Prickly Pear Cactus Jelly Recipe
Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups prickly pear juice
3 Tbsp lemon or lime juice
1 package powdered pectin (I use surejell)
3 1/2 cups sugar
Directions:
We picked one 5 gallon bucket of fruit. 1 quart of prickly pear cactus fruit should make about 2 1/2 cups of juice. WEAR GLOVES! Pluck the fruit from the cactus using tongs. Using a clean 5 gallon bucket, fill half way with clean water and then place some of your fruit in. Stir and tumble using a long stick of wood. CAREFUL, they have tiny thorns! Pour water out and repeat several times until your fruit looks to be thorn free. Just to be sure you can use your tongs and a brush to scrub each piece of fruit under running water to remove all traces of thorns.
Boil fruit until tender and soft. Mash and strain using a fine jelly sieve. Do not add water. Set aside to allow juice to settle. For clear jelly, do not use the portion containing sediment.
In a sauce pan, measure out 2 1/2 cups of cactus juice, add 1 package of pectin. Bring mixture to a fast boil, stirring constantly. Add lemon or lime juice and sugar. Bring to a hard boil (one that can't be stirred down) and let boil for 3 more minutes. The timing is important to get the mixture to jell properly. Remove from heat, skim and pour into hot canning jars leaving 1/4 inch space per jar. Wipe jar rims and seal lids. Process for 10 minutes in a boiling water bath to seal the lids. Makes 6 half pints of jelly.
It doesn't have to be done all at once. It is a slow process in the works! C-ya next time!
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I was scrolling through the Chicken Chick's Hop and went "Screeech!" as I spotted your picture. I make this every year and that purple color is unmistakeable. Always good to see a different recipe. Labor Day Weekend is my deadline for picking the tunas so I better get busy! :) Beautiful jelly.
ReplyDeleteOMG, I just noticed something else: I sell my prickly pear jelly and I use the exact same font on my labels as you did in your final product photo. Oh, and we are also living in a super duper fixer upper. Gonna have to follow you seeing as how we are kindred spirits. :)
ReplyDeleteHi! My husband just picked 5 gallons of prickly pears for me. Do you husk the fruit first or do you just boil the whole thing?
ReplyDeleteHi Theresa! No, I don't husk it. But make sure you do the steps above to remove the thorns. After all the thorns are gone, then boil whole.
DeleteI just made some prickly pear jelly, it turned out great, thanks for the recipe!
ReplyDeleteYou are very welcome!
DeleteThis is the first recipe I have tried that actually jelled well. Its a winner. I didnt cook mine at all. I scrubbed each fruit with a brush, trimmed the ends and put them in my juicer, then strained that juice in cheese cloth again to make it crystal clear. I also squeezed my own fresh lemons and limes. I used pure cane sugar. I live in AZ and the jelly is amazing. My son couldn't stop eating it I was was afraid he was going to slip into a sugar coma. ha. Really, best recipe Ive ever tried.
ReplyDeleteThank you!
You're very welcome, I'm so glad it worked well for you!
DeleteI was following another recipe and choose liquid pectin. It also said to put water in the bottom of the pan about an inch high. Is there a difference between powder and liquid????
ReplyDeleteI am not really sure. I've only ever used the powdered type, but I would assume it would be about the same.
DeleteFor the past several years I have been trying and trying to make prickly pear jelly. I can't get it to jell. I am so frustrated! What am I doing wrong? Becky Hagee Amarillo, TX
ReplyDeleteI have tried and tried to make prickly pear jelly and I can't get it to jell. WHAT am I doing wrong????
ReplyDeleteHi Becky! I would make sure that you are using the exact measurements listed in the recipe and also make sure your sure-jell is not expired. Also, the boiling stage is VERY important. Make sure you follow those steps to get it to jell properly. Good luck!
DeleteThanks for this! Just made a batch. It is delicious. However, it only yielded 2 pints, not 6, with 2 1/2 cups of prickly pear juice.
ReplyDeleteYou're very welcome and I'm glad you like it! I used 1/2 pint jars, that's how I got 6 of them. When reading back my post, I can see how it looks like I was saying I got 6-1/2 pints. So sorry about that! I'm off to correct that now! :)
DeleteThis is lovely! I could eat it by itself. I'm on my second batch now, just finishing the water bath. I got 5.5 half pints the first go-round and 5 half pints the second. My daughter and I used cut off water bottles to grab the fruits the second time we picked. This worked better than the pliers the first time. I burned stickers off with a fireplace lighter, then boiled the fruit for 3 minutes, then used a blender to chop up everything, using a strainer to separate pulp and peels. I took 3 days - one to pick, one to extract juice, and one to make jelly. This is a great recipe! Thanks!
ReplyDeleteThank you! Oh wow, that is so awesome!
DeleteDo you not add water at all even when boiling the fruit? When you say "Boil fruit until tender and soft. Mash and strain using a fine jelly sieve. Do not add water." I just want to be sure you mean this as in you put the fruit over heat with no liquid in the pot?
ReplyDeleteHi Courtney! Yes, add water to cover at least an inch or two over the fruit. Just don't add water to the already boiled fruit. :)
DeleteHave you ever used a pressure cooker to boil them? Is that a good idea? My juice so far is yellow
ReplyDeleteI peel my fruit before cooking. I find the peeling has
ReplyDeletean unpleasant smell. Perhaps it's just me but it works for me. My husband singes off the tiny thorns, I cut the end of the pear off and scoop out the fruit. I may try your method with a few pears. It would be a lot faster to process. Thanks
Oh my goodness! I have tried unsuccessfully to make Prickly Pear jelly and just couldnt get it right... until now! I followed your recipe exactly, except I used 4 cups sugar instead of 3.5 because my pears were a little tart still. Also used about a quart and half of prickly pears and covered with a 16ozs. of water and cooked it down for about 30 mins. Anyway it set perfect! And it is so delicious! Thank you for sharing!
ReplyDeleteMy first attempt at making cactus jelly was perfect due to this recipe. Thankfully the prickly pears I purchased had to prickly stickers!! It spreads beautiful and I mixed some of the left over juice with my husband's homemade lemonade for a delightful drink. Sooo glad I found this recipe. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteI am making my 3rd batch tonight. Everyone loves it even though they had no idea what a prickly pear is. I found that peeling the pears before cooking produces a much clearer juice and you don't get the woody kind of after taste. Straining is much leaner with less foam to skim after cooking jelly.
ReplyDeleteHello, at what elevation were you cooking at for this recipe? I need tobknow if I should make any adjustments on boil time, we are just below 7000'. Thank you.
ReplyDelete