Delicious preserves with chunks of tasty apple spiced with cinnamon and nutmeg.
To Make This Spiced Apple Preserves Recipe You Will Need:
- apples
- lemon juice
- water
- sugar
- cinnamon
- nutmeg
- lemon
- powdered pectin
- large pot (non-reactive)
- whisk
- large spoon (for stirring)
- water bath canner or steam canner
- white vinegar
- small dish
- damp cloth
- canning tools (ladle, funnel, etc.)
- half pint jars with lids & rings
Watch this Episode:
Making the Spiced Apple Preserves
To begin, you will peel, core and slice your apples. I do this with my handy dandy apple tool. It saves so much time and energy!
Combine the apples, water, and lemon juice in a large, non-reactive pot.
Bring it to a boil. Once it has come to a boil, reduce the heat, cover, and simmer for 10 minutes.
Whisk in the powdered pectin and bring the mixture back to a boil.
Add in the sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and lemon slices.
Bring the mixture to a rolling boil and boil for 1 minute – stirring constantly. A rolling boil means that when you stir it briskly, the boiling action doesn’t stop.
Remove it from the heat and ladle into prepared half pint jars, leaving 1/4 inch head space. Removed bubbles and air pockets with a bubble wand.
Wipe the jar rims with a damp rag, dipped in white vinegar to remove any residue. This is especially important when canning sticky foods! If there is residue on the jar, it could cause your lids to not properly seal, and that is the last thing you want.
Close the jars with lids and rings and place the jars in your canner.
Process the jars in a water bath canner for 10 minutes.
When canning in a hot water bath canner (or steam canner) always make note of the processing time. If the recipe only has one time shown, that is generally for 1-1,000 feet of elevation. Visit this article to learn how to make adjustments to the recipe for YOUR elevation: How to Adjust Canning Recipes for Elevation
Allow to cool in a draft-free location, on a lined surface (on layered kitchen towels or a rack) for 12-24 hours.
You May Also Like: How to Use a Steam Canner
Test the seals, remove the rings, wash down the jars with warm, soapy water. Then label, and store them in your pantry.
Enjoy!
Did you Make this Recipe? I’d love for you to give me a 5 star rating in the recipe card below. If you share it on Instagram, please tag me! You can also post it to my Facebook Page.
Spiced Apple Preserves
Ingredients
Instructions
- Combine the apples, water, and lemon juice in a large pot.
- Bring it to a boil, then reduce the heat, cover, and simmer for 10 minutes.
- Whisk in the powdered pectin.
- Bring the mixture back to a boil.
- Add in the sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and lemon slices.
- Bring the mixture to a rolling boil and boil for 1 minute – stirring constantly.
- Remove it from the heat and ladle into prepared half pint jars, leaving 1/4 inch head space. Removed bubbles and air pockets with a bubble wand.
- Wipe the jar rims with a damp rag, dipped in white vinegar to remove any residue.
- Close the jars with lids and rings and place the jars in your canner.
- Process the jars in a water bath canner for 10 minutes. (Adjust for elevation, see link above.)
- Allow to cool in a draft-free location for 12-24 hours.
- Test the seals, remove the rings, wiped down the jars, label, and store in your pantry.
- Enjoy!
Video
Nutrition
If nutritional values are provided for this recipe, they are an estimate and will vary depending on the brands of ingredients you use. The values do not include optional ingredients or when ingredients are added to taste or for serving. If nutritional values are very important to you, I suggest using your favorite nutritional calculating tool with the brands you use.
Unit Conversions:
Unit Conversion for measurements (if displayed), going from US to Metric is an auto-generated conversion. If you are using the metric measurements, please double-check to confirm that these are accurate with your favorite preferred conversion tool.
Can I use pint jars? I don’t have any 1/2 pint jars on hand
Should we use 4 or 6 cups of apples? Video says 6 and recipe says 4. Thank you
Do you have to add the lemon slices? I don’t have any on hand.
I haven’t made it yet but I’m going to. It looks amazing so i have you the 5 star. You think I could get away with a little less sugar in this recipe. I’m trying to get it under 10 g sugar per serving. If you could help me out that would be great.
We canned our first batch of these 8 years ago and they are so amazing. We bought a mixture of every apple at the produce market, because it was a box of bruised and “ugly” apples. When we make this again in a couple of weeks, we are going to get the variety box again, so many textures and flavors. We were hesitant about the lemon slices, but live them….I will say the thinner the better.
Thank you so much for this recipe.
Can you make this recipe without the lemon slices and just add the lemon juice?
This recipe looks delicious! I have a 50 lb bag of Granny Smith to preserve. Will this recipe work for those? I am a newbie to canning.
What is the tool you are using to measure the head space?
Thanks!
Yes, Granny Smith apples would work. The tool is a bubble wand that has a measuring guide built into it :)
In the video you said 6 cups of apples but the recipe reads 4 cups…. I did 6 cups and it was perfect!
Hello, what an AWESOME recipe! Thanks a great deal. Quick question. Will it be ok to keep the apple preserves unrefrigerated? If so, approximately what’s the shelf life…as if they’d stay there over a week.
If you can/process the preserves, they do not have to be refrigerated. In that case they can stay in the pantry for up to a year or more.
Great news! Thanks for getting back to me. Happy [almost] Summer!
Just made my first batch. Didn’t have powdered pectin, but liquid worked great! Thank you for sharing the recipe it is wonderful!
Thank you!
Do you remove the thin lemon slices before canning? I’m looking forward to making this soon.
No, I left them in there.
Any special type of apple that is best for this recipe? this looks really good, I’d like to try it in my new steam canner!
Hi Cindy! I was actually just coming here to update that with information about the apples. I use sweet, “eating” apples, like Fuji, Jonathan, etc.