If you’re anything like me, you LOVE the taste and goodness of homemade jelly and jam….and if you’re also like me, maybe the whole process sounds pretty intimidating to you. Or maybe it just sounds like too much work. Maybe you have four children and …you know… making homemade jelly sounds pretty insane when you think about all that you have to get done on a given day.

I completely understand. This is how I used to feel, before I heard about this jam and jelly maker.

What? Yes, it really is an automatic jam and jelly maker. As in, you pour in the ingredients, and it heats and stirs for you until it’s done. No babysitting the jelly over a steaming hot stove, stirring and suffering third-degree burns while your kids are screaming and… well, you get the idea. It does the work for you. It turns the whole tedious process of making homemade jelly into a manageable, doable, mom-friendly event. No kidding.

 

A few key things about this Jam and Jelly Maker:

1. I don’t really like buying jelly at the supermarket, because of the poor quality ingredients and inferior taste. But I would NEVER make homemade jelly in the past, because of all the time and work involved. Thus, the cost of the jelly maker was very much worth it to me, as it was the only way I was going to get in the kitchen and come out with homemade jelly.
2. It makes smaller batches at a time. I also prefer this; it seems easier to manage for me. Each time I use this jelly maker, it ends up giving me about four eight-ounce jars of jam or jelly to preserve. This will last our family a couple of months, and this works well for us.
3. The only thing I really don’t like about it is that the bowl that the jelly cooks in is made from non-stick material. I’ve removed all the non-stick cookware from my kitchen after realizing that there were other healthier options, and it does bug me that this is non-stick. That might be a game changer for many out there, and I would completely understand that. Yet, I still do prefer to make jam/jelly this way rather than buy it.
4. The bowl, stirrer and glass lid are all dishwasher-safe, which is always a plus in my book.

The Easiest Way to Make Homemade Jelly and Jam

So that you can see for yourself how even a busy mom can easily make homemade jelly in under half an hour, I wrote a tutorial for you on how to make pomegranate jelly using the jelly maker. So let’s get started, shall we?

Pomegranate Jelly is one of the recipes supplied in the recipe booklet.

 

Gather your supplies. You will need:

• 3 cups pomegranate juice, unsweetened. I waited until this pomegranate juice was on sale in the weekly flyer at my local health food store and snagged it.
• 4 tablespoons pectin. The original recipe calls for Classic Pectin and I used Low- or No-sugar Needed pectin. Either has worked for me!
• 1/2 teaspoon butter. Since we cannot have dairy, I used an equal amount of coconut oil.
• 2 cups sugar. I used a mix of turbinado sugar and evaporated cane juice crystals, since that is all I had on hand.

Measure out three cups of pomegranate juice into a large measuring cup. Then, whisk 4 tablespoons pectin into the juice. I love using this little mini-whipper that I got from putting on a party when I first got married. (Great way to stock up on quality kitchen supplies when you are just starting out!)

Pour the juice mixed with pectin into the FreshTECH bowl. The pectin won’t be fully dissolved yet, and that’s okay.

Add 1/2 teaspoon butter/coconut oil to the mixture to help keep foaming down.

Press the Jelly button, and then press Enter.

The jelly maker will automatically start to stir. You now wait four minutes, and after that the jelly maker will beep four times. This means it’s time to add the sugar. Make sure not to dump it in all at once; add it slowly and let it work itself into the mixture.

Put the lid on and let this guy do all the hard work for you. No stirring and sweating over a hot stove, no burns, nada. There will be a little bit of steam coming out; that means it’s working!

Look how easy this all is! You can pretty much forget about this little guy for the next twenty minutes or so. Then, when the jelly cycle is finished, it will beep at you. You can unplug the appliance and remove the lid. Hot, bubbly jelly.

Grab a potholder and remove the stirrer, watching for hot drips, and preserve your jelly using the method of your choice. A tutorial on my favorite methods of canning jelly is coming up soon.

Here it is for you in printable, recipe card form:

Print

Wasn’t that ridiculously easy? What do you think, would you ever consider an automatic jelly maker?

Until next time,

Danielle

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