Red Currant Jelly

I've been on a real jam kick lately. Every fruit I see, I think about turning it into jam. And since the market's overflowing with fresh local fruits these days it's really easy to just go crazy and buy too much...so I end up with a lot of jam! For now it's mostly for me and the man and to give to friends and family but it might turn into a business someday...stay tuned!
So anywyay, last week-end I got some really beautiful bright red currants for pretty cheap, as soon as I saw them I knew I had to make jelly!! When I grew up we had a few bushes by the garden always full of those berries, and my mom used to make a good pudding with them. That would have been good, yes, but considering my latest obsession...

Making jam and jelly is really not that hard, it just takes time. And a good idea of how much sugar and lemon juice to use according to the amount of fruit...if you're using pectin, just follow the recipe, but if you want a good classic-tasting jam or jelly it's better to just let the fruit speak for itself with the sugar. There will be A LOT of it(sugar), but it's worth it in the taste! Usually it takes about 3/4 to 1 cup of sugar for every cup of fruit. Yes, that's a lot. It's jam, people!
Okay, back on the red currant jelly...

Those little things are very tart so there needs to be a good amount of sugar in there to make it tasty. Plus the berries have a lot of natural pectin so they need that sugar to concentrate that pectin and make the juice gel properly. It's a whole chemistry thing, I love it!
So, first of all, weigh and wash the berries and put them into a large pot (leave the stems! they have a lot of pectin too!). For every pound of fruit you'll need to add 1/2 cup of water. I had 2 pounds, so that's 1 cup water.

Simmer on medium while crushing the fruit to release its juices, for about 20-30 minutes, until the berries seem fully cooked and easily crushable... They will become colorless and the liquid will be like a syrup.

Pour that cooked fruit in a colander/seive lined with 3 layers of cheesecloth WITHOUT PRESSING ON IT and let it sit overnight. (I put it in the fridge because it's very humid here these days I didn't want to attract insects...)

The next day, discard the fruit and mesure the amount of juice. For every cup add one cup of sugar. I got 2 cups of juice, so 2 cups sugar. Also if you feel like it you can give it some spice, cinnamon, cloves, star anise and all-spice got into mine...subtle but brings it up a notch...
Bring that juice to a boil and cook until the gel test says it's, about 20 minutes.
To test for doneness, put a few plates in the freezer before you get started and to test spoon a bit of the jelly mix on one, leave it in the freezer for a few minutes and if you see that the sample is not dripping like water when you tilt the plate, but ressembles a jelly-like consistency on top, it's done. Here I have to apologize I didn't take any pictures of that process. Sorry.

When it's done skim the foam off, strain it again in a regular strainer to get the spices out, pour into hot STERELIZED jars and process in a hot water bath for 10 minutes. I'm not gonna get into the whole canning explanation...the web is LOADED with info on that subject!

When it's all done leave the jars cool 24 hours in a draft-free place. If afterwards there's a jar that didn't get sealed put it in the fridge just in case...it'll stay good for at least a month!

Isn't it pretty?

I got a total of 6 cute little 125ml jars of that good stuff. I'm gonna have to make more because it's too good!

Fruity Date Squares

A few weeks ago I went a little crazy at the grocery store and somehow thought I might "need" a big box of dates. Huh. Well it's all good dates are good in oatmeal. But I think deep down I had a craving for date squares. I love those. Plus you don't even need a recipe just some simple guidelines. I remember making them a lot when I was baking at that coffee shop in Whistler. It's super easy!
For these ones though I decided to make them a little more Christmas-sy and add candied fruit and apricots. And it worked really good!

Check this out.
First off, cook the fruit:

2 cups dates
1/2 cup dried apricots, roughly chopped
1/2 cup candied fruit mix
1/2 cup raisins

Put them all in a sauce pan and cover 3/4 with orange juice, add a teaspoon or 2 of brown sugar if you like really sweet things...:



Let them turn into this:



Meanwhile do the "crust":

2 cups oats
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup flour (all-purpose or whole wheat pastry flour...)
Spices: cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom, cloves, about 1/2 tsp each.
1/2 cup butter, melted and slightly cooled
*you may need more butter, melt a little extra just in case...

For this part, just mix all the ingredients, butter last, and stir until it clumps together when you squeeze it:



If you feel like you need more butter or oats, adjust necessarily.
Oh and by the way, that mix can be used for fruit crumbles...so too much is no biggie..!
Oil-spray or butter a 8inch square pan and evenly press 2/3 of the crumb mix at the bottom. Spread the date mix (that has cooled a bit; really it takes about 10-15 minutes...watch it carefully though you don't want that sticky mess!!), evenly, and sprinkle the rest of the crumb mixture on top.

Bake at 350F for 25-30 minutes, until golden, and if need be turn on the broiler for a few minutes for extra crisp!



Let it cool completely on a rack, cut and enjoy!



p.s. don't be impatient like I was and eat a piece 5 minutes after it was out of the oven.....holy burn...

Kiwi Strawberry Compote

This is my second attempt at making jam. Ok, I may have not chosen the easiest fruit and I have NO idea how to make "proper" jam, but the end product is pretty good. I would call it more like a compote, though, rather than jam.
I didn't have a recipe to follow so I kinda just threw things in the pot hoping for a decent result...
Here's how it all went down:

First I peeled and chopped about 6-8 gold kiwis(they were on special at Costco...) and about 2-2 1/2 cups chopped strawberries (I always forget to mesuring stuff, sorry...). In a pot with the zest of 1/2 a lemon and its juice, splash of vanilla and 1/3 cup white sugar. Doesn't seem like a lot of sugar but I figured it would be better to add more later than too much in the beginning and the compopte being too sweet. And I did end up adding more, about 1/4 cup of honey. The end result is still very tart though, but I like tart.



I let the whole thing simmer on med-low heat for about 30 minutes. The fruit gave out a lot of water so I had to strain it at the end. But let me tell ya...that juice was a-ma-zing once cooled! So don't throw it out!! Then once the fruit was all nice and soft I just turned off the heat and let it cool on that same element.



Then transfered to the fridge for a complete cool-off.
That stuff is good by itself, or on toasts, on a muffin, ice cream, etc.



I'm pretty new at making this kind of stuff...anyone has a tip on how to make things thicken like jam without going through the long process of, well, jam making??

Plum Chutney/Jam

I have to admit right away I had NO idea whatsoever what I was doing when I made this. It's simply a bunch of fruit, either too ripe to eat or too sour for my personal taste, thrown together in a pot with some sugar and a bit of liquid, simmerred until it was all cooked and reduced by about 1/3...I thought it was gonna be more like a chunky jam, but it turned out more like chutney. Either way it's amazing on toast, or meat. So it's both!

I used black plums, the mini ones. They were a little too sour for me, even after sitting on the counter for one week. I just chopped them up in quaters, without peeleing because the peel here gets really soft. I think I had about 2 cups of those. Also in there I threw in some ground cherries. Unusual I know but they were also dying in their little basket so in the pot they went. I cut the bigger ones in half and left some whole. Total amount here is unknown...I'm guessing about 1/2-3/4 cups..?(I'm really bad with mesuring when I cook!) Finally I tied it all with an apple, peeled and chopped finely.
In a pot with about 1/4 cup of sugar and 1/4 cup apple juice, I let it simmer and stirred occasionnaly for about 30 minutes, or maybe 45...added some golden raisins about half-way(i believe it was about 1/2 cup...), 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger, a bit of cloves, pinch of salt and a squeeze of honey. Here it's up to you to add more sugar, depending on how tart you like things...
When it got to a nice thick consisitency I turned off the heat and let it cool.



Now I have to apologize for the lack of pictures...it was a little tricky to get the right color to come out...this is the only one I was able to get that actually looks like it really is! Dark and chunky and really delicious. Alos I didn't know how it would turn out so I didn't really "document" anything during the process...sorry...next time...

I can't wait to experiment and make other sorta chutneys and jams with different fruits!

Unexpected Berry Crumble.

This is one of my favorite things to make when I have a craving for fancy dessert but it's too late to bake a cake. I had no plans of making this tonight but after a rather spicy stir fry I felt like having a sweet fruit dessert. It's super easy to make, and very easy to change from time to time. And also you can make it in individual baking ramekins so that way there's no temptation for seconds and you're not "stuck" to eat it for days afterwards...



The crumble mixture also is the easiest thing, it doesn't even have to be THAT precise, use more butter if you want a soft crust or more oats for a cruchier one. And it can stay in the fridge for a few days if you don't use it all. It can even make a good base for date squares. I don't remember where I got the recipe though. I think it was from a Food Network show, may have been Anna Olson's or Ina Garten's, I don't know... I scribbled it down on a piece of paper and kept it in one of the many baking books I own:

1 cup flour(i used whole wheat pastry flour)
1/2 cup oats
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 stick unsalted butter(about 8 tablespoons), cut into cubes
pinch salt
1 tsp cinnamon

Mix everything together with a fork or a pastry cutter until it ressembles coarse crumbs:



For the fruit underneath the possibilities are endless. Whatever you got is fine. For this one I used a mix of berries, frozen because it's not berry season yet. The only thing to remember here is to give the fruit a little boost! A little sugar, cinnamon, squeeze of lemon juice and a bit of flour to thicken the juice given by the fruit. If you like the crumble really juicy use veeeeery little flour or none at all(I omit the flour when cooking with apples, but frozen fruit always give out more liquid...) This is why I love making these: no need to measure!!

Bake it at 375F for about 25-30 minutes, until it becomes bubbly. Then what I do is turn on the broiler and let it brown a bit and crisp up...but if you do this don't walk away from the oven!!



Enjoy!!