Fresh Apricot Pie

Nothing says summer more than fresh local fruit!  I consider myself blessed to live in the Pacific Northwest with it's bounty of fresh fruits and vegetables.   Apricots are a summer treat and putting them in a pie is a family tradition I intend to keep and pass on to my two new daughters-in-law that are joining our family this summer!

 My Mom taught me how to make this pie....without a formal recipe. We used the recipe from the old Betty Crocker cookbook for the pie crust .  I am a good pie crust maker but.....I have started to use the Trader Joe's Pie Crust.  Simple to use and it's a darn good crust. Perfect to have in my freezer.  
The apricots are firm, ripe fruits that I pit and quarter.  I add sugar, flour, a pinch of salt, and I tried a new addition of Penzey's Pie Spice.  Wow!  The Pie Spice is a combination of cinnamon, vanilla sugar, mace, ginger, nutmeg, anise, and clove.   Fantastic flavor.  I hope you'll give it a try and see exactly why I love this pie!

Summer Apricot Pie

4-5 cups fresh apricots, pitted and quartered

1 1/2 - 2 cups of sugar~depending on the tartness of the apricots.

1/3 cup flour

2 t. Penzey's Pie Spice or cinnamon 

1/2 t. salt

Mix filling well in a large bowl and let it sit for about 15 minutes to make some juice. 

After 15 minutes, pour filling into a 9-inch pastry lined pie pan.  Dot with butter, about  2 tablespoons. Add the top crust. Crimp the edge and vent the top of the pie. Brush with milk and sprinkle with coarse sugar.

Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 325 degrees and continue to bake for 30-35 minutes until you see juice bubbling out the top.

Magic Berry Cobbler

Summer is waning, but the blackberries are going gangbusters around my house. WE love them in jam, syrup, on ice cream, in a milkshake, or in MAGIC BERRY COBBLER!  What makes it magic you ask?  It's the interesting way you put it together. My Grandma Kelin made cobbler with sweetened berries that she cooked first and then she covered it in pie dough, but always stuck the trimmed dough inside the fruit before topping it off with the dough. Delicious!  I have also had the poofy-biscuit like cobbler with the fruit underneath it...always seemed to have more biscuit than fruit.  This recipe is a perfect combo of fruit and biscuit-y goodness. The technique is the cool part, the MAGIC!  

Magic Berry Cobbler

In a mixing bowl add:

2 c. flour
1 c. sugar
1 t. salt
2 t. baking powder

1 t. fresh  grated lemon peel

Mix it up to combine and cut in till crumbly:

3 T. shortening
Add: 1 c. milk and mix together.

This is the magic part! Spread the batter in a 9x13 baking dish.

Combine 4 c. of berries with 2 c. sugar, the juice of 1/2 of a lemon, and a teeny pinch of salt.

Berries can be blueberries (smash them up a bit with the sugar) blackberries, raspberries, boysenberries, marionberries or any combination of berries. I even tried it with peaches once....not too bad!
Pour the berries over the batter in the 9x13 pan. 

Last step:  Pour over all...2 c. boiling water.

Bake in a 375 degree oven for 40-45 minutes .

Voila! Simple and delicious!

Serve warm with ice cream, whipped cream, or I have even topped it with lightly sweetened mascarpone cheese. Divine!

Keep Calm and Eat Jam!

One of the best things about summer is jam.  Can there be anything more delicious than a piece of toast dripping with butter and homemade jam.....of any persuasion?  I think my personal favorite is apricot....or plum. Although, marionberry-raspberry won me an award a few years back from a magazine!  Those were the days!  

As a Master Food Preserver, one of the things we teach is HOW to preserve food. There has been a flood of interest the last few years in canning and preserving fruits and vegetables because families want to be in control of what goes in to the food they are eating, putting food in the pantry for use later in the year, and having delicious food in jars!  It's fantastic!

One of the easiest ways to preserve fruit is making jam.  What is jam? Crushed fruit with added sugar cooked to a spreadable consistency.  Some recipes call for pectin, a thickening agent made from citrus peels. You can also make jam without pectin or make it with a low-sugar pectin.  I prefer the recipe using regular, powdered pectin and cooking the jam. Some people prefer to make freezer jam because it requires no water-bath processing. It also has a "fresher" taste.  Your choice....both are equally delicious!  MCP is my preferred brand of pectin. (Sure-jell and MCP are both owned by Kraft Foods.)  

You can also use a brand of pectin called Pomona Pectin.
From their website. 

• Sugar-free, preservative-free, low-methoxyl citrus pectin.
• Sweeten jam & jelly to your taste with low amounts of any sweetener: sugar, honey, agave, maple syrup, frozen juice concentrate, stevia, xylitol, Sucanat, concentrated fruit sweetener, or Splenda and other artificial sweeteners.
  
• Each 1 oz box makes 2 to 4 batches (about 5 – 8 oz jars per batch).Recipes can be doubled or tripled. Each box contains pectin powder, calcium powder, directions, and recipes.
  
• Keeps indefinitely.
• Kosher manufactured. Vegan. Gluten Free. Non-GMO.
• Celebrating 34 years of low-sweetener jam and jelly.
  

The only negative that I have experienced with Pomona Pectin is that within the year my jam was not very pretty anymore. Sugar preserves the color of preserved food....low-sugar products lose their color quicker than a full-sugar jam or jelly would.  My kids won't eat the "weird" colored jam so it will get wasted. No bueno!

So...jump in with both feet! Get your kids in the kitchen to help! Make some JAM!

Here is my Grit Magazine Canning Contest Winning Recipe:

Marionberry Raspberry Jam

Shelley Bloemke

2 1/2 cups raspberries
2 1/2 cups marionberries or blackberries

1 box MCP Pectin

Measure 7 cups of sugar into a bowl 

Crush the berries with a potato masher. Place in a 6-8 quart saucepan. Add 1 box of MCP pectin, stir to incorporate. Bring to a rolling boil on high heat and add the sugar. Return to a full, rolling boil and cook for 4 minutes.

Ladle into prepared jars, leaving 1/8 inch headspace at the top of the jar. Wipe the rim of jar and place lid and ring on.  Screw rings on and place in water-bath canner. Water must be 1-2 inches above th jar. Cover, bring to a gentle boil. Process  jam for 10 minutes. Adjust processing time according to your altitude . Remove jars and place upright on a towel. Let cool, without disturbing jars for 24 hours, making sure jars have sealed by pressing the center of each lid. If the lid springs back, the jar isn't sealed and needs to be refrigerated. 

Remove rings and keep un-opened jars in a cool, dark place  for up to 1 year. Opened jars will keep for 3-4 weeks in the refrigerator.  

Please remember....it is super-duper important to process your home-canned jams.  It will help prevent spoilage from mold and bacteria.  DON"T do the "turn the jar upside down to seal like my Mom did" method of processing. After all the work you put in, you don't want to throw out your jam because of a bunch of mold. YUCK!

For more canning information the National Center for Home Food Preservation is THE resource I rely on for the most current canning guidelines.  

Happy Jamming! BTW...I won a wheat grinder from the canning contest!

Nectarine Lime Jam

I love summer. Not as much as fall...but a close second.

The best part about summer is all the fruits and vegetables available to put away for the winter.  This year I got a new book that has become a favorite. It is Food in Jars by Marisa McClellan.

I have been following Marisa's blog for a while. When I got the book, I started bending pages in anticipation of summer.

 

 

Nectarine Lime Jam-Food in Jars

5 cups pitted and chopped nectarines (abaout 3 pounds)
3 cups sugar
Zest and juice of 2 limes *** see my note
1 (3-ounce) packet liquid pectin

 

Prepare a boiling water bath and 4 regular-mouth pint jars. Heat the lids and rings in a saucepan over low heat. 

 

Combine the nectarines and sugar in a large pot. Bring to a boil and let jam boil for 15-20 minutes over high heat, until the fruit softens and can be mashed with a wooden spoon. 
If you prefer a smoother textured jam, use an immersion blender ( be careful not to burn yourself) to break down some of the chunks. If you prefer a chunkier jam, just leave it as it is. Add the lime zest and juice and stir well. Add the pectin and bring to a rolling boil for a full 5 minutes, until it looks molten and syrupy.

 

Remove the pot from the heat and ladle jam into the prepared jars. Wipe the rims , apply lids and rings, and process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes.

 

***I used  1/4 c. reconstituted lime juice in place of the fresh lime juice.