:

APPLE CAKE

2 cups chopped apples (I left the skin on them, just took the cores out and chopped them up)

1 cup of apple pie syrup

2 eggs

1 1/2 cup flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

I put the apples in a bowl, mixed in the syrup and the eggs. Then I added the flour and soda, mixed that in, and added the walnuts. I baked it in an 8x8 pan at 375 for a half hour.

It turned out very well. Moist and flavorful. You might note that I used no shortening or butter.