Blueberry Jelly

I am a huge fan of saskatoon jelly, but when I can't get saskatoon berries I settle for blueberries, which are also delicious. Along with all the fruit that came out was a large bucket of blueberries. Knowing that with all the fruit I had, I would not be able to eat them before they were done, I made myself some jelly, so I can enjoy blueberries all year long.

I got this recipe for Blueberry Jelly from the kraft website, I have added a couple of notes into the recipe.

Ingredients:
4 cups prepared juice (about 2 qt. fully ripe blueberries, I used about 4 lbs)
2 pouches CERTO Fruit Pectin
1/2 tsp. butter or margarine
7-1/2 cups sugar, measured into separate bowl
8-9 sterilized half pint jars and lids
Directions:
1.Crush the berries, I put them for a quick chop in the food processor and this worked fine. The bonus is I didn’t get squirted with juice and it was a lot faster.
2.Put crushed berries, ½ cup water and ¼ cup of lemon juice into a saucepan and bring to a simmer. Let simmer, covered, for about 5-10 mintues.
3.Pour mixture into a jelly bag (or cheesecloth) and let the juice drain out. Gently squeeze the bag and mix the content to insure you get all the juice out. This step takes a little while, I usually let it sit for 20 minutes or so (stops dripping) then mix and squeeze.
4.Measure 4 cups of juice (I have heard that you can add up to ½ cup of water if you are short, but I prefer to just make a bit more if I am short).
5.Combine juice and pectin in a pot and add the butter to reduce foaming. Bring the entire mixture to a full roiling boil (doesn’t stop boiling when stirred).
6.Stir in the sugar and return to a full boil. Boil for 1 minute, stirring constantly.
7.Remove from heat and skim off any foam. Ladel into sterile, warm jars, filling to ¼” of the rims and put the lids on.
8.Tighten the lids and put into a water bath (large pot of boiling water) and gently boil for 5 minutes. Note, the jars should be covered by 1 -2” of water. Remove and place on towl to cool and seal.

Reviews:
This was a great jelly. I can taste the blueberry and it isn’t overpoweringly sweet like some jellies.

Apricot Jam

My husband decided he wanted some apricots this year when we got out peaches. Little did I know that he asked for 10lbs of apricots. I knew he would be unable to eat them all before they went bad, and as I am not a huge apricot fan and would have peaches, he would be getting no help from me as far as eating them. When asked what I should do with all the excess apricots, he requested jam. I pulled out my handy Certo insert sheet, and luckily apricot jam was listed – woo hoo no searching out a recipe.

Ingredients:
3 cups chopped apricots (pitted, but not peeled). I pulsed them quickly in the food processor which was quick and easy.
¼ cup lemon juice
7 cups sugar
1 pouch of Certo Liquid Pectin
6-7 1 cup (1/2 pint) sterilized jars and lids.

How To:
1.Mix the sugar, lemon juice and fruit in a large saucepan. Bring the mixture to a hard boil (doesn’t stop boiling when stirred). Continue boiling for 1 minute while stirring.
2.Remove the pot from heat and stir in the liquid pectin. Stir and skim off the foam for about 5 mintues (this lets the jam cool a little and thicken so all the fruit doesn’t float to the top).
3.Pour the jam into sterilized warm jars, up to about ¼” from the rims. Place the lids on and leave sit at room temperature to cool and set.
4.Check the lids to insure they have sealed – press gently in the middle of the lid, if it moves up and down your jar is not sealed. It is still alright as long as you put it in the fridge and use it right away.

Review:
This was a lovely orange-yellow color. I am not a huge apricot fan, and have yet to try it, but between my husband and friend over the weekend at least ½ if not a whole jar has already disappeared. O preferred to eat his on toast, and enjoyed it, while Iza spent the weekend munching on jam scooped on graham crackers (occasionally with a marshmallow).

Peach Jam

I had tons of peaches, that were getting pretty soft. I didn’t feel like slicing all of them for canning or making pie fillings so I decided to try some peach jam. I used the recipe out of the certo pectin box that I had and away I went.

Ingredients:
4 cups chopped peaches
½ cup lemon juice
7 ½ cup granulated sugar
2 pouches of Certo Liquid pectin
8-9 1 cup (1/2 pint) sterile jars and lids

Directions:
1.Combine the fruit, lemon juice and sugar in a pot.
2.Bring the fruit to a hard boil and let boil for 1 minute while stirring.
3.Remove the pot from heat and stir in the liquid pectin. Stir and skim off the foam for about 5 mintues (this lets the jam cool a little and thicken so all the fruit doesn’t float to the top).
4.Pour the jam into sterilized warm jars, up to about ¼” from the rims. Place the lids on and leave sit at room temperature to cool and set.
5.Check the lids to insure they have sealed – press gently in the middle of the lid, if it moves up and down your jar is not sealed. It is still alright as long as you put it in the fridge and use it right away.

Reviews:
This jam is a lovely warm yellow and looks awesome. I haven’t tried it yet, as I have open jars of blueberry and cherry jelly and strawberry rhubarb jam already in the fridge. However the little “spills” while filling the jars tasted great!

Busy Weekend

This weekend I went to my parent's house, accompanied by my Friend Iza and about 60lbs of fruit. Iza and I spent a few days making jam and various other fruit products resulting in a cooler full of various forms of frozen fruit and over 40 jars.


Somehow in there we also found time to eat some of what we had made along with some fantastic food on the BBQ, much of it straight from my parent's large garden. There was also some time for play, Iza had fun photographing the dogs and cows.



The final products from the weekend are:
Peach Jam
Apricot Jam
Black Forest Preserves
Peach Salsa
Peach Chiptole BBQ sauce
Frozen Peach Pie Filling
Frozen Apricot Pie Filling
Frozen Cherries
Frozen Blueberries
Frozen Pre-measured shredded Zucchini
Frozen Rhubarb

The rest of the canning from the days before leaving was Cherry Jelly and Blueberry Jelly.

I will be posting recipes and reviews over the next few days as I get time to photograph, type and try all the creations.

Cherry Chocolate Brownies

Alright, so coming home from the inlaws I brought with me a few pounds of cherries. Alright is was probably 10 to 15 pounds of cherries, but they were oh so good. Upon making both myself and O sick from eating cherries I decided I needed to get some of these things out of my fridge to remove the temptation and give my poor stomach a break.

I have done a few things with the cherries, but I will start with the brownies. My inspiration came from watching the Cherry episode of Unwrapped on the Food Network. They featured a cherry brownie, and I thought that was a great idea. I got to work on google and didn't come across a recipe that caught my fancy, so decided to try my own.

A quick note - the cherries I used are a very dark and sweet cherry. I don't know what kind they are, as around here we just call them BC cherries - I doubt everyone in BC growns the same cherries, but hey what do I know.


Ingredients:
½ cup butter
3 oz dark chocolate (I used and 85% cocoa chocolate bar)
1 cup sugar
½ tsp vanilla extract
¾ cup flour
~1 cup fresh cherries, stemmed and pitted ( I pulsed these in the food processor so they were anywere from 1/4 to ½ of a cherry.)
½ cup chocolate chips

Directions:
1. Melt the butter and chocolate together in a saucepan over low heat. Once it is smooth add the sugar and vanilla removing from heat. Then add the eggs, stirring to avoid cooking the eggs – no one wants chunks of scrambled eggs in their brownie!
2. Stir in ½ cup of the flour. Depending on how juicy your cherries are you may not need the other ¼ cup of flour.
3. Fold in the Chocolate chips, followed by the cherries. If your cherries were quite juicy and the batter became thinner, add the ¼ cup of extra flour and fold in.
4. Pour into an 8x8 baking dish (I line mine with parchment paper, alternatively you could butter and flour the dish) and bake at 350F for 35 minutes.


Reviews
This was a moist brownie somewere between a my fudgey brownie and a cake like brownie. O enjoyed them and they smelled great.

Peach Tart

Upon flipping through Baking: From my home to yours, I found an easy looking tart (Parisian Apple Tartlet, pg 319), and decided to put my own twist on it. I did try it with the apple, and it was alright, but I wasn't a huge fan of the texture of the large chunks of apple and decided to try it with a softer fruit - peaches!


The following recipe will make 4 tarlets
Ingredients:
1/2 box of frozen puff pastry (I used tenderflake)
2 peaches pealed, with pit removed
Light brown sugar to taste
2 tsp butter
Cinnamon (optional)

Directions:
1. Thaw the puff pastry, and roll out to about 1/8th of an inch thick. Cut circles out of the dough, you want the circles to be about 4", this may need to be larger if you are using large peachs. You need to have the circles have at least 1/4" boarder around the peach (more is better).
2. Cut each peach half in quarters and place in the center of the pastry circle.
3. Sprinkle the peach with brown sugar (the riper the peaches, the less sugar should be needed), and place 1/2 tsp of butter on top. Sprinkle with cinnamon if desired (I did this and it was great)
4. Bake on a lined baking sheet at 400F (center rack) for 25 mintues.

Reviews: These were really easy to make and very cute. Everyone enjoyed them.

New Cookbook Trial: Baking, From my home to yours

One week when I was looking for a recipe on something I came across the Tuesdays With Dorie group, and upon looking at some of the recipes they had done, I decided I needed to look into this cookbook (Baking, From my home to yours, by Dorie Greenspan). I was at the library before leaving to visit my inlaws, and saw the book there, so I grabbed it and took it with me on my vacation - I mean what says relaxing time better than baking? (Oh and it wouldn't hurt to impress the inlaws a little).

I ended up trying two recipes while I was at the inlaws. The first was the Raspberry Blanc-manger.


I picked this recipe as I was told there were raspberries in the fridge that needed to get used, and it required no baking - keeping the oven off is a bonus when it is 36C outside!

The recipe is great and really easy to make. I didn't have a single problem making it and everyone loved it. It really didn't last long before it was all eaten. It was a great light and creamy dessert, especially for the heat of summer.

The second recipe I tried was the Caramel-Peanut-Topped Brownie Cake on page 264.

O discovered a picture of this in the book and immediately wanted it - he loves almost anything to due with brownies.



The recipe was fairly easy to make, although it was difficult to tell when the caramel was done and I ended up with a darker caramel than I would have liked. Note, that if it looks like a semi golden colour to take it off the heat Now! It gets too dark really quickly.

The cake got lots of people walking through the kitchen asking when it was going to be done, and lots of people staring at it before it was ready to be served. No one else seemed to care that the caramel was too dark and it quickly disappeared.

I liked the recipes I tried from this book and will hopefully be trying more. My inlaws loved that I brought the book and didn't want me or the book to leave. It is getting added to my cookbook wishlist, so for now I will just keep taking out the library copy and trying a few more recipes.