Preserving
Blackberry & Apple Jelly
The easiest way to bottle a hedgerow: brambles and windfall apples, strained and set to a clear ruby jelly.
2 September 2026 7 min read Serves 12
Foraging notes
Ripe blackberries from sunny brambles above knee height, plus tart windfall apples for pectin.
Apples bring the pectin blackberries lack, so the jelly sets cleanly without adding commercial pectin.
No need to pick out every seed and stalk: the whole lot goes through a muslin bag and what emerges is jewel-clear.
Best months
Ingredients
- 1kg blackberries
- 500g crab apples or tart cooking apples, chopped
- 1L water
- 450g granulated sugar per 600ml strained juice
- Juice of 1 lemon
Method
Stew the fruit
Simmer berries and apples in the water for 30 minutes, until the fruit has collapsed into pulp.
Strain overnight
Pour into a muslin-lined sieve over a bowl and let it drip for several hours. Squeezing makes the jelly cloudy, resist it.
Boil with sugar
Measure the juice, return to the pan with sugar and lemon juice, and boil hard to a rolling boil for 10 minutes, skimming.
Test and pot
Test on a cold plate for a wrinkle set, then pour into warm sterilised jars and seal.
Kitchen tip: The cold-plate test is the truth: a jelly that wrinkles when pushed is ready, one that does not needs five more minutes.
