This is one of my favorite canning creations, pink lemonade soft spread. It's absolutely delicious. Yes, I'm bragging a bit, but you will be too once you've made this recipe.
Let's get to it!
Ingredients:
1/2 cup fresh pressed raspberry juice from roughly 1.5 cups of raspberries
1 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice from 5 to 6 lemons
1.5 cups of water
4.5 cups of sugar
1 foil package of liquid pectin
5 to 6 half pint canning jars with lids
*Makes 5 full half pint jars with about a quarter to a half pint left over
How do I create this fantastic treat you ask? Follow these quick steps.
1. Prepare a water bath and jars/lids for canning. If you don't know the proper way to do a canning bath, please look that up. For simplicity of the recipe explanation, I'm going leave that part up to you.
2. Squeeze the juice from lemons over a strainer into a 2 cup measuring cup until you have 1 cup of lemon juice.
3. Use a food processor to break down the raspberries and extract their juices. Then strain through the strainer you just used until you have 1/2 a cup of raspberry juice. You should have a total of 1.5 cups of juice now (lemon juice combined with raspberry juice).
4. Pour the juices into a large, heavy bottom pot. Add water and sugar to the pot.
5. Bring to a boil.
6. Add liquid pectin and bring to a rapid boil. Note, if you want this to be a solid jelly, boil hard for 2 full minutes and use a candy thermometer. Once the temperature reaches 220 degrees, shut off the heat. If you want to keep it a soft spread, turn the heat off just before reaching this temperature.
7. Skim the foam off of the top of the mixture and discard.
8. Use a ladle to transfer the mixture into the hot prepared caning jars. Leave 1/4 inch head space. Remove bubbles with a canning tool or spoon. Wipe the rims with a damp cloth then add the lid and sealing ring.
9. Process in a water bath for 10 minutes if you are at sea level. Adjust the time based on how far above sea level you are.
10. Remove from the canning bath and let the jars sit on a clean tea towel, undisturbed for 24 hours.
