A few weeks ago, upon seeing our pepper plant heavy with peppers, a visitor to our backyard farm told me that the best pepper jelly she'd ever had was made from habañeros. I sent her home with enough peppers to make some for herself and then looked up a recipe to try for myself.

It turned out great, so I thought I'd share.

Ingredients:

8-10 habañero peppers, cored and cut in pieces

8 green bell peppers, cored and cut into pieces

2 c. white vinegar

10 c. sugar (about a bag)

2 pouches liquid pectin

Green food coloring (as desired)

Also, be sure to have gloves on hand. The habañeros are hot enough to burn your skin.

Peppers are cored and roughly chopped.

In small batches, blend peppers with vinegar until liquefied.

Combine liquefied pepper/vinegar and sugar in a large pot and boil slowly for 10 minutes. Remove from heat. Stir in the liquid pectin and boil hard for 1 minute. Skim off any resulting foam and add food coloring (if desired). Pour jelly immediately into hot, sterilized canning jars, leaving 1/4" headspace. Wipe jar rims and position lids and rings. Process 5 minutes in a boiling water bath.

This recipe made about 10 half-pint jelly jars. I had one jar that wasn't all the way full, so I stuck it into the fridge instead of the canner and we ate it that night with cream cheese and crackers.

Yum! It looks a little soupy here, but it continued to set up, so most jars are a much thicker consistency.

It was such a success that I plan to do another batch this week to give as Christmas gifts. (If you turn out to be one of the lucky recipients, just act surprised. ;)