Jam Strawberry, Jam!

Tags

food, lemon, lemongrass, Meyer lemon, strawberry jam, sweet, yum

There have been so many strawberries in the stores recently. I thought it might be strawberry season!  Well not quite, I’m not sure where these came from but it seemed the perfect time to make some jam and practice for when the local ones get here. That being said….Strawberry jam is not my favorite….it’s Jason’s favorite.  I’m pretty sure if you placed all the different types of jam in front of me my last choice would be strawberry and I might be too full to get to it.  Don’t  get me wrong, I adore fresh strawberries.  So why in the world am I making strawberry jam?  One word….LOVE.  He loves it and I found a recipe interesting enough to get me excited about it!

This is what got me so excited!  Lemon and lemongrass are added to the jam!!!!! You probably know that I love lemon.  If you don’t know….I love lemon. Adding it to strawberry jam sounds so right. And lemongrass has the word lemon in it, and smells heavenly and like lemons, so that has to work well, doesn’t it?  Oh and this is based on a Christine Ferber recipe.  She is a well known jam maker who has unusual flavor combinations, which of course appeal to me.  I believe she also makes pastries, so….a woman after my own heart.

For the jam:

• 2 qts chopped strawberries (8 cups or 2 liters)
• 3-4 cups sugar
• 2 Tb lemon juice
• 1/2 cup water
• 10 paper thin slices of lemon
• 10 lemongrass leaves cut in half
• 15-20 tellicherry peppercorns (optional)

I, of course, used Meyer lemons (they are my latest obsession until I get my hands on some buddha palm or yuzu!)  I chopped the strawberries into the size I wanted in my jam. I poured about 3 cups of sugar over them, crushed the peppercorns and added them, stirred it all well, covered the bowl in plastic and put in the refrigerator overnight.  You can skip this step if you don’t have time but I think it combines the sugar & strawberries really well, releases alot of the juice and just works!  The pepper is very subtle. You can add more but it will change the flavor a bit.  The amount here just adds hints of undertone to the strawberry flavor. You can also leave it out.

I could eat this whole bowl.

Slice your lemon paper thin. Add the lemon juice, 1/2 cup sugar and water to a pot that will be big enough to hold the strawberry mixture (about a 6 qt pot).  Bring to a simmer and add the lemon slices.  Simmer until translucent, about 15 mins.

Add the lemongrass and the strawberries.

WARNING:  People who have experience canning are very particular about how they prepare the jars and they sometimes pressure cook them etc.  I am not so particular.  This is the method I used, you can use it or do the more complicated way.I washed my jars & tops in the dishwasher, spooned the hot jam into them, screwed on the tops and placed the jars into a pot of hot water.  The water covered the jars by about 1 inch or so.  I then boiled them for about 5 minutes, removed the jars from the water with tongs and let them cool.

How did it turn out? Fantastic!  So delicious!  Jason thought it was the best strawberry jam he’d had and I thought so as well.  My favorite part is coming across a slice of lemon in the jam, it adds a slight tartness but tempered by strawberry sweetness.  The lemon enhances the strawberry perfectly.

I gave a jar or two away but now we are going through this rather quickly.  I will be making more with the local berries. I can’t wait!  There are local berry farms where you can go pick your own if you want.  I’m also going to have to find a blackberry jam recipe as this is my favorite.

Lemon, lavender & pine nut tart.

Tags

creamy, dessert, food, Lavender, lemons, Meyer lemon, pine nut, sabayon, sweet, tart, yum

I love lemon. I love lemon curd and lemon tarts.  I especially love these things made from Meyer lemons.  Last year I made a lemon lavender ice cream and I really liked the combination of flavors.  I haven’t pulled the ice cream maker out of the closet yet because although spring is definitely here now, it’s still cold and rainy most days.  I read an Epicurious recipe for a sabayon style lemon tart and the best part was the crust was made with pine nuts!  As I read through the comments someone had added lavender and rosemary to the crust….I knew that I had to try both but individually.  Lavender first.  I will make one with rosemary soon but I think I will use a different nut in the crust or use a flour crust recipe as pine nuts are really expensive right now.  I will caution you that the recipe in the link makes enought crust for three (3?!) tarts.  I did math and reduced it to one crust although the egg was a problem.  What I did was beat the egg, weigh it and divide by three.

Unfortunately I just realized that I didn’t take enough pictures and I don’t think I have any of the finished tart and it’s long gone now…. sorry!

Crust

• 3.3 oz pine nuts
• .8 oz sugar (probably a Tablespoon)
• 5.3 oz flour
• 2.7 oz butter
• 1/3 beaten egg by weight
• 1 tsp lavender

Grind the pine nuts in a food processor, add the sugar, flour and lavender and pulse until finely ground and combined.  Put in a bowl and add the butter and egg and mix together into a dough. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 10 mins.

Preheat the oven to 350. Butter and flour a tart pan with removable bottom.  I don’t have one so I used a cheesecake pan with removable bottom.  Next time I will use a tart pan.  Press the dough into the bottom and sides of the pan. Bake for 10-15 minutes, rotate and bake another 10-15 minutes until crust is golden. Remove and let cool.

Lemon Sabayon 

• 2 large eggs, cold
• 2 egg yolks, cold
• 4 oz sugar (you can add more if you like it extra sweet)
• 4 oz fresh lemon juice (I used Meyer)
• zest of one lemon
• 3 oz cold unsalted butter cut into 6 pieces

You will need a bowl that will fit over a pot of water without the water touching the bottom of the bowl.  Bring the water to a boil.  Meanwhile whisk the eggs, yolks and sugar in the bowl until the sugar is dissolved (about 1 minute).

Set the bowl over the pot and whisk the mixture while turning the bowl. (I used an electric mixer) When the eggs are foamy and have thinckened add 1/3 of the lemon juice.  Keep whisking until mixture thickens again and add another 1/3, whisk again until mix thickens and add the final 1/3 and the zest.  Continue whisking until the mixture lightens and the mix leaves a ribbon on itself.

Turn off the heat leaving the bowl over the water. Whisk in the butter, one piece at a time. The sabayon may loosen but will thicken and set as it cools.  Pour it into the tart crust and place on a baking sheet.

Lemony goodness!

Place the tart under the broiler and brown the top.  Be careful it browns very quickly!  Let sit for an hour before serving.  Can be served at room tempurature or cold.  My tart didn’t seem to set as well as I would have liked. I’m used to using a lemon curd type of filling for tarte so this seemed a bit loose.  The flavor was wonderful though, very tart and the lavender was subtle and not overpowering. The pine nuts were almost an aftertaste and an enjoyable one at that.  I can’t wait to try rosemary in the crust but I think I will go back to my usual lemon tart filling.

Date Walnut Dacquoise

Tags

baking, caramel marscapone, creamy, dacquoise, dates, dessert, food, gluten free, layer cake, sweet, toasted walnuts, yum

I’ve been wanting to make this cake for awhile and decided I would make it for the Aspiring Bakers #18 Layers of Love challenge hosted by Sam over at Sweet Samsations.  She has such an inspiring blog with wonderful recipes and gorgeous pictures of said recipes!   The challenge is for a layer cake that must have at least three layers.  Cake is not my favorite dessert, I do enjoy it every so often but I haven’t baked one in a long time.  What to do?  I want to join the challenge but I don’t want to bake a traditional flour cake with overly sweet frosting.  Hmmmmm……

I recently found a Williams Sonoma cake book at a thrift store.  I can’t remember which recipe caught my eye, but all of them were classic recipes and I needed a good cake book to add to my collection. This is where the original idea for this dacquoise came from.  What is dacquoise?  It is usually almond or hazelnut meringue “cake” layered traditionally with buttercream or whipped cream.  This recipe called for toasted walnuts!  Why not?  I also didn’t want to use buttercream because again, I don’t really like it.  I can usually taste too much of the butter.

Then I remembered the caramel marscapone frosting I made for the Pierre Hermes Apricot Lime Financier Cake.  That was not too sweet, had a little burnt sugar taste and would go well with toasted walnuts.  As I was making it the thought of dates went through my head, their sweetness, the deep subtle flavor they would add,  why not?

The Recipe adapted from the Williams Sonoma Cakes, Cupcakes & Cheesecakes book.

• 75 g plus 60 g walnuts, lightly toasted
• 180 g sugar
• 1 Tb cornstarch
• 3 large egg whites (room tempurature)
• 1/2 tsp cream of tartar
• about 1/4 cup chopped dates (I didn’t measure sorry)
• Caramel marscapone frosting (find the Pierre Hermes recipe here)

Toast the walnuts in a 350 oven for about 10 minutes, and put 75 g in a food processor with 60 g of the sugar and the cornstarch. Process to a fine grind.

Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Draw three 8 inch circles onto the parchment in pencil. One 8 inch circle on one sheet and two on the other.  Make sure to turn the parchment over so the circles are visible but so you won’t get pencil transfered onto your meringue.  Preheat the oven to 250.  Combine the egg whites and cream of tartar in a mixer and mix on med until soft peak form.  Add in the remaining 120 g of sugar and continue beating until stiff, glossy peaks form.  Gently fold in the nut mixture. Divide the mixture onto the three circles. (you can pipe the circles if you want). Bake for 1 hour 20 mins until crisp and golden. Let cool on the baking sheets for 10 minutes, remove from parchment and then let cool on racks.

Meanwhile I made the caramel marscapone frosting.  This cake has to sit in the refrigerator overnight to let the meringues soften and my cake plate is too large to fit in the refrigerator with everything else in there.  I decided to cover a piece of cardboard with aluminum foil and transfer the cake to the fancy plate in the morning.  Bad idea, the cake stuck to the foil….because I put some frosting on the foil to anchor the meringue.

Frost the first meringue and sprinkle with the chopped dates. There’s no correct amount to use, whatever your taste likes.  I thought the amount I used was perfect, it added an unrecogniseable flavor that was not overpowering or oversweet.

Dates!

Put the next meringue layer over this and frost, sprinkle this layer with some chopped, toasted walnuts.

Add the final meringue and frost the top and sides.  Press chopped walnuts on the sides of the cake and decorate with walnut halves on the top.  Cover and refrigeratove overnight.  Bring to room tempurature before serving.

The taste and texture are wonderful. It has a smooth creamyness with just a little crunch.  The carmel marscapone frosting has a slight bitter edge which is offset nicely by the sweetness of the dates and the toasted walnut flavor tops it off perfectly.

The foil not only made the cake stick to it, it also ripped and stuck to the piece I cut. I hope this qualifies as a layer cake!  If I find the time and, more importantly, the inspiration, I will try a completely different, more traditional layer cake and submit that as well.

Hot Cross Buns

Tags

baking, bread, Easter, food, Fresh from the Oven, holiday, Hot Cross Buns, sweet, yum

When I found out the Fresh from the Oven challenge this month was Hot Cross Buns I was a bit delighted. I don’t recall ever eating one, in fact I didn’t really recall the nursery rhyme either, I just knew there was one.  There was a vague thought that something existed called a Hot Cross Bun and that it must have a long history, going way back in time. After all if there is a nursery rhyme about a food, it must be good and a pretty old recipe!  I was not disappointed, these are very good.  I’m eating one as I sit here typing.

They are a sweet bread but not too sweet. Not close to a muffin, more like a sweet roll.  They usually have spice in the batter and fruits, with a glaze over the top.  They also have a cross on the top and are traditionally served during Easter on Good Friday.  According to Wikipedia they may even pre-date Christ although the first recorded use of the term Hot Cross Bun was in 1733!!!!  I get to make something that’s been passed along since then, wow!

There were a few recipes out there so I read the ones I could find and decided I wanted to stay with a more traditional recipe…meaning no chocolate for now.  I love reading Chica Andaluza’s blog and she had just posted a Hot Cross buns recipe!  So I used hers with a few additions of my own.

Hot Cross Buns

• 300 g milk
• 50 g butter
• 550 g flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 100 g sugar
• 7 g yeast (I used instant)
• 1 egg
• 50 g dates
• 50 g prunes
• zest of 1 Meyer lemon and 1/4 ? grapefruit
• 1 Tb mixed spices (I combined ginger, cardamon, all spice, clove, nutmeg & cinnamon)
• 1 tsp anise seed
• 1 tsp orange flower water

For the cross

4 Tb rice flour (you can use regular flour) and water until you reach a pipeable consistency.

For the Glaze

3 Tb apricot jam, 1 Tb orange marmelade

Traditionally raisins are used but I don’t really like them. I found chopped dates & plums (prunes) in the store so used them. I also had used anise seed and orange flower water in a Spanish cookie I recently made and loved the flavor they added so I decided to throw that in too!

My additions

Bring the milk to an almost boil, drop in the butter, cool to room tempurature and add in the tsp of orange flower water. In a mixer combine the flour, salt, yeast, spices, sugar and anise seed.  Add the milk mixture & the egg and mix on low for 4 minutes, then on med for about 6 minutes.  The dough will be sticky.  Turn it out onto a floured surface and flatten the dough and add the fruits & zest and knead until it is well combined.  You will want to add flour if necessary to stop it from sticking.  Put in a greased bowl and proof for an hour or until doubled in size.  I forgot to take a picture of this stage, sorry. Punch down the dough and divide into 24 pieces, shape into rounds & proof again for about an hour. (The amount you make depends on how large you want the buns to be, but remember they will grow a bit).

After the hour, preheat your oven to 375 F (200 C) and prepare the flour for the crosses.  I used rice flour becuase I wanted a crispier cross and I knew the flour makes a whiter color too.  Anyway add water to whatever flour you use until it is wet enough to pipe on the crosses.  I had read that you should slash the crosses first and pipe over the slash and I had read without slashing so I did some of each.

Pop them in the oven and let bake for 15-18 minutes.  They should be a golden brown.  Meanwhile heat up the jam for the glaze.  I’ve also read of people using golden syrup for the glaze. I think in the States we call golden syrup, light corn syrup? But I thought jam would be more flavorful.TaDa!!!

They were delightful to eat.  I took them to a friend’s for Easter dinner and they loved them, even the 9 year old!  I remember being a kid and not liking sweet bread with fruits in it. I think every culture has a version of this idea. In Greece it’s called a Tsoureki, in Italy a Panetone, I believe Mexico’s Day of the Dead bread, Pan de Muertos is a sweet bread too.  Check out Wikipedia on Hot Cross Buns it’s an interesting read.  In fact when I read this part “If hung in the kitchen, they are said to protect against fires and ensure that all breads turn out perfectly. The hanging bun is replaced each year.^”   I realized I might just have to hang one in the kitchen! Hmmmm, I wonder how Jason would feel about that?  And the dogs?! They would probably be jumping for it….nevermind….I’ll just eat them.

In My Kitchen

Tags

food, my kitchen

Please join Celia, who blogs over at Fig Jam and Lime Cordial, by sharing with us what is in your kitchen!  I thought this was a fun little “get to know other bloggers better” little post to participate in.  After all we spend alot of our time in each other’s kitchens as it were.

My pride and joy....Bosch mixer.

Jason got me this Bosch mixer for Christmas and I love it. It can go from whipping egg whites to kneading bread in a flash!  I used to do everything by hand or with a small electric hand blender and sometimes I still forget to use this!  Old habits die hard…..

Since you are all my friends I will let you see my messy fridge! There’s pie dough in there waiting to be made into dinner, a package of Meyer lemons waiting for inspiration,  some peppers waiting to be roasted, a half a dragon fruit and everything else!