We recently watched a canning video, about apple rings, from one of our favorite YouTube canners – ‘I’m Still Workin’ and it made us hungry to make our own spiced apple rings. They turned out lovely and are such a pretty addition to the table during the holidays. We served ours with 7-day sweet pickles, which we made over the summer.
Here’s the recipe:
Spiced Apple Rings (recipe from the USDA)
About 24 Apples (not huge…diameter needs to fit inside your jar!) For our local readers Cherry Hill Orchards and Kauffman’s Fruit Farm are great sources for large produce late in the season.
12 cups Sugar
6 cups Water
1 cup White Vinegar
3 Tablespoons Whole Clove
6 oz Red Hot Candies
1 tsp Red Food Coloring
Crisping agent (optional)
Cinnamon Sticks (optional)
Jars & lids – We picked our jars based on the size of the apple slices and how many we wanted to put up per jar. We used a variety of Ball widemouth jars, 32 oz straight-sided and 16 oz straight-sided jars.
Set up for traditional canning…lids simmering, canner with hot water with jars warming, kettle & ladle for your syrup, and a clean cloth to wipe the tops of jars before capping. Because the syrup is so sticky and will stain, it’s a good idea to have a small tray or baking pan to set your jars when filling them with the syrup.
Wash, peel (optional) and slice fresh crispy apples. Place then in a bowl of water with some fruit fresh to keep them from browning.
Dissolve Red-hot’s in the water, then add the remainder of ingredients. Bring to a boil and then simmer for 3 minutes. It can be tricky to make just the right amount of syrup for the apples that you have. Not to worry…if you have extra…simply can it to use later for an impromptu small batch. If you need to make more, it doesn’t take long to whip up another batch.
Place your sliced apples in the jars, firmly pressing them down as they will float after canning.
Fill with the syrup, leaving enough headspace and being sure that no apples will be putting pressure on the lid.
Cap the jars and place them in the water bath canner.
Bring canner back to a boil for 10 minutes. Let it rest for 10 minutes then carefully remove the jars. After they have sealed and cooled, wipe them down, remove rings and share!
If you want a visual tutorial… here’s the video that inspired us!
These are so good! I actually just used them the other week instead of fresh apples because on the spur of the moment, I wanted to make Apple Crisp in my 8oz widemouth jars….and I didn’t have any fresh apples. They worked well…and cut out on the prep time!