Vegan Black Currant Jelly

I bought some black currants and some red currants for the first time, a couple weeks ago. I have never had them before, but they looked so lovely in the grocery store so I decided to give them a try.

First, I tried a red currant. SOUR! So sour, in fact, that I spit it right out into the sink. Graceful, I know. Disappointed, I gave the black currants a try. Now, I LOVE black currant chewy candies so I was pretty sure I’d like the berries they are made from. WRONG. I popped a black currant in my mouth and gave it a chew. It tasted exactly like vomit. No joke. How did the first people to eat black and red currants decide that they were indeed edible? I will never know. Glad they did though, because with the right amount of dilution and heaps and heaps of sugar, they can be great!

Vegan Black Currant Jelly

I thought I’d make jam with these, because, surely, everything is better with sugar. I’d never made jam before,…but what the hey, right?!

Ingredients

• 6 oz Black Currants, washed
• 1 cup sugar
• water

Directions
Put black currants in a saucepan, add a heap of sugar, and just enough water to barely cover the berries. Turn the stove temperature to high and let the thing boil. Watch it though! Don’t let it boil over. After the mixture comes to a boil, lower the temperature to medium-low. Let it continue to bubble while checking every few minutes to see if the mixture is ready to set. You can tell by dropping a bit onto a cold plate and seeing if it’s the texture that you want. In about ten minutes, you will be at the “jelly” stage. Slowly pour the mixture into a container through a wire mesh sieve. You can use a spoon to mash the pulp into the sieve to get the jelly through. The pulp will have a ton of seeds in it so its best to leave it out of the jelly, I think.

I spread out the pulp on a piece of parchment paper and let it dry. Think I’ll add it to a granola mixture.

Since I didn’t sterilize my container beforehand, this is the type of jelly that needs to be kept in the fridge. So easy but so good. I hope you try it!