I am going to start this by saying outright that I’ve never been particularly fond of jalapeño jelly. Every year on Christmas Eve, my extended family gets together and we do a potluck style meal involving truckloads of appetizers. Jalapeño jelly pretty much always makes an appearance. Generally with crackers or maybe those little phyllo cups with cream cheese. I never have any. Ever. Just not my thing.
But this? Could. not. stop. eating it. So addictive. I don’t know if it was the addition of pineapple, or just the fact that it was homemade, but this jalapeño pineapple jelly is so good. I’ve had it on crackers with cream cheese, and even slathered it on a turkey sandwich with dill pickles. I kind of thought that was weird as I did it, but it was awesome.
I’m really glad the recipe made 6 jars, cause now we won’t be running out any time soon! Especially since the kids refuse to try anything involving spice of any kind!
But this jelly isn’t even all that spicy. It has a hint of spiciness to it, but the sweetness of the jelly kind of offsets it, just leaving that bit of bite. So addictive. And you can make it spicier or milder depending on how many jalapeños you choose to seed. I seeded half of them and left the seeds in the other half, and that was perfect for us.
And there’s the fun of canning! I love canning, something so lovely about the sound of all those jars popping away as they seal. That makes me sound like quite the nerd, but that’s okay. I love it, I’m not afraid to admit it. And we get lots of amazing jalapeño pineapple jelly as a result!
So, any other cooking nerds out there that love canning? Or am I all alone on that one?!
Jalapeño Pineapple Jelly
*Note:* This recipe needs liquid fruit pectin, not original fruit pectin. I tried it with the original pectin the first time and it doesn’t gel completely with that pectin. With the liquid pectin it gels perfectly. Also, I seeded 4 of the 8 jalapenos, and that was the perfect amount of spiciness for us. If you want it spicier, leave seeds in more of them, less if you want it a bit milder. With 4 seeded of the 8 it had a bit of bite to it, but not too much.
Ingredients
- 1 red bell pepper
- 8 jalapenos
- 1/2 medium pineapple (about 1 1/2 cup chopped)
- 1 1/2 cups white vinegar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 5 cups granulated sugar
- 1 85mL pouch liquid fruit pectin (3 oz pouch)
Instructions
- In a food processor fitted with the shredding blade, or with a sharp knife, finely chop the red bell pepper, jalapenos (seeding as many as you like, I seeded 4), and the pineapple. In a large pot, combine the peppers and the pineapple with the vinegar, salt and sugar. Bring the mixture to a boil over medium heat and allow to boil for 10 minutes, stirring constantly.
- Add the liquid pectin and boil for 1 more minute. Remove the pot from the heat and pour into clean, hot canning jars, leaving 1/4 inch of headspace. Wipe the tops with a damp cloth to remove any stickiness and place a new lid and ring on the jar, making sure not to tighten the ring more than fingertip tight.
- Place the jars in a boiling water canner and process for 10 minutes, adding additional time depending on your altitude (there’s info for the amount of time to add on the pectin box, I needed to add 5 minutes). After processing, allow the jars to sit undisturbed for 24 hours for the jelly to completely set. Any jars that don’t seal, store in the refrigerator, it should last for up to a month. The sealed jars will be fine for 1-2 years on the shelf.
Notes
Source: Adapted from Mel’s Kitchen Cafe.
Teresa
Saturday 29th of October 2022
I have made this a couple of times and it has come out runny each time. I LOVE the flavor though and really want to get it perfect! (Honestly, the flavor is so good and we typically use it poured over cream cheese, so the consistency is fine for my household, but I want to gift them too and others may want a firmer set.) I have 8 jars that are way too runny. Can I empty them into a pot and try to fix the set by boiling for a minute at a time and testing? Should I add more pectin as well? Also, is there any danger, sealing-wise, to the freshness? I would definitely re-process them!
Stacey
Tuesday 1st of November 2022
You can definitely boil it longer to try and fix the set. Did you use liquid pectin? I know I've tried this recipe with regular pectin and it doesn't work as well, so that could be the problem if you used the regular kind. If it doesn't gel enough just by boiling longer I would try adding more pectin and then testing before putting it back in jars. I think as long as you re-process the jars they should be fine as far as freshness goes though.
Jamie Swain
Sunday 19th of June 2022
We LOVE THIS! I didn’t use the bell peppers because ours aren’t red yet but I did double the recipe with fresh pineapple and used fresh basil from our garden with 4 jalapeños seeded (in the double recipe) because ours were peppy and it turned out amazing. I have already shared with friends and everyone has asked for the recipe. Thank you and I will absolutely make this again.
Stacey
Monday 20th of June 2022
Thank you, I'm so glad you enjoyed it!
Shirley
Saturday 24th of July 2021
I made this today and used the spoon that rested in ice water. It was setting in the spoon so I know it will be perfect. It turned out a beautiful color and I look forward to using it on grilled meats. Thank you for such a wonderful recipe.
Pam
Sunday 13th of June 2021
I made this at request of a family member. It was easy. I live at sea level and needed to double the pectin for it to set. I was using fresh pineapple and used 1/2 pineapple- didn’t measure to see if it was more than 1 1/2 cups. My husband did not think it was got enough so used habanero peppers instead. Very good. I use this as a glaze on meat if it didn’t set completely. Giving to friends who all live it
Stacy
Monday 23rd of July 2018
Hi Stacey. I made this recipe today and cannot wait to try it. I LOVE Pepper Jelly! I have two quick questions for you. The first one is -- I barely had enough jelly to fill 5 half-pint containers. I'm guessing that it's because of the volume of fruit that I used? I'm guessing that my peppers were smaller than yours and maybe my pineapple was chunked bigger so there wasn't really as much pineapple? Any other ideas? And my second question, I'm new to canning. I'm fortunate enough to be picking my first crop of White Pineapples. They are 'lower in acid' than normal Gold pineapples. I would like to can enough of this to keep on the shelf. Do I need to adjust the acid in the recipe or is there enough acid in the vinegar to do the job, regardless of the acid in the fruit? Thank you for your advice AND your recipe!
Stacey
Tuesday 24th of July 2018
I haven't made this recipe in ages, hoping to make it again this year and add some volume measurements for the peppers. I'm guessing that would be the difference in how many jars you got. As far as using a different type of pineapple - if the acidity is lower I'm not sure if it would be okay. The original recipe that I adapted this from does use another red pepper and two more jalapeños, so I would think that if your white pineapple has the same acidity or higher (lower pH if you find a chart) as peppers do then you'd be fine. Golden pineapple has a lower pH then peppers so I know that that's okay to replace the peppers with as it increases the acidity of the overall recipe. Whether white pineapple is fine for this recipe I can't tell you - but you could find out the acidity of it and if it's pH is lower then 4.6 it should be fine. Hope that helps!