Technically you are only supposed to refrigerate 24 hours before canning. The concern is bacteria in the food. Personally I would open the jars, and provided the juice tastes fine, I would boil the apple juice for 10 minutes, then repack in clean jars and process. Your aversion to risk may vary.

Nancy, I'm just happy that you posted this question, since I had never heard of Candy Apple Jelly. I looked up the recipe on line, and plan on making some later this week. My son wanted to make something with apples, and the local ones aren't quite in season yet, so this will keep him happy till then! For others who may not have heard of it before, I thought I would post the recipe: CANDY APPLE JELLY 4 cups apple juice 1/2 cup red-hot candies 1 (1.75 ounce) package powdered fruit pectin 4 1/2 cups sugar DIRECTIONS In a large kettle, combine apple juice, candies and pectin. Bring to a full rolling boil over high heat, stirring constantly. Stir in sugar; return to a full rolling boil. Boil for 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from the heat; skim off any foam and undissolved candies. Pour hot liquid into hot jars, leaving 1/4-in. headspace. Adjust caps. Process for 5 minutes in a boiling-water bath. Thanks again for the idea! Bonnie

These days we only juice citrus. We had a Jack Lalane juicer for apples and carrots, but we gave it away because we do not produce enough apples or carrots to juice. After tasting garden carrots we no longer want to buy commercial carrots. I found the Lalane really wasteful, lots of good roughage gone to the compost rather than our bodies. Also, a real pain in the $%^& to clean. It does make very good carrot, apple, carrot apple, melon, kale, celery juices. We switched to a vitamix, still experimenting with it, but we are interested in getting the whole food in a juice/smoothie, rather than just the juice and throw a lot away. I juice gallons and gallons of citrus. It was 10 gallons last year. That was the excess, not what we drank as we went along! We probably drank another 10 gallons. I have an citrus juicer attachment to our kitchenaid mixer. It is crap, don't buy it. The manual ones are OK, I have several different types. The Mexican clam-shell types that close on the halved citrus are not bad for small quantities. Since most of what we juice are minneolas, I now use a food mill. Same exact tool i use to mill my tomatoes. This is because minneolas have a very delicate, easy to remove peel when they are ripe, so it is best to peel first, then juice. In the rare occasion I juice grapefruit I'll use the crappy Kitchen aide attachment, or a regular manual juicer. In any case, the food mill is easier on the body than the electric Kitchen aide attachment, more comfortable to use and less effort, believe it or not. Also, the quality of the juice is exceptional, it does not separate when it sits, and it freezes nicely. I should also say I only juice quarts at a time, not gallons at a time. I get approximately 1-2 quarts per large basket of citrus, I only pick at most 3 baskets (so about 3-6 quarts at a time)

This previous discussion linked below on the Ball recommendation explains why it is in that particular book (Canadian publication) and why it is not required by any other source. As the book says: Lemon juice is added to help preserve the apples natural color and to assure the acidity of the finished product since different varieties and harvesting conditions can produce apples of lower acidity. If it is not just a cover their a** inclusion and a color preservative additive as I suspect then only Ball can explain why they included it when no other approved source does. The link below also includes some info from Dr. Andress from NCHFP. As to why not in the apple juice? I would assume it is the very different density aspect. Juice is easily heat processed safely while sauce, given its density (many make it way too thick), MAY be considered "safer" with the lemon added. Windfall apples being the exception since it is required by all when using windfalls. Bottom line - its your choice. Since I never use windfalls and I don't make really thick sauce I never add lemon to either. Dave Here is a link that might be useful: Acid for applesauce?