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I don’t usually write food related post. Mainly because I don’t have much to offer to the food world. I usually just play it safe by following a recipe. “I’m just really good at finding recipes,” is what I often tell people who compliment my cooking.
The other day I ran into a problem when trying to make Low Sugar Muscadine (Grape) Jelly. I couldn’t find one recipe to help me! I searched and search, but found nothing. Reluctantly, I decided to tackle it head on and give it a try on my own. By the way if you haven’t heard of a Muscadine before it’s a kind of grape found here in the southeast.
My first attempt was a complete fail… And so was my second attempt! But with a determination that surprised even me, I tried for a third time.
Thankfully this story doesn’t end in me throwing jars of grape concoction in frustration. Finally, on my third try I figured out the perfect pectin/ sugar ratio. My jelly tasted wonderful (without tons of sugar) and set up to the right consistency.
I had 2.5 gallons of Muscadine juice, which ended up making around 23 pint jars of jelly. It is such a rewarding feeling to look at my shelves filled with tasty jelly. Now my son will be enjoying this (better for him) jelly on his favorite sandwich, a PB&J.
I also think it will be a great homemade gift to have on hand too! Sorry to ruin the surprise, chances are if you know me personally, you are getting Muscadine Jelly for Christmas.
Here is my recipe for Low Sugar Muscadine (Grape) Jelly. I hope by sharing this I’m saving someone the frustration of three tries!
Muscadine Jelly
Ingredients
- 1/2 gallon of Muscadine Juice
- 8 tablespoons of Low Sugar/ No Sugar Pectin
- 4 cups of sugar
- 1 tablespoon of butter
Instructions
To make the muscadine juice
- Wash muscadines and place in a stockpot. Just barely cover with water and bring to a boil for about 25 minutes. Stirring every few minutes.
- Once the Muscadines have finished boiling, strain to get your juice.
To make into jelly
- Add juice and pectin to a pot and bring to a rolling boil, one that can not be stirred down. After it comes to a boil add sugar and butter (this keeps it from foaming up as much.) Allow to come back up to a boil and boil for 1 minute.
- To make sure your jelly will be the right consistency, keep a spoon in ice water while preparing the jelly. When you are ready to test just shake the water off of the spoon and dip out about half a spoon full of jelly. Allow to cool for a few minutes. If it sets up on the spoon you should be good to go.
- Can/ Preserve using desired method or refrigerate for immediate use.
- The yield for 1/2 gallon should be around 9 cups.
I hope you enjoy this recipe, a product of love and determination!
Gwen
Thanks for sharing the recipe. My daughter and I have made a lot of preserves this year and when we can fruit or make juice of it, instead of sugar we use honey. And in the USA you can purchase Sure-Jell. It calls for a lot less sugar than Certo or Pectin. When we made jam, with Sure-Jell you only needed 3 cups (4 1/2 cups peaches), where with the other it called for 6 1/2.
When we can any fruit, we use 1 cup honey, 4 cups water, 1/4 cup lemon juice.
Hope this helps
brenna
I LOVE that you use honey! I would definitely like to try that in the future. Thank you for sharing!
Kathleen @ Fearlessly Creative Mammas
Sounds amazing for sure. Wish we lived closer. I made plum jam and strawberry jam this weekend and we could make a trade. The plums came from my tree.
Kathy Lischer
After spending several hours searching for a good recipe to make my Muscadine grapes into jelly, I think that I have finally found the recipe that I will try in the morning. I was hoping to find one with no added sweeteners, since grapes are so sweet on their own & since I try to make everything I can without sugar just to make it healthier, but it seems that every recipe I found has some form of sweetener, including bad for us chemicals, like not so splendid Splenda. I can tell that you have been through the same dilemna’s, so I am going to follow your lead & just have a jelly with less sugar. Thanks for sparing me the 2 failed try’s & for sharing both your experience & your recipe. I do hope that you & your family have had a lovely summer. 🙂 May God richly bless you & yours abundantly!
Thanks So Much Again!
Kathy 🙂
brenna
Thank you so much for your kind words. I’m glad you found this helpful and I hope your jelly turned out wonderful. I definitely struggle with the same dilemma as I try to use no sugar these days, but there are just some things I haven’t been able to replace it in or leave out completely.
Dedra
Hi…I have just started the Keto diet. I am trying to make everything sugar free. Would it be possible to use Stevia in place of sugar?
I am so excited to make my Muacadine jelly.
Thanks so much
Chalisa Fabillar
We were gifted a huge box of mixed scuppernongs and muscadines from a friend who knows how much we love them. My husband made meals of muscadines two nights in a row and I cut him off at the scuppernongs. I used them to make juice and ended up with about 1.25 gallons of juice.
I made muscadine jelly last year. It was delicious but like you I was hoping to use less sugar. I went searching earlier this evening and found your recipe.
I made it this evening.
So, so tasty and it has already set up beautifully! I followed the recipe as written and processed for 7 minutes. My juice has some small particles in it since I didn’t have cheesecloth to strain as usual so I went between the 5 minutes for jelly and 10 for jam. I love, love, love that I can use half the sugar. This was still PLENTY of sugar and really lets the scuppernong flavor shine. We sampled the leftover half pint while it was still warm. Hubby and boy were ecstatic and couldn’t get enough. It is delicious! This will be our late summer muscadine and scuppernong jelly recipe. Thanks for sharing!