One of the best things about the changing seasons is the new fresh fruits and vegetables that come with them. While we're wrapping up most of the fresh produce for winter around here, I still have grapes to harvest.
We grow two kinds of grapes on our arbor. One is called Interlaken and ripens early in the season. It's a white seedless grape that doesn't get too sweet, but doesn't leave you puckering from the tartness. The other one is called Niagara. It's a cross between Concord and Cassidy grapes, leaving a yellow grape with tiny seeds. I'm not sure if it's our shorter growing season, but even after letting a light frost hit it, they're not very sweet. This makes them a perfect candidate for jelly!
If you've read any of my jelly/jam posts before you know I don't like huge amounts of sugar or store bought pectin. That's how I invented my Low Sugar No Pectin Strawberry Jam. Grapes have a high level of natural pectin, but to make it set, you need equal amounts of sugar to the grapes. Not going to cut it in my kitchen.
Resources for Vanilla Grape Jelly
At our local co-op I'd noticed a packet of (this is from our affiliate partner Amazon One 1 oz Pomona's Universal Pectin) There were a few things I instantly liked about it, no preservatives or dextrose and it's jelling power comes from calcium, not sugar! Be still my heart. Seriously, I just about squealed in the aisle.
I put my box front and center in my cart. I made two batches of jelly this weekend, a red pepper garlic jelly and a double batch of this grape vanilla jelly. It worked amazingly in both of them and I still have enough left for one more batch of jelly. All from one box.
It's a little bit different process than commercial pectin, but not hard to use at all. For starters, you can decide how much sugar or honey to use, following their loose guideline. I opted for the lower end of course.
First thing you do is mix some of the calcium powder into a small jar with water. Shake it well. (You then store it in the fridge for the next time you make jelly).
I went out and picked a big old pot full of grapes. After months of deliberation, I finally ordered this steam juicer for my birthday (my hubby knows to let me pick out these types of things) from my affiliate Amazon Cook N Home NC-00256 11-Quart Stainless-Steel Juicer Steamer. If you've never used a steam juicer, it's amazing. You dump the grapes in and the split vanilla beans, I left the grapes on the stem, put it on the stove, and let it steam for 40 minutes. Then you have crystal clear juice to either drink or make into jelly. No more jelly bags, cheese cloth, and overnight draining. I've used mine for all my jelly making this year and table juice.
I ended up with 8 cups of grape juice. Ready for the recipe now!
Grape Vanilla Jelly Recipe
8 cups grape juice
3 cups organic raw evaporated cane juice (organic sugar would work fine)
2 vanilla beans
1/2 cup lemon or lime juice
Pomona's Universal Pectin
Prepare your jars, either sanitize them in a pot of boiling water for 10 minutes or wash in hot soapy water. Keep them warm. Prepare your water bath, keeping water hot, but not boiling.
Place grape juice, vanilla beans, and lemon juice in a large stock pot. Add 8 teaspoons of calcium water and stir well. (Note: stir it well, in the second batch I didn't stir long enough and had small little cloudy gelatinous gobs I had to spoon out due to not stirring in the calcium water all the way)
In a small bowl, mix 8 teaspoons of pectin and one cup of sugar. Bring contents of stock pot to a boil. Add pectin sugar mix and stir hard for 1 to 2 minutes. Now add in the rest of the sugar and stir until dissolved. Return to a boil and remove from the stove. Take out the two vanilla beans.
Fill your jars to 1/4″ headspace. Wipe rims clean and screw on your lid and bands. With rack in place, put jars in water bath and boil for 10 minutes. Remove from water onto a folded towel. Allow to cool for 24 hours. Check seals. Store on a cool dark shelf for up to a year. If any jars didn't seal, put in fridge for immediate use.
Makes 5 pints or 10 jelly jars. You can half the recipe as well.
Don't toss out those vanilla beans! Rinse off the jelly and let beans air dry. Put them in a glass jar and fill it with sugar. You'll have vanilla sugar to use in your Christmas baking. Use any extra unused vanilla beans to make homemade vanilla extract.
What's your favorite jelly? What kind of pectin do you use?
Grape Vanilla Jelly
Ingredients
- 8 cups grape juice
- 3 cups organic raw evaporated cane juice (organic sugar would work fine)
- 2 vanilla beans
- 1/2 cup lemon or lime juice
- Pomona's Universal Pectin
Instructions
- Prepare your jars, either sanitize them in a pot of boiling water for 10 minutes or wash in hot soapy water. Keep them warm. Prepare your water bath, keeping water hot, but not boiling.
- Place grape juice, vanilla beans, and lemon juice in a large stock pot. Add 8 teaspoons of calcium water and stir well. (Note: stir it well, in the second batch I didn't stir long enough and had small little cloudy gelatinous gobs I had to spoon out due to not stirring in the calcium water all the way)
- In a small bowl, mix 8 teaspoons of pectin and one cup of sugar. Bring contents of stock pot to a boil. Add pectin sugar mix and stir hard for 1 to 2 minutes. Now add in the rest of the sugar and stir until dissolved. Return to a boil and remove from the stove. Take out the two vanilla beans.
- Fill your jars to 1/4″ headspace. Wipe rims clean and screw on your lid and bands. With rack in place, put jars in water bath and boil for 10 minutes. Remove from water onto a folded towel. Allow to cool for 24 hours. Check seals. Store on a cool dark shelf for up to a year. If any jars didn't seal, put in fridge for immediate use.
- Makes 5 pints or 10 jelly jars. You can half the recipe as well.
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[…] lots of grapes to make jelly, this Low Sugar Grape Jelly from Melissa K. Norris caught my eye. After all, when allowed to ripen on the vine, grapes are so […]
I am in love with your site… its a shame there arent hundreds of comments on each of your pages. You remind me, of me 😛 I feel so at home reading all your articles. So encouraging for me (childhood out of town living simple..homegrown…chickens…canning…etc then displaced to living in town caring for my terminally ill (then) mother…. etc etc… to where I am now. sadly, in a duplex apt… with my husband and two daughters with NO lawn, garden, space or anything…) My heart soars for the time I’ll be able to be self sufficient again… have my own gardens and chickens again. But in the mean time I do the best I can (container gardening, etcetc…) I LOVE your site!
[…] have a grape arbor and our wine grape is too tart all by itself, so this white grape and vanilla jelly is the perfect way to use them and we like it over pancakes, smooth and lightly […]
[…] Jelly- Homemade jam or jelly makes everything taste better and much more frugal. Here is our low sugar no pectin grape jelly recipe […]
Sounds really good. Could I use stevia, truvia or Splenda instead of sugar?
Making this for a diabetic. Thanks
Yes, Pomona’s instructions tell you how to sub in Stevia!
If you have concord grapes you can make jam with no sugar or pectin. Concord grapes when not fully ripe are filled with their own pectin. Mix both ripe and unripe into your pot and cook down then put though a food mill. Or slip skins and take out seeds first before cooking down again using a food mill if you want. If not sweet enough just add sugar to taste. Yes, it takes some time in prep but no sugar concord jam is the best. Process 10 minutes in water bath.
I would like a copy of the 4 pages you talked about safety with essential oils. Where do i find that?
What is calcium water?
It comes with the Pomona’s pectin, it uses calcium water instead of huge amounts of sugar to set.
This sounds delightful! How many times can you “reuse” the vanilla bean? I’ve never made anything with vanilla beans.
I’ve only reused them twice, once for extract and then to flavor something else, the second time it’s a weaker flavor.
This sounds wonderful—could I just use bottled grape juice from the store. And if so, does is matter what kind? Thanks!!