Blackberry jam

bucket o'berries

Picking the berries

Spent the last long weekend of summer with my aunt and uncle on Vancouver Island. On one of the days we want blackberry picking! Rather fun! When we got back to the house we decided to make jam! A fairly easy process and hopefully delicious! (haven't samples the results just yet...)

You need the following ratios:
500g of fresh blackberries
1 1/2 cups of sugar
1/4 cup water (not necessary is plump berries).

We used 2000g of berries.

sugar & berries

Method:

rolling boil & pops

Put berries and sugar in a very large/high edged pot. Stir and slowly heat until the sugar is totally dissolved. Turn to boil for approx 30 minutes. BEWARE- this can very quickly boil over and create a dangerous and sticky mess so watch carefully.

After about 30 minutes it should look quite dark and have a rolling boil with a bit of a popping sound to it. Test firmness on a cool plate.

Pour into clean jars- they should be warmed up to prevent shattering.

Pro tip: use a Han blender to reduce the size of the fruit for smooth spreading.

Seal jars and enjoy as you like!

The finished product

Lave Cake

A co-worker of mine found out that I love Lava Cake, and so he told me about one of his favourite chefs from French Food at Home, a TV show on the food network. So we went to the internet and found a recipe by Lara Calder. I just had to try it!!

Final product, as served.

Lava Cake
Ingredients
4ounces dark chocolate 
2/3 cup butter 
4 eggs 
2/3 cup sugar 
1/2 cup flour

Method
"Butter six ramekins, line with a disk of parchment, then butter the parchment (note, I buttered but I didn't use parchment paper - wasn't sure exactly how!).Very gently melt the chocolate and butter together over a water bath. Beat the eggs and sugar until thick, pale, and ribbony. Beat in the flour, and finally the chocolate mixture. Pour into the ramekins and chill.
Just before serving, heat the oven to 400°F/200°C. Place the moulds on a baking sheet and bake until the top is set, 12 to 14 minutes. Remove. Let sit five minutes, before unmoulding onto plates. Serve with caramel sauce or a scoop of ice cream."

Comments

I hadn't worked with a double boiler before, but it was very easy and actually rather fun melting the chocolate. The entire recipe was pretty user friendly. I also really liked that they had to be chilled - in the future I think I'll be able to make the recipe but not have to bake them all at once (how often will I be cooking for 6?). 
 
I'm not sure if I have mentioned the issues with the gas oven I use - it heat up to the correct temperature or hold it hot enough, so recipe times are always fluctuating. This was detrimental to my lava cake... at 14 minutes they were still completely liquid on top.. so I baked them for another 5 minutes.... they weren't totally cooked the whole way through, but they certainly didn't have a much lava as I'd like. Next time I'll try baking for 17 minutes and see what happens.  

I served them with a scoop of ice cream and a few raspberries. They seemed to be a hit! The occasion was for my Aunt and Uncle visiting from England, so I had lots of taste testers. The treat was summed up as being 'more-ish'. DEFINITELY a repeat-worthy endeavour! 

Lava!

 

Kit Kat Cake

The tools.

Kit Kat exterior.

Secured with bow.

Brightness!

Made for my Brother and Candice's 5th Wedding Anniversary. Congratz!

Tangy Lemon Walnut Squares

I found this recipe in Hello magazine - it sounded yummy so I kept a copy of it. Apparently the chef is a 'celebrity' - Anna Olson. Anyway, thanks to Hello for inspiration!

Tangy Lemon Walnut Squares
Ingredients:
Base -
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup coarsely chopped walnut pieces
1/3 cup icing sugar
1/2 tsp finely grated lemon zest
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup cold unsalted butter

Lemon layer -
2 eggs, room temperature
3/4 cup white corn syrup
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
2 tbsp cornstarch
1 tsp finely grated lemon zest
1/2 tsp baking powder
icing sugar for dusting

Method:
Preheat oven to 350. Lightly grease an 8 inch square pan, then line bottom and sides with parchment paper (I used wax paper, see below).

Base - combine flour and walnuts in food processor, pulse until walnuts are finely ground. Then add the icing sugar, lemon zest and salt, continue to pulse.  Finally add in cold butter and pulse until mixture is crumbly. Pour mixture into pan and press down, pushing crumbs up the sides of the pan (so eventually the lemon layer has 'edges').  Bake for 25 minutes or until lightly brown. COOL.

Lemon Layer - Only start this after the base has cooled completely.  Whisk the eggs and corn syrup until smooth. In a second bowl, whisk the lemon juice and cornstarch together, then stir in the zest and baking powder. When mixed, quickly whisk into the egg/corn syrup mixture. When all mixed together, poor over cooled base. 

Bake until set - apparently this is set when the centre 'jiggles' a little. Allow to cool completely, then remove from pan and cut into desired piece size. Dust with icing sugar.


Comments:
This was a fairly easy recipe, just had a number of steps.  In the end they were enjoyed by my 'tasters'. We think that a 9 or 10 inch pan would be better, as the current base-to-lemon ratio is not 'right' per out taste buds - too much base.  Also, I need to buy some parchment paper, as the wax paper didn't absorb any moisture - in fact it made the base really gooie and soft.  The lemon layer is rather tangy (as per the title) - for those who like a 'sweeter' lemon flavour, look elsewhere.

I used 1 lemon and then fridge/bought lemon juice for the lemon layer - not sure how the recipe/flavour would change if I'd used entirely fresh lemons, or only bought lemon juice. I suspect if I'd used fresh lemons it would be a bit more subtle.

I also need to work on my presentation. I cut the squares before everything had cooled properly, and this combined with the super gooie and sticky wax paper situation, well, the squares are more 'blobbish' than anything. 

Tangy Lemon Walnut Squares - Goo edition

But it's a good 're-start' of my cooking!

Christmas Cookies

Today I made the first round of our traditional Christmas Cookies...As they are special family recipes, I cannot post the details up here. But photos.. those are ok!!

The first are Cinnamon Cookies - Mum's favourite.

Cinnamon Cookies

And then there's Dad's favourite, Shortbread.

Shortbread

I also made some drop cookies that Candice and I experimented with a few weeks ago. They are delicious! The recipe for them is from the 5 Roses Cooking Book and I'll detail it here!

Drop Cookies
Ingredients:
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
pinch baking soda
1/3 cup butter or margarine
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1.5 tbsp milk
1/2 tsp vanilla

Method:
Preheat oven to 375F. Combine flour, baking powder, salt and baking soda in bowl, set aside. Cream butter and brown sugar together (slowly adding sugar). Then add egg, milk and vanilla. Once well mixed, blend in dry ingredients.

I then decided to add a handful each of rasins, chocolate chips, and about 1/2 cup of oats. This doesn't really change base cookie the flavour, but adds some much needed texture and some excitement for kiddies.

Drop spoonfuls of the dough onto a cookie sheet and bake for 10 - 15 minutes, until browned. The regular recipe is supposed to make 24 cookies, but my additions stops the cookies from 'spreading', and makes them denser, so I got 18.

Chip & Rasin Oatmeal Drop Cookies

Update: Made my personal favourites - Almond Squares and Melting Moments. I've made them before so they are elsewhere in my blog!

Melting Moments

Almond Squares

Cheese Straws

I made these cheese-y bread sticks as an appetizer dish for a friends birthday. They seemed to go down really well and people wanted me to make even more next time! I found the recipe in my 'Three & Four Ingredient" recipe book (see earlier post re cookbooks).

Cheese Straws

Ingredients:
2/3 cup flour
40g mature/sharp hard Cheddar (or similar hard cheese) - finely grated
1 egg
5ml ready-made mustard
3 tbsp butter
salt
black pepper

Method:
Preheat oven to 350.  Mix together flour, seasoning and butter until crumbly. Stir in cheese slowly.   Lightly beat egg with mustard, then pour half of this mixture into the dry mixture. Stir/mix until it becomes dough-like.  Roll out the dough until roughly 6 inch square and cut into 1.5cm strips.  Put onto baking sheet and brush remaining egg mixture on top. Bake until brown - approx 12 minutes.

The book indicated you could add in other seasonings to taste, such as cayenne pepper. The consumers at the party indicated I should try chopping up some jalapeno peppers into the mix for added spice.  I think these could easily be served with a number of different kinds of dips.

Also, I cut mine into half size strips - so instead of 6inch straws which would yield about 10 straws, I created over 25.  Remember, you can always gather up the extra chopped off bits and re-roll them out for more straws!

I was very happy with these and will definitely make them again!

Thanksgiving!!

Chef Lolls had her greatest test this weekend: I was in-charge of the entire Thanksgiving meal!! I had a lot of fun and everyone seemed to really like the meal.

I can't give away our secret recipes, so for this post photos will have to suffice.. but I am happy I have accomplished this big feat!

Ready to go - hated the cleaning/prep part, but it had to be done!

Stuffing - our blender was on the fritz, so my 'mini-copper' saved the day! woohoo!

Gravy, Cheese Sauce and the syrup for the sweet potatoes..

Spud Prep

Yams/ Sweet Potatoes about to be chopped

All prep work done!

Putting the Potatoes in with the Turkey - 1/2 done!

Carnage

Success!

Robyn demonstrates the deliciousness....