- 2 cups violet flowers - 3 cups of water - a pot or saucepan large enough to hold the water - a large heat-safe container such as a pitcher or bowl - a fine-mesh strainer (or if you don’t have one, layer cheesecloth inside a colander) - 2 tablespoons lemon juice (about the juice contained in 1 medium-large lemon) - 1 pack low or no sugar powdered pectin (1.75 oz pink box) - 2 1/2 cups sugar (this recipe uses white cane sugar: alternative sweeteners may affect the colour and set of jelly) - Optional: 1/2 teaspoon butter (to reduce foaming: add at any point during the cooking process to reduce foam) - Heavy-duty 6-8 quart pot or stockpot - sterilised heated jars IF CANNING USE- - Water bath canner & rack - Canning jars (recipe makes about 4 1/2 half-pints, or 9 4 oz small jelly jars) with fitting canning lids and rims - Jar lifter - Ladle step 1. Add violets in a cheesecloth bag or directly into boiling water and steep for 15 minutes. Once the tea is completely infused, strain the violets out and pour the tea into a 6-8 quart stockpot. If you’re using tea that was frozen for later use, either thaw it out in your refrigerator for a day until it’s wholly liquid again or to speed up the process, just drop the frozen tea in a pot over a low burner and heat it until it’s fully melted back into a liquid tea. 2. To the tea, add the 2 tablespoons of lemon juice and stir. This will cause a dramatic colour change! The violet tea starts out a vivid blue, but the acid of the lemon rapidly changes it to pink when combined. Set this aside. 3. Measure 2 1/2 cups of sugar into a bowl. From this bowl, scoop out 1/4 of a cup of sugar, and set the bowl (which now has 2 1/4 cups of sugar in it) aside. Place that 1/4 cup of sugar in a new bowl. 4. Add the packet of powdered pectin to the 1/4 cup of sugar, and stir to combine. Add this to the violet & lemon juice mixture in your pot, and mix. Set it all on a burner turned to high heat. 5. Stirring constantly with a spoon or whisk, bring to a rolling boil. Once it’s reached that point, stir in the remaining sugar all at once. This will stop the boiling for a moment. Return it to a full, rolling boil again, and boil for exactly one minute, still stirring constantly. If you need to add the 1/2 tsp of butter to reduce foaming, do so carefully so as not to splash yourself with the molten hot-sugar mix. The jelly will boil up rather violently- make sure your pot’s big enough to handle it! 6. After one minute, remove from the heat. The jelly will begin to set up fast, so moving quickly (but carefully!), ladle or pour the hot jelly into your sterilized jars, leaving a 1/4 inch headspace at the top. Some air bubbles might form up top. you can skim those off if you’d like. 7. Wipe off the rims of the jelly jars with a damp rag to remove any sticky spots of spilled or splashed jelly that could interfere with sealing. 8. Place the lids on top of the jars, and secure in place by firmly screwing on the rings. If you are not canning your jelly, leave it where it is for the next 12 to 24 hours to cool and rest. After that, move your jelly to your refrigerator, where it will keep for about 3 weeks. Use it up before then, or freeze it for several months.
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