We froze a batch of blackberries in the autumn, which means we can make jam right through the winter.

Blackberry and apple is a classic combination in pies, crumbles and jellies. We’re going for the latter here with one of the easiest jelly recipes you can make. Ideal for beginners, the ingredients in bramble and apple jelly are measured out in easily-remembered multiples of 10. As most of the ingredients – the sugar excluded – can be found for free in the wild, it’s a good testing ground, as it costs you very little if you make a mistake and have to start again.

Ingredients
2kg apples
2kg blackberries
1 litre water
Sugar

Equipment needed
Large, heavy-bottomed pan
Knives
Wooden spoon
Stove or hob
Muslin
Thermometer or cold plate

Method
Wash your fruit, then slice the apples without coring then, peeling or removing the pips. These bits you would normally throw away help with the setting as they contain pectin. Place them all into your heavy-bottomed pan with the blackberries and water.

Bring the ingredients to the boil, stirring regularly to stop them from sticking, and allow to simmer for an hour. Over this time the apples will soften and the blackberries will lose their shape. Test the apples by squashing a few against the side of the pan using a spoon. If they are pulpy they are ready to be strained; if not, leave them for another 15 minutes and test again. Keep repeating this until you get the consistency you need.

When they are ready, set up a muslin bag over a large bowl and carefully ladle in your mixture. Muslin bags are usually supported by a tripod that can be bought in a specialist cook shop. However, if you have neither the muslin nor a tripod, some people tie a fine tea towel to the legs of an upturned stool, position the bowl under this and use that to strain their mixture. This may work, but it is very important when making jellies to ensure that none of the solids make it into the bowl and that at the end of the straining process you have only a coloured liquid in there, with all of the solids contained in the straining material. If you find that your towel lets through some solids, it isn’t fine enough, and you will have to source a muslin bag.

Leave the mixture to drain overnight. By morning it should have stopped dripping, and although there will be some juice left in the muslin bag’s contents, you should resist the urge to squeeze it out as this will make your finished jelly cloudy.

Measure the liquid you have obtained and return it to the pan, along with 100g of sugar for every 100ml of the liquid. So, if you got a litre of liquid by straining the pulp, you would add a kilo of sugar. 1.2 litres would mean 1.2kg of sugar, and so on.

Bring this back to the boil, stirring frequently, and test for setting. There are two ways to do this, depending on what you have at your disposal. If you have a thermometer, check that the jelly has reached 105 degrees Celsius. Once it has, you’ll know that it will set when transferred to jars. If you don’t have a thermometer, put a plate into the fridge until it is cold, and then spoon a small amount of the jelly onto it. Allow this to cool and, once it’s cold, run the end of your finger through it. If it rucks up in front of your finger, it has set and is ready to be spooned into jars.

This jelly can be eaten from the following day, by which time it should be fully set.

Related posts:

1. How to make apple jelly
2. How to make crabapple jelly
3. How to make blackberry and apple pie: simple recipe