I struggle following directions, coloring in the lines and wreak havoc on my kitchen, but my super powers have given me the ability to have extra sensitive taste and smell receptors, helping me to create tasty food out of the kitchen chaos.
10 cups diced and cooked apricots
1/2 cup water
8 cups sugar
1 tablespoon freshly-squeezed lemon juice
**to make it a mixed berry add equal amount of berries and 2 more cups of sugar and 1 package of pectin
1. Cut the apricots in half and extract the pits.
2. Place the apricots in a very large stockpot, and add the water. Cover the pot and cook, stirring frequently, until the apricots are tender and cooked through.
3. Put a small plate in the freezer.
4. Add the sugar to the apricots and cook, uncovered, skimming off any foam that rises to the surface. As the mixture thickens and reduces, stir frequently to make sure the jam isn’t burning on the bottom.
5. When the jam looks thick and is looks slightly-jelled, turn off the heat and put a small amount of jam on the chilled plate. Put back in the freezer for a few minutes, then do the nudge test: If the jam mounds and wrinkles (as shown in the photo), it’s done. If not, continue to cook, then re-test the jam until it reaches that consistency.
(You can use a candy thermometer if you wish. The finished jam will be about 220ºF, 104ºC.)
6. Once done, stir in the lemon juice, and ladle the jam into clean jars. Cover tightly and let cool to room temperature. Once cool, refrigerate until ready to use.
Storage: I find this jam will keep up to one year if refrigerated. If you wish to can it for long-term preservation, you can refer to the USDA Canning Guidelines for techniques.
My friend Anne and I had the second annual peach picking festival at Apple Annie's in Wilcox this Saturday. It was a beautiful day and highly entertaining. For one, we got yelled at by a gentleman we dubbed "Apple Andy," yes, we are clever. What on earth did we do to get yelled at, by this fella? I will tell ya...ahem...story time:
Apple Annie's orchard offers a ride around the orchard to your fruit picking destination on a flatbed attached to a tractor, driven by Apple Andy. Anne and I had traveled all around the orchard and the tractor finally reached the peach part of the orchard, where a group of people had gathered to get back on after their peach picking experience. Anne and I grabbed our buckets and were set to disembark, when from the tractor we hear Apple Andy's dulcet tones telling us to, "SIT DOWN!! YOU'RE NOT THERE YET!" We confusedly complied, sitting sheepishly back down. The tractor then traveled, about 10 feet, stopped and we heard the Jolly Andy yell, " Peaches!!" Yes, yes...quite entertaining. I still haven't stopped laughing!
Anyway...we drove 2 hours down, 2 hours back, spent 10 minutes picking peaches, and 20 minutes sitting in the orchard eating peaches and talking about what a lovely day it was...and every minute was worth it!! Especially, the snow cones for the ride home. And then, Anne and I teamed up the next day for the peach cooking extravaganza! We accompanied this peachy chaos by inviting a few friends over for "breakfast for dinner" so we could have peach pancakes and use the raspberry-peach syrup (was supposed to be jelly, that didn't gel) onLa Gaufre de Liègewaffles. Which are Belgian waffles, using Belgian sugar. It is a wonderful sweet happy way to eat dinner. But no peach fest is complete without peach pie accompanied with my raspberry ice cream! So let the deliciousness begin!!!
Paula Peach Pie
9 pounds fresh peaches
2 teaspoons Fruit Fresh, (fruit preservative)
3 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons quick cooking tapioca
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon salt
1 9-inch pie, top crust
1/2 stick (4 tablespoons) butter
1 teaspoon cinnamon or nutmeg
To peel the peaches, first bring a pot of water to a boil. Using a paring knife, score the peaches with an X into the skins only. Gently drop the peaches in the boiling water for approximately 30 seconds to 1 minute. Using a slotted spoon, remove the peaches and place them in iced water for a minute. The skins should slip off easily. If not, place back into the boiling water for another 30 seconds.
Slice the peaches and put them in a bowl. Sprinkle Fresh Fruit and sugar, and stir into peaches. Stir in remaining ingredients and mix well.
Line 4 pie pans with heavy foil or freezer paper, placing a piece of plastic wrap over foil. Put 4 to 5 cups filling each pan. Loosely fold wrapping around pie and freeze until firm. When filling is frozen solid, remove from pans and wrap tightly. Return to freezer until ready to use.
On pie baking day, for each pie, simply place frozen pie filling in pie shell, add 1/2 a stick of butter and sprinkle with cinnamon or nutmeg. Top pie with an additional pastry crust, seal well, and bake for 50 to 60 minutes in a preheated 375 degree oven.
I did one lattice and one with brown sugar, oatmeal, butter topping
Blushing Peach Jam
Categories: Yield: 2 Dozen
2 c Crushed peeled peaches
2 c Red raspberries; crushed
1/4 c Lemon juice
7 c Sugar
2 pk Liquid fruit pectin
1/8 ts Almond extract
Mix peaches, raspberries and lemon juice; mix in sugar. Bring to a full rolling boil; boil 1 minute. Remove from heat; stir in pectin. Return to a boil; boil 1 minute, stirring. Remove from heat; skim off foam. Add extract; pack into hot jars, leaving 1/4" headspace. Seal jars; process in boiling water bath 15 minutes
La Gaufre de Liège This is a type of waffle from the city of Liège, Belgium.
The waffle should be eaten warm. The Perlé sugar gives the waffle a sweet and crunchy taste. Ingredients
2 1/2 cups.
Flour
1 tablespoon
Dry Yeast
1 teaspoon
Salt
1/2 teaspoon
Cinnamon
2
Eggs
3/4 cup
Milk
1 teaspoon
Vanilla
1 3/4 sticks
Butter
1 cup
Perlé sugar(I get mine from AJ's Fine Food in Tucson...they used to have a similar kind at IKEA, but I haven't seen it in awhile.)
Preparation
Mix the flour, dry yeast, salt and cinnamon together in a bowl.
Add the eggs, milk and vanilla
Knead all these ingredients together well until they look like pizza dough. Let it rest for about 30 minutes.
In a separate bowl mix the butter (cut in small pieces) and the pearl sugar.
Add this mixture to the dough and mix thoroughly until the sugar and butter are totally integrated with the dough. Let it rest for another 15 minutes.
Bake on a hot waffle maker – about 2-3 minutes. DO NOT ADD GREASE OR PAM
The number of waffles from this recipe depends on the size. You could get from 10 to 30.
Anne made peach pancakes, she just chopped up the peaches in to small pieces, added the cinnamon-sugar from the pie filling and added it to Bisquick and pancaked away!
The final thing I made, which I don't have a picture for is raspberry icecream. This has been dubbed by me, "The man wooer" I will always make it or creme brulee for a man I am trying to woo. It has not helped me to successfully keep the man for a lengthy period of time, but does, at least, keep him coming back for awhile. I really need to figure out the rest of the wooing part, can't seem to get past the food part, oh well.
So here is the recipe...try your own wooing.
Raspberry Ice Cream
Ingredients
(1 servings)
1 pt Fresh raspberries
1 c Sugar (sometimes a 1/4 more depending on the sweetness of the berry)
1/2 Lemon; juice of
2 lg Eggs
2 c Heavy or whipping cream
1 c Milk
Instructions
Compare to other fresh fruit, raspberries are intensely flavorful and very tart, so to make ice cream you need less fruit and more sugar. Toss the raspberries, 3/4 cup sugar, and the lemon juice together in a bowl. Cover and refrigerate for 2 hours, stirring every 30 minutes. Whisk the eggs in a mixing bowl until light and fluffy, 1-2 minutes. Whisk in thr remaining 3/4 cup sugar, a little at a time, then continue whisking until completely blended, about 1 minute more. Pour in the heavy cream and milk and whisk to blend. Drain the juice from the raspberries into the cream mixture and blend. Mash the raspberries until pureed and stir them into the cream mixture. Transfer the mixture to an ice cream maker and freeze following the manufacturer's instructions. Makes 1 generous quart. NOTE: If you prefer a chunkier raspberry ice cream, return the raspberries to the refrigerator after pouring off the juice. After the ice cream stiffens, about 2 minutes before it is done, add the whole raspberries.
(I am currently working on a peach crumble...so stay tuned!!!)
I am still working on ways to use all the bounty of my bountiful basket. So today, I decided to make jelly. Why not? I have a half hour that I should be working on paperwork...might as well continue the productive procrastination that rules my life! I enjoy eating this with wheat thins and cream cheese. mmmm...I need to go pick up some wheat thins and cream cheese. Later!
Homestead Jalapeno Jelly
Ingredients
1-1/2 cup red and green bell pepper, minced
1/2 cup hot Jalapeno peppers chopped fine
1-1/2 cup cider vinegar
6 cups sugar
1 package Pectin
2/3 cup water
Place peppers, vinegar, and sugar in large saucepan. Bring to a boil. Boil 10 minutes. While this mixture boils, mix the pectin and the 2/3 cup water in a saucepan and boil 1 minute. Set aside. Add pectin mixture to the peppers and boil again 2 minutes. http://www.virtualcities.com/ons/ok/n/okn97014.htm
