There’s spiced crabapple jelly. And spiced apple jelly. But you don’t really hear much about spiced grape jelly! Until now…
Each fall, Bryan’s Grandpa Al blesses us with the beautiful Concord grapes he’s grown. His green thumb amazes me at all he is able to grow in his backyard.
After pulling the grapes off the stems and removing any bad ones, the kids and I put the grapes in our steam juicer. Another one of Bryan’s Grandparents blessed us with a juicer years ago, and it makes jelly making so simple!
Once the juice was done, I poured it into half-gallon jars and large pots. Then I placed these in the fridge and let them cool.
Turning the Juice to Jelly
By making the juice one day and the jelly another, you really help minimize the mess in the kitchen. Instead of having two different projects going on, you only have one. If you have the time to make this happen, I highly recommend it.
The majority of the juice, my mom and I turned into jelly. We just used the grape jelly recipe on the Sure Jell pectin. Each batch called for 5 cups of juice and 7 cups of sugar (plus the pectin). We made batch after batch, not wanting any of the delicious grape juice to go to waste.
But, partway through, I asked my mom a question:
Is spiced grape jelly a thing?
You see, I really like spiced jelly. And I thought cinnamon would pair well with the grapes.
I did a quick Google search and didn’t come up with much. There was a recipe that used Certo (a liquid pectin). But, we were using what we already had, and didn’t really want to drive anywhere for the liquid kind. There were also several spiced grape jam recipes, but since we had juice and not whole grapes, those weren’t going to work. A few additional recipes turned up with bad reviews or funky ingredients.
So, I decided to create my own recipe and see what happened.
Spiced Grape Jelly Recipe with Sure Jell 
To create the spiced grape jelly, begin with the plain grape jelly recipe from Sure Jell. You’ll need:
- 5 cups prepared grape juice
- 7 cups granulated sugar
- 1/2 tsp. butter (optional – to prevent foaming)
- 1 package Sure Jell
You will also need two additional ingredients to make it spiced:
- 1 tsp. cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp. ground cloves
Place the juice and the butter in a large pot. Stir in the pectin and the spices.
Heat over high heat until boiling. Add the sugar. Return to a boil and boil one minute.
Then proceed to follow typically canning directions found on the pectin. Basically, you will need to ladle the hot jelly mixture into hot, sanitized jars. Then the rim will need wiped and you must place a new lid and ring on.
After making sure the rings are secure, give your filled jars a hot water bath for five minutes. Remove from boiling water and let cool. The lids should pop as they seal.
How Did It Taste?
I was a bit nervous going to taste the jelly. I had two thoughts:
It was either going to be really bad or delicious.
Thankfully, it was the latter!
In fact, spiced grape jelly is my new favorite jelly. It has a festive taste, and I told my mom I was definitely going to save a jar for Christmas morning toast!
My only regret is that we didn’t experiment with this earlier in the process. As it was, we made one batch of spiced grape jelly. The good news is that we had just enough juice left to make a final batch. That is in the freezer, and when life slows down a bit, we’ll thaw it out and make spiced grape jelly again.
Have You Ever Had Spiced Grape Jelly?
Is spiced grape jelly a kind that you’ve had before? Do you think it’s one you’d enjoy?
What’s your favorite jelly?
