Fresh Basil Jelly

I'm in a summer mood and enjoying the new house. On Sunday I'm attending a my first food swap and have whipped up a few things to share. Below is the recipe I used for my basil jelly along with some before and after pictures.


The poor basil had been neglected for two weeks so it had gone to flower and seed so I cut it all down for this batch of jelly.


The recipe is from the Ball complete book of Home canning and is their fresh herb jelly with a few tweaks. 








5 cups fresh basil, stems removed
3 cups crisp white wine
3 cups water
2 cups white vinegar
5 ounces powdered fruit pectin
10  cups granulated sugar


Combine the basil, wine, water and vinegar in a large pot. Bring to a boil over medium high heat. Once at a boil turn off the heat, cover and steep for 15 to 20 minutes. Strain mixture through a cheese cloth and allow to drip through while you prepare your canning materials. I prefer to use the oven method of sterilizing jars and here is a good how to if you've never used the method. 


Once you are ready to rock and your water bath is coming up to temp, press the basil leaves to get any remaining moisture out of the leaves. At this point I decided to make it up in two batches so I cold make corrections if needed. All remaining steps are 1/2 of the ingredients listed. 


Pour half of the basil liquid into a large pan and whisk in half of the pectin while you bring it up to a boil over high heat. You can give it a stir every minute or so after the pectin is dissolved. Once you get to a hard boil, pour in 5 cups of sugar all at once then stir constantly to incorporate it. It should take less than a minute. After the sugar is incorporated allow it to boil hard, stirring constantly for another 1 to 2 minutes. Remove the pot from the heat, skim any foam off of the top and pour into your piping hot jars.


Process in the water bath for 15 minutes then remove with your jar lifter. Next sit back and enjoy the pop pop popping of success!


Obviously I have assumed a general knowledge on water bath canning in the writing of this recipe. If you would like more information on water bath canning, here is a pretty straight forward tutorial with images of the supplies you will want to have on hand. 


Finally, as promised a picture of the final product. Some folks like to add food coloring to make it green but to them I say, "tsk tsk".