Hungarian Wax Pepper Jelly

Hungarian Wax Peppers

Back in April, I went to the local nursery to buy a Bee Balm to plant under my front stoop. When I left the nursery, it was with the Bee Balm and 6 small Hungarian Wax Pepper plants that I had won as a prize (I wasn't sure what surprised me more, that nurseries had prizes, or that I won). I have a small garden and wasn't planning on planting vegetables, but not wanting to let the plants go to waste, I went ahead and put them in the ground under the stoop as well.

To my surprise, they have done quite well, and for the first time in my life, I have been confronted with what to do with a small harvest of Hungarian Wax Peppers. If you've never seen one before, they look rather like Banana Peppers, but are medium hot. I've used some in my dinners, made some into salsa, but still had quite a few hanging on my pepper plants awaiting use.

Pureeing the peppers

So naturally, I made hot pepper jelly. I had never tried making pepper jelly before, but I figured it would be a good way to use some of them up. And I must say, the initial results have been good. The jelly is sweet, as you would expect, but has a punch to it that is pleasant but not overwhelming. You can use it as you would any jelly, if your into spicy PB&J, but I think it would be especially good on cream cheese with crackers as a summery appetizer.

The recipe is simple enough, and you can use any spicy pepper that you like, or some combination of spicy pepper and bell pepper if you want it a bit milder. Shout out if you try it and let us know how it turned out for you.

Hungarian Wax Pepper Jelly

Hungarian Wax Pepper Jelly!

6 Hungarian Wax Peppers (if you're using another pepper, alter accordingly)
2 cups Apple Cider Vinegar (you could try white vinegar, but the Apple Cider Vinegar brings more flavor and helps color the final product)
6 cups sugar
6 oz liquid pectin

Cut off the stems of the peppers and remove the seeds. Puree the peppers in a blender with 1 cup of the Apple Cider Vinegar. Mix the peppers with the remaining vinegar and sugar in a large saucepan and bring to a boil for 10 minutes, stirring. A small amount of butter helps keep it from foaming during the cooking process.

After 10 minutes, add the liquid pectin, bring to a boil, and stir for 1 minute. Remove from heat and ladle into canning jars*.

*Follow your standard sterilizing and canning procedures.