Who’d have thought to make tea from jelly? Our daughter is a fan of all things tea, so it wasn’t surprising that she wondered if I could make jelly from tea. Making jelly is as much science as it is art. When you have the right balance of sugar, acid, pectin, time, temperature, etc you have jelly or jam. That’s pretty simplified, which is why it is usually recommended that you follow the recipes inside the Bernardin or Certo box until you get the hang of jam making and can branch out.
The tea jelly was quite an experiment. The Strawberry Jammin’ was bit of an easier one. Perhaps because the tea has bits of fruit in it. Earl Grey a little less forgiving. I had to increase the lemon juice and the pectin to get it to set. Amazingly, the Lemoncello tea was the hardest recipe to make set.
In your leisure you can Google all about the science of jam making. Not that it is boring, but it is quite a dry read , especially when all you want to do is fire up the jam pot. It’s all about collagen, a history of jam making, sugars, etc. So let’s get steeping shall we?
In the recipe I have laid out the process for preparing to make jelly. This is as important part of the procedure. You want to have everything in place so you aren’t rushing to measure sugar or wash jars, during the one minute your jelly is boiling.
Ingredients:
- 5 cups boiling water
- 5 tbsp Earl Grey de la Creme tea leaves.
- 2 tbsp Lemon juice. You can squeeze a lemon or use a bottle of lemon juice like RealLemon
- 1 pkg Pectin. This method uses Bernardin.
- 5 cups or 1000 g of white sugar
- A flat of 125 ml Mason Jars
Method:
- I used Earl Grey de la Creme from Sipology. It’s a lovely Earl Grey and a good quality tea. Measure 5 tbsp of tea leaves in 2 steeping sacks and seal.
- Boil 5 cups of water, reduce to a simmer and add the steeping sacks. Brew for 15 minutes.
- Wash mason jars, disks and rings in hot soapy water, then fill with boiling hot water and set aside.
- Measure out the sugar and set aside.
- Prepare a surface for filling your jars. I use a large cookie sheet and a cooling rack.
- On a plate lay out a ladle, rubber scraper, and a slotted plastic spatula or a slotted spoon for skimming foam. In jam and jelly making it is important to keep everything involved in the process as clean as possible to minimize risk of contamination.
- Filling your canning pot half full of water and set to boil.
- Place a small plate in the freezer. This is for testing the set of your jelly.
- Remove and discard the steeping sacks. Measure the liquid tea to ensure you have 3 1/2 cups.
- Return the steep tea to the cooking pot and add the lemon juice.
- Whisk in the pectin and return to the heat, bringing to a boil quickly.
- As soon as the pectin mixture boils slide the pot off the heat and add sugar stirring thoroughly to dissolve the sugar. Scrape down the sides and return the pot to the heat.
- Bring jelly mixture to a fast boil. Over boiling will give you a very tough jelly, so don’t walk away from the stove. As soon as the mixture boils, set the timer to one minute.
- Remove the jelly pot from the heat and place on your prepped surface.
- Take the plate from the freezer and spoon out enough to make a small circle. Two inches across is plenty. Return plate to the freezer.
- Carefully skim any foam from the surface of the jelly. I use a slotted plastic spatula. You will notice over a couple of minutes that it becomes easier to skim. Don’t stir.
- Check the plate in the freezer. Drawing your figure through the mixture should give you a jelly texture. If it is very soft you can decide whether or not to increase the lemon juice by one tablespoon and the sugar by 1/4 cup and repeat the boil.
- Drain the jars of the hot water and turn upside down on the cooling rack.
- With a ladle, quickly fill the hot jars to within 1/4″ of the top edge. That’s about half way up the threaded part of the jar.
- Anything you can’t ladle, or pour out stays in the pot. Everything left in the pot can go on your sampling toast, but you don’t want it in your pretty, clear jars of jelly.
- With a hot, damp paper towel, wipe off the rim and the outer threaded part of the jar. I say paper towel as you want a single use, not a damp tea towel. Run your fingertip around the rim of the jar to make sure there aren’t any sticky spots that will prevent a good seal.
- Place the hot discs and rings on the jars and finger tighten. Too tight will prevent sealing.
- Place the filled jars in holder of your canning pot and lower into the boiling water. Make sure there is at least 1 inch of water covering the jars.
- Cover and set your timer to 10 minutes.
- When boiling has completed remove the jars from the canner and set on a rack to cool.
- As the jars cool you will hear distinctive pops ensuring that you have an airtight seal on each jar.
- Try not to move until the jars have completely cooled. That means you don’t rock the jars to see if the jelly has set. That will break the surface of the jelly most certainly cause a jelling failure.
- Check to see that “button” in the center of the lid has drawn down, ensuring a seal. If you push on it and it goes down and stays that way, it is fine. Any jars that don’t seal will have to be refrigerated.
And there, you have a tea jelly to enjoy and share.