Guava Jelly

 Guava’s are just dropping off the tree in our backyard –literally hundreds of them. Hubby picked a huge bag full for me to see if I could “do something” with them. They were perfect, no grubs, worms or borers and the flesh inside sweet and beautiful. I’ve never made jam or jelly before and figured it couldn’t be that difficult so I’d give it a go. It was surprisingly easy, if a little time consuming… but the results, oh YUM, so deliciously home-made and worth it! So here we are… a step by step guide to making guava jelly/jam. You could use the same method with any fleshy fruit such as mango, strawberry, peaches.


For each kilo of fruit you need: ¼ kilo of sugar and 2 tablespoons of lemon juice (or any other citrus juice) and three cups of water.
 Wash and then peel the guava’s and cut off the tops and bottoms. 
 Scoop out the seed ball.Pop all the seeds into a saucepan and all the flesh into a bowl.(I had so much fruit this took me two hours!!!)

 Add one cup of water to the seeds and pop on the stove top to simmer for 10 minutes to release their juices. Drain the liquid off using a strainer or clean cheese cloth. Put the liquid aside for later. Discard the seeds.
In a blender or food processor, put two cups of water,  your liquid from the seeds and the guava flesh.  Blend it together until it looks like a smoothie.
 
Pour the smoothie-like mix into a big pot and bring to the boil over moderate heat.Keep stirring and add the sugar and juice.Keep mixing regularly until it thickens and changes colour. Will take about 1 hour.

 Once the mixture is almost brown and quite thick, turn off the stove and let your jam cool.
 I then strained it through a sieve as I don’t like seeds and wanted a super smooth beautiful jelly.
 Once cool, pop into your clean jars. Top with a little piece of plastic wrap and a lid and store in the fridge.

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