French Toast Cubes with Salted Honey Custard
1 year ago
Jam It on the One!
While I am not necessarily new to making jam I am sort of new to the domestic ritual of preserving. It's a fun and inexpensive way to fill your pantry with jars of tasty edibles that you'll get to appreciate all winter long.
For many years I have been making what I call "fridge jam" which is a jam I make when I have a bunch of fruit that has been hanging around too long or just starting to turn. I just chop whatever I have and throw it into a pot, add a little less than half the volume in sugar and the juice of half a lemon and then boil down and put in a jar in the fridge - voila! Instant fridge jam. It's fun to experiment with different combinations and it's a difficult thing to mess up really...
Last year however, I got my hands on a canning kit, bought some jars, did a bit of research and off I went making real jam and other preserves.
So, my parent's have a gigantic elderberry bush in their suburban yard. It produces more berries than we can use really, but they aren't the easiest berry to work with because they are full of tiny seeds. For years I've made elderberry freezer jam, leaving the seeds in because they are quite small anyway and they do add an interesting texture, but having tired I decided that this year I'd try my hand at make some elderberry jelly. After some research and the cross-referencing of a few recipes I think I've come up with a pretty good one. Keep in mind if you feel like experimenting I think that this jelly recipe could work for grapes and maybe some other fruit or berries.
(you'll want to be sure wear an apron when working with elderberries because their dark juice stain fabric easily!)
• about 5 lbs elderberries, washed, de-stemmed with a fork and rinsed again
• 1 cup filtered water
Put elderberries and water in large heavy bottomed pot and bring to boil stirring intermittently - boil about 15 minutes, or until the berries release their juices and start to break down. Remove from heat and once cooled a bit, squash or mash them with a potato masher or some other appropriate untensil. Let cool and pass* through fine strainer or larger one lined with fine cloth or a few layers of cheesecloth reserving the juice. Allow to drain overnight.
*Some recipes I read said not to mash the fruit or squeeze your strainer too much for it will result in cloudy jelly, but this doesn't really concern me. I let the fine pulp pass through the sieve, which added nice texture - I only concerned myself with not letting seeds or skin pass through.
• add 1 1/2 cups apple cider
(which should make about 7-8 cups liquid - it is a good idea to check the volume before proceeding to the next step)
• add juice of one lemon
• and 5 cups sugar*
*I couldn't get myself to add more sugar even though many recipes call for a 1:1 ratio, hoping the apple juice sweetness and natural pectin would help the jellying process. For this recipe I think the ratio I chose works quite well, but after making various jellies I think that a ratio 1 cup juice to 3/4 cups sugar is a good ratio to keep in mind as a rule.
Heat on medium until sugar begins to dissolve and then increase heat (medium-high) and bring to boil, stirring frequently, until it reaches 220˚F on a candy thermometre* (about 10 minutes), boil another 15-20 minutes, until it passes the jelly test.
*If you don't have a candy thermometre it's okay. The boiling point where it starts to thicken can be your 220˚F mark and then the jelly test will assure you that it's thick enough to jar.
Using a jar funnel, ladle jelly into your sterilized jars and fill to almost the top leaving about 1/4" head space. Using a nonmetallic utensil, remove any air bubbles. Wipe any spills on the edges of rim with clean paper towel, apply heated/sterilized sealing disk, pressing the centre of disk with your finger and then screw the meal bands on - fingertip tight.
Process in hot water bath for 10 minutes and let water cool 5-10 minutes before removing from the pot to a quiet place to cool undisturbed. Let cool overnight and check seals and tighten rims before storing in a cool dark place. Use within one year.
Makes 4 x 250ml jars plus bonus 1 x 125ml to jar or eat now.
and now a...
Bonus recipe!
I like to peruse the local "fruiterie" from time to time to check out what "quick sale" packages they have to choose from. These items are very borderline in their ripeness and need to be consumed quite quickly, but they are a great deal money-wise and make ideal candidates for jam making. Here's one of my recent "fruit sale" combos that I whipped up to jar that I'm very happy with.
The plums were 99¢ and the raspberries $1.49. I figured I made 3+ jars of jam for about $4 total! Not bad.
Plum-Raspberry Jam
• 6 large plums, washed, diced and pitted with skin on
• juice of half a lemon
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 package of raspberries (6oz) roughly chopped.
Put all the ingredients in a medium sized heavy bottomed pot. Bring to a boil and then simmer until thickened, stirring intermittently (about 15-20 minutes). Allow to cool slightly and then jar and process!
Makes 3 x 250ml jars plus bonus 1 x 125ml to jar or eat now.
"Times were so tough, but not as tough as they are now,
We were so close and nothing came between us - and the world"
- The Jam
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Aren't elderberries so much fun to photograph? And just as much fun to eat! Beautiful jelly and jam!
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