Pepper Apple Chutney

The beautiful weather this year means the garden bounty has continued into late September. Last week I started the job of cleaning out the garden, and discovered a few spicy pepper plants still producing! I didn't have quite enough to make a batch of pepper jelly, and I wasn't sure exactly what I was going to do with them, until a dozen apples showed up on my doorstep courtesy of my mother in law!

This was my first try at chutney. I based it from a recipe in my Ball blue book, and made changes based on the ingredients available.

1 dozen med apples, peeled, cored, soaked in lemon water, then chopped roughly (I used the food processor)
2 small bell peppers, finely chopped
2 small cloves of garlic, minced
2 banana peppers and about 8 spicy peppers, finely chopped (I did them in the food processor)
3 1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup honey
4 TBSP molasses
1 tsp ginger
1 tsp allspice
3 drops cinnamon bark essential oil
4 cups vinegar (I used 1 cup kombucha vinegar and 3 cups apple cider vinegar)

Mix ingredients in a large saucepot, bring to simmer. Simmer until thickened. Ladle into half pint jars and process for 10 minutes in boiling water bath.

(Yields approx 10 pints)

All my main ingredients were fresh and homegrown - the peppers grown in my garden
and the apples from my mother in law

Someday I'll get a corer/peeler/slicer machine...

Sugar, molasses, honey, plus spices and garlic

That pepper mixture is so beautiful (and so SPICY) it takes my breathe away.

Ready to simmer!

I used half pint jars so we can give these as gifts.

The finished product. Chutney is not the most beautiful thing I've ever seen, but
I'm hoping it will be quite lovely served on white meats.