Jammin’ with Jaime: Watermelon Jalapeño Jelly Recipe

Watermelon Jalapeño Jam Recipe
I think y’all may have noticed on facebook and instagram (@prudentjaime) that I have become obsessed with jam and jelly making this summer. Do you know the diff between jam and jelly? Jelly is made with fruit juice, while jam is made with whole fruit. The more you know…

Watermelon Jalapeño Jelly Recipe
Today we are making Watermelon Jalapeño Jelly. I adore watermelon (who doesn’t?), and have had a great crop of jalapeños in my backyard farm this season. I thought, what if I put them together and made a jelly? I asked my friend Erin what she thought of this idea, and she wondered what one might eat watermelon jalapeño jelly with? I thought this was a decent question so I asked Jacinda. Her answer was “a spoon.” Ha.

Watermelon Jalapeño Jelly with Chicken
So I went to Texas to visit her, my suitcase half filled with various jams and jellies, and we experimented. This turned out to be my very favorite of all the jams and jellies I made this year! With it’s fresh-summer-taste and spicy bite, it was perfect on meat! So make some watermelon jalapeño jelly and serve it with barbecued meats or on a sandwich. And of course you could always pour it over some cream cheese and eat with crackers. Or spoons.

Watermelon Jalapeño Jelly sandwich
I gave you the full play-by-play with step-by-step photography on my Blackberry Basil Jam recipe, so this time I’m going to share the Watermelon Jalapeno Jelly recipe after the jump…

Watermelon Jalapeño Jelly Ingredients
This recipe makes about 32-40 ounces of jelly, depending on the size of your watermelon.
1 medium seedless watermelon
3 jalapeños
5 tbls pectin (I used Ball Realfruit Classic Pectin)
1/4 tea butter
1/4 tea lemon juice
3.5 cups sugar

Watermelon Jalapeño Jelly Instructions
I used my Ball® FreshTECH Automatic Jam & Jelly Maker, which is awesome, but you can also use your stove.
First, cut your watermelon into chunks and blend in a blender. Run the blended watermelon over a strainer several times to remove any remaining seeds or big chunks, until you have a nice smooth juice.
Wearing gloves (always wear gloves when handling hot peppers, trust me and my eyeballs that I’ve rubbed and burned before), de-seed and mince your jalapeños.
Add the jalapeño bits to the watermelon juice.
Now start by sprinkling the pectin on the bottom of your jam and jelly maker (or follow the stove instructions on your particular brand of pectin).
Add the watermelon jalapeño mixture.
Add 1/4 teaspoon of butter (this helps to reduce foaming).
Add the 1/4 cup lemon juice.
If using the jam maker, turn it on and let it mix for four minutes until it beeps, then add the sugar. If not using the jam maker, follow the instructions on your pectin for when to add the sugar. This is usually right at the beginning.
Let the jam maker run (for 28 minutes) and it will do all your stirring for you. If you are using the stove you just have to stand and stir.
When your jelly is done, skim the foam off the top and preserve by either placing in the fridge, freezing, or canning. For instructions on how to can jam/jelly (it’s so easy) go to this post and follow the same steps (which are sterilize your jars and lids, pour jelly into jars, add lids and rings, then boil for ten minutes and let sit overnight).
Remember, the jelly won’t be “jelled” right off the stove/jam maker, it will need to set. Newbies to jam making sometimes get confused and think it will be perfectly done right off the stove, but it needs to cool first.

Watermelon Jalapeño Jam Recipe

Enjoy!

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16 Comments

Jordin

Is this 1/4 lemon juice or 1/4 teaspoon? The ingredients say tea but the directions say cup? Thanks!!

Reply
Taisiya

Hi! Thank you very much for this recipe, it sure looks and sounds yummy! I’m gonna make a few jars of non-spicy jelly and only add hot pepper to the one(surprise for whoever tries it first). 🙂

Could you please tell how big is the average watermelon in your area(im in Russia, and here watermelons really do vary in sizes). Also, its a bit confusing how much lemon juice should i use?

Many thanks,
Taisiya

Reply
janet

I wish you would have put your recipes on this page. I am not on face book and would love to try them especially watermelon jalapeno jelly.

Reply
C French

That watermelon jelly sounds delicious. You might want to edit two things. It should (I think) 1/4 cup lemon juice. Also, if you used the abbreviation tsp for teaspoon it would be less confusing. Thank you so much for all that you share on your blog. One of my favorites was how to install a zipper in a pillow. Happy New Year!

Reply
Gabriel

If only there were some way of determining the amount of watermelon juice used in this with some sort of precision other than “medium”. Perhaps, some sort of cup? But no, not just a cup, a cup that could also somehow… measure! Alas, such a thing is surely pure folly, much like a fork that is also a spoon. I mean, what would they even call that? A “spork”? Ha! That would be utter madness.

Reply
Gigi

But you still don’t answer the question, that was asked multiple times – what is a medium sized watermelon? How much watermelon juice? Thanks.

Reply
Stephenie

I had previously made watermelon jelly. It called for 4cups melon juice, 1/4c lemon juice and 2 boxes of pectin. Then add 4.5cups of sugar. Turned out amazing! And jelled up.

So I had leftover melon juice and used 4cups melon juice, the 1 tsp butter, 1/4c lemon juice the 5 tablespoons of pectin which was one box. And then the 3.5cups sugar. Did everything the same. And this did not jell up at all!

I probably won’t make this one again. I will just leave out the butter. Add more sugar and add another box of pectin.

Reply

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