Easy Quince Jelly with Vanilla

This easy quince jelly recipe is sweet and smooth. It’s delicious as a spread on pancakes, toast, or with crackers and cheese.

This post shows how to make quince jelly, one that is sweet and floral and scented with vanilla. Quince jelly is simple to make, in fact, it is one of the easiest ways to preserve quince, as it doesn’t require any peeling or coring.

You can’t eat quince raw though, they’re much too astringent. However, they bake, poach and stew well, and make fantastic jelly. The quince is very high in pectin which is how the jelly can set so beautifully.

How to make Quince Jelly

In today’s post, I’ll walk through how to make easy quince jelly with vanilla. If you want to make it pure quince jelly, just omit the vanilla.

Boiling

Quince jelly is made by simmering quince pieces in water until they are very soft. I add a lemon at this stage too for extra flavour.

You could leave the quince whole when doing this, but roughly chopping them makes it faster and easier to fit more quince in a pot.

Once the quince are soft and cooked through they become a gorgeous peach colour.

Straining

These quince pieces, the lemon and all the cooking liquid is then poured into a cheesecloth or muslin bag, to drain slowly over the next 8-12 hours.

I simply line a metal colander with the cheesecloth and balance this over a large bowl to collect the liquid. Tying the cloth up and then placing a weight on top of the quince can help it drain a bit faster.

However, if you just leave the quince to drain over night then there is no need to do that.

In the morning, you will have collected all the light pink liquid.

Simmering the Jelly

This liquid now needs to simmer along with sugar until it’s at a jelly setting stage.

Quince jelly needs a lot of sugar, and there is no way around that. 1 cup of sugar per 1 cup of quince liquid.

This is simmered for at least 15-20 minutes until it is a deep red colour. Stay close to the stove stir it regularly so it doesn’t boil over. Any scum building up can be scooped off.

To test that the jelly is ready to be poured into jars, take a teaspoons worth and drop it on a plate. Let it cool for a minute.

Once cooled, run a finger through it and see that it leaves a line, without the jelly running back to the join in the middle. If it’s too runny, keep it simmering a while longer, otherwise it won’t set.

Once it is at the jelly setting stage, leave it to cool for a bit, then the jelly can be poured hot and clean preserving jars.

Close the jars and simmer them in a boiling water bath for 8 minutes to seal them for long-term storage.

Have you made this ? Tag me and let me know! @home_grown_happinessnz

Want more preserving recipes? Try these peach preserves with lavender and thyme!