Orange and Pepper Jelly

Orange and Pepper Jelly is a unique, tasty blend of orange marmalade with red pepper jelly. It’s the best of both worlds. Add a habanero pepper for a spicy kick!  

Everybody has a favorite jam or jelly. Mine’s marmalade. A few years ago, I was introduced to pepper jelly and was immediately hooked. I had a hard time deciding which one I liked better, so I decided to combine them both into Orange and Pepper Jelly. The flavors are a really good match and complement each other so well.

In addition to a red bell pepper, I used a red chili pepper in this recipe but it did not turn out spicy at all. I wanted to share this with my kids so I kept it mild. If you want a really spicy kick, add a habanero pepper. That will add some zing to your breakfast toast 🙂

How to make Orange Pepper Jelly

I looove biting into those orange rind chunks in marmalade. You will need 5 oranges for this recipe. Use a peeler or a knife to remove the rind off of two oranges, then slice them into thin strips. It’s okay to leave some of the white membrane as that is where a lot of the pectin is – that is what thickens the jelly. But don’t leave too much of it on or it will make your jelly very chunky. After cutting the rind that you need for slicing, cut the rest of the white membrane off the orange.

Remove and discard the rind from the rest of the oranges.

Cut the oranges into sections, then cut those sections into quarters.

Voila! A bowl full of quartered orange segments:

Next, we’ll cut the red bell pepper and the red chili. We’re only going to use half of a red bell pepper in this recipe, and a whole red chili. Cut the peppers into thin strips, then mince them.

Pour 3/4 cup of water and 1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar into a pot. Turn on the heat to medium-high. Add the chopped chilies and peppers, the sliced orange rind and the zest and juice of 1 lemon. Bring to a boil.

As soon as it starts to boil, reduce the heat to medium, then add the cut orange sections and 1 1/4 cups of sugar.

Stir occasionally with a wooden spoon, scraping the bottom of the pan to keep it from burning. Let it simmer…and simmer…and simmer.

As soon as it starts to thicken up, turn down the heat to low. Take about half a teaspoon of the jelly and set it aside. Give this “test jelly” a few minutes to cool down (I stick it in the fridge to cool it off quickly), then give it a taste. In addition to the taste, you’ll also want to test the consistency of the jelly. Some prefer the jelly to be a little runny, and some like it a bit thicker and firmer.

The reason you’ll want to do this test is that when the jelly is warm, it’ll always be a bit runny but once it cools off, it will harden up.

If the “test jelly” is still too runny for your taste, let it keep simmering over the stove and test it every 5 minutes or so. Once the “test jelly” is at the consistency you like, take the rest of the jelly off the stove and put it into Mason Jars.

Store the jars of Orange and Pepper jelly in the refrigerator. Serve with your favorite white or whole wheat bread, and of course, lots of butter 🙂

This recipe makes about 1 pint, depending on the size of the oranges you use. If you wish to increase the batch size to can the jelly, you can certainly do so. The processing time in a water bath is 10 minutes.

Enjoy!