Waterbath Canning, Berry Jam and Vanilla Bean Honey Butter

I remember canning when I was younger. My dad (I love you dad!) would try to can these HUGE batches of foods at once, the kitchen was a disaster, and we all went a little nuts. I understand the appeal, if you are going to go to all that trouble, might as well get it all (or most of it) done at once right? Wrong! Especially when you are first starting out. Water bath canning has a bunch of different steps, they are simple but to be most successful (and complete the steps with your sanity intact) it is best to start with one type of product, get comfortable and THEN move on to a new type.

My husband couldn't wait for toast this morning!

One of my biggest secrets in general for the kitchen came from my mom. She isnt a big cook. She can cook well, it just isnt her "thing" or her passion. Let me tell you one thing though, that lady knows how to get through anything in the kitchen without it ending as a disaster zone. Rule #1 I learned as a child and my absolute GOLDEN RULE: A good cook cleans as they go. It sounds stupid simple. My dad does NOT follow this rule, my mom does. I have seen the difference first hand. Yes, you wash the same amount of dishes but it saves your sanity. Any time I have a break in the process of ANY food I make, everything possible gets cleaned up. I have a small kitchen, when it's dirty doing anything in it is overwhelming. Canning in my small galley kitchen is overwhelming if I dont stay organized. Making bread in my apartment sized kitchen is frightening without cleaning and wiping after each step. You know what the worst thing is though? Going through all the trouble of making a gloriously divine meal and having an hour long clean up afterwards because I just let the dishes pile up instead. GROSS.

Oh man, totally went off track there for a minute. Ok, back to canning.
* Always follow an established recipe. Don't just make up your own. They have specific ratios and instructions for a reason. You want your food to be safe AND delicious (oh yeah and not rot in the jars).
* Use clean, washed jars. Again, use the appropriate size per the recipe. The water bath time is for that specific jar size. Always check the rims of the jars to make sure there are no cracks or chips.
* You CANNOT seal jars using the same seals twice. To make sure I dont reuse the same lids, I write on the lid of the jar once they have sealed. Of course they can be reused just for storing something in the fridge but you cannot ensure a proper seal if you use used lids.
* Rings CAN be reused, just make sure they are washed.
* Tools are your friends! Yes, you can do it without them but for about $6 I got kit with a jar lifter, jar funnel, lid lifter and debubbler/measuring tool. That was just regular price at Walmart.

I always get out all my supplies and lay them out, clean them and set them up.

Large stock pot ( I got mine at Goodwill for a couple bucks) and clean, crack and chip free jars. 

Jar funnel, jar lifter, debubbler/measurer, lid lifter rings and new lids

.

Heavy 4 qt pot and berries. ( I froze mine because I couldn't use them soon enough after we picked them).

I put my berries in smallish increments in a flat bottom glass bowl and thawed them in the microwave.

Almost there...

Once mostly thawed, mash them up! It's ok if you dont get every little chunk out.

 Always measure your ingredients. This recipe calls for 4 cups of mashed berries.

Mixed Berry Jam Recipe 

Makes about 5 Half Pints (8 oz)

Mix and match your favorite berries such as strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, and/or raspberries to create a delightful jam using Ball® RealFruit® Classic Pectin.

You Will Need:

• 4 cups crushed berries, mix and match your favorites such as strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, and/or raspberries
• 4 ½ Tbsp Ball^® RealFruit™ Classic Pectin
• 3 cups sugar
• 6 Ball^® or Kerr^® Half Pint (8 oz) Quilted Crystal Jelly Jars with lids and bands

Directions:

1. PREPARE boiling water canner. Wash jars, lids and bands in hot soapy water. Heat jars and in simmering water until ready for use. Do not boil. Set lids and bands aside. 
   
2. COMBINE berries in an 8-quart saucepan.
   
   Gradually stir in pectin.
   
   Bring mixture to a full rolling boil that cannot be stirred down, over high heat, stirring constantly. 
3. ADD entire measure of sugar, stirring to dissolve.
   
   Return mixture to a full rolling boil. Boil hard 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Skim foam, if necessary.
   
4. LADLE hot jam into hot jars, one at a time,
   
   leaving 1/4 inch headspace.
   
   Wipe rims. Center lids on jars. Apply bands and adjust to fingertip tight.
5. PLACE filled jars in canner ensuring jars are covered by 1 to 2 inches of water. Place lid on canner. Bring water to gentle, steady boil.
6. PROCESS jars for 10 minutes, adjusting for altitude. Turn off heat, remove lid and let jars stand for 5 minutes. Remove jars and cool. Check lids for seal after 24 hours. Lids should not flex up and down when center is pressed.
   
   
   
   

  There is intense satisfaction in hearing the jars pop as you let them cool. Gotta love a proper seal!

I love to give them as gifts with a fresh loaf of Buttermilk Honey Bread and a jar of Vanilla Bean Honey Butter! It's an easy way to bless a friend or neighbor.

Vanilla Bean Honey Butter

1/2 cup softened butter

1/2 cup honey

2 tbsp powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla bean paste

Beat all ingredients together until combined and fluffy. 

Sorry I don't have good pics of the butter!

Gooey, Caramel-y, Sticky Buns

I've been seeing a bunch of recipes on Pinterest lately - overnight buns, sticky buns, cinnamon buns. Buns, buns, buns. It's been a bit since I have made any buns so I figured it was finally time. Usually when I make them per the recipe, they just aren't quite what I am looking for. The dough is too sticky to work with, the ratio of filling to topping is off, there isn't enough sticky stuff to go around... I have a bang up, go-to recipe for bread I have been experimenting with, thanks to Marye over on her blog, Restless Chipotle.

Then I found the gooeyest sticky buns I could find and doubled the... uh.. sticky. The buns were huge so I used a roasting pan, you could easily do it in 2 9" x 13" pans. Sooooooo, let's do this.

I tweaked the bread, ever-so-slightly, listed is my adapted version.

Honey Buttermilk Bread

• 2 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 1/4 cup warm water
• 1/4 teaspoon ginger (helps activate the yeast)
• 2 cups warm buttermilk
• 1/3 cup honey
• 1/4 cup butter, melted and cooled so that it is warm to the touch but not hot.
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 6 cups flour

Instructions

Mix the ginger, sugar,yeast, and water and set aside for five minutes.

Mix buttermilk, honey, salt, baking soda in with the yeast mixture.

Add three cups of flour and mix until smooth. On an electric mixer it is about 5 minutes on low speed.

Mix in butter until it is totally incorporated into batter.

Now, begin to add the rest of the flour, one cup at a time, keeping mixer on low speed.

When dough pulls from the sides of the bowl remove it from the mixer to a floured surface and knead until elastic and smooth.

Place in greased bowl, turn to grease the top, cover and allow to rise for 1 1/2 hours.

Punch down and let rest for 5 minutes.

Now for some serious adaptations. 

I doubled the topping recipe for these Overnight Sticky Buns by Lauren Mitchell posted on Just a Pinch

1 1/3 c packed brown sugar 
6 tbsp butter  
1/4 cup light corn syrup 
2 tbsp honey 
2 tbsp maple syrup 
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste (or pure vanilla)
1/4 teaspoon salt

Combine all ingredients in a heavy bottom pot and cook on low heat until butter is melted and it's all nice and saucy.

For the filling

1/4 cup melted butter

1 cup brown sugar

3 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice

Roll out into a large rectangle, approximately 14" x 24". Stir together the brown sugar and spices. Brush dough with melted butter and sprinkle with sugar mixture. Roll tightly, starting from long end, and pinch to seal. Cut into 12 pieces, 2" long each.

Pour the caramel sauce into the roasting pan, pop in the rolls, giving them a good amount of space between each roll. 

Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise 45 min to 1 hour, until doubled. 

Bake at 400F for 30 minutes. Cover the top loosely with foil if they brown too fast (mine usually do!).

Let rest for exactly 8 minutes and 35 seconds - kidding. Between 5-10 minutes should be good, depends on the temperature in your kitchen, if they get too cool, they wont flip out so good. Flip out of the pan. I cover the pan of rolls with foil, place a cookie sheet on top and quickly flip them over. Foil means less mess. The only things that should be messy are your fingers and face now. 

 

 Mix the first 3 cups in the wet ingredients for 5 minutes, until nice and super smooth.

 Add the rest of the flour until the dough clears the sides.

 Turn the dough out onto a well floured surface.

Knead until smooth and elastic.

 I greased my bowl with coconut oil!

My secret bread rising weapon! Heating pads are awesome!

Cover with plastic wrap.

Told you they are awesome. 

 Finger poke leaves a clear indent, yay!

Punch that bad boy down. Seriously. Everyone needs a chance to punch something. 

Dump the sauce ingredients in.

Stir and melt!

Brown sugar mixture and butter prepped!

Rolled the dough, brushed with butter and sprinkled with sugar.

 Roll it up!

Pour the sauce int he pan and add the rolls. 

Space those suckers, they need room to grow.

Told you.

Fresh out of the oven.

Flipped!

Devoured. Sorry, couldn't take a picture fast enough.

Meaty Marinara and Crusty French Bread

My mom was asking for spaghetti, I couldn't resist! This is my great-aunt Ruth's recipe. It's really cool to be able to share a family recipe. It seems like I am always sharing other blogger's recipes, and yes, I still am in this post too! As I expand on my confidence in the kitchen, more and more of them will be my own :) I don't know about you, I am always just so nervous about wasting a bunch of ingredients. Plus, failure, ya know. Nobody likes that! Now that I have more time to cook and create for my family and friends, I have vowed to be more adventurous!

It's meaty, rich and simply delicious. I paired it with a new recipe I tried for french bread. I don't think I will eve buy french bread again - unless of course there is an emergency bread situation. I think the bread took a total of about 2 hours and 15 minutes to make start to finish!

Aunt Ruth's Marinara

1.5lbs of lean ground beef
1lb of Jimmy Dean Sage or Regular sausage
1 medium onion, chopped
3 29oz cans of tomato sauce
1 29oz can of crushed tomatoes
1 12oz can tomato paste
2 good-sized tbsp of minced garlic (or less, I love garlic)

To taste:
1-2 tbsp sugar
Basil
Ground Cumin
Thyme
Oregano
Salt

Brown the ground beef, sausage and onion together - drain well. I usually cook mine in the crockpot and it fills it up quite full initially. Combine the ground meat mixture, tomato sauce, paste and crushed tomatoes in your pan or crockpot. I would add your tomato sauce last in case your pot is smaller than mine. Add in the garlic and sugar. The rest of the seasonings are to taste because that's the way Aunt Ruth wrote it down! The amounts all depend on whether you are using fresh, dried of ground spices. Fresh gives you the best flavor but most of the time, dried is whats on hand and it's always delicious. Once the sauce is flavored to your liking, cook for several hours on low. Taste it again after a few hours and re-season as needed.

French Bread
1 1/2 T instant yeast
1/2 C very warm water
1 1/2 T sugar
2 C water
1 1/2 T oil
2 1/4 t salt
6 C flour

The instructions can be found on Autumn's blog "It's Always Autumn" by clicking here!


The only changes I have (and I dont even know if they were for the better!) are that I used half bread flour and one packet of instant yeast and one packet of active dry because that all I had and I was running low on AP flour!

That bread is amazing and it's so easy! It's crusty and delicious on the outside and chewy and soft on the inside. I have never had french bread this good. It pairs perfectly with Aunt Ruth's Marinara.

Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cinnamon Ermine Frosting and Blueberries

This week is my last week at work full time! I will stay on the books as an employee and I may do some very part time work from home if they need me, but I am now free to be a stay-at-home-mom(SAHM)! I am so very thrilled and so is the hubster and the little bubster. As a special treat to my coworkers I told them I was bringing in something this week. My boss asked for Red Velvet and I couldnt resist! It's been so long since I have made anything red velvet and the last time didnt turn out like I wanted so I was up for a challenge.

First things first, I found a recipe from another blog I love: The Culinary Alchemist. The blogger, Shane is even an Oregon boy! I love the science approach to baking. It's something I really want Zane to learn as I teach him how to cook and bake. One day, his future wife will love me!

Red Velvet Cupcakes and Ermine Frosting

I did 2 batches and baked them into cupcakes instead of layered cake for easy serving and transport. I wouldn't recommend doubling the batch at once unless you have help. The recipe calls for quick action and you'd need an oven large enough to hold 48 cupcakes at once!

I didn't do so well at pictures of the process this time because I was baking with mom and it was just too much fun. Our second batch came out better in my opinion. I think it was because we worked a little quicker.

Here is the color of our creamed sugar and butter for round 2:

 

While mom whipped the eggs in, I got the color/cocoa mixture ready. Be careful with it, it's a very intense mixture and will stain easily! Lookie there, I did line up the cocoa mix, buttermilk and flour/salt bowl!

I couldnt really take pictures of the vinegar/baking soda because you have to work so fast! I took a picture of them in the pan but realized too late that the shot didn't come out :-( I got 24 cupcakes out of each batch of batter.

For the frosting I followed the recipe but used vanilla bean paste (the best stuff ever!) and I added in about a teaspoon of ground cinnamon. My go-to froster is the 1M tip. Easiest way to frost a cupcake! 3 fresh blueberries and the prettiest little cupcakes you ever did see.

That Ermine(boiled milk) frosting isssssss a little bit of work so you should definitely enjoy a cup of your favorite brew with your hard earned (but so, SO worth it) treat. 

Finally, Peanut Butter Cup Cupcakes! (and baking pan grease)

 

I have been wanting to try this idea out forever. I tried it Easter weekend with minis but my cupcakes wouldn't come out of the pan (yes, there was a reason I didn't use cupcake liners!).

I also found a recipe for baking pan grease somewhere in the comments of some blog or yahoo answers page. I am SO sorry I don't remember which or I would give credit where it's due. It is said to be something commonly used in bakeries, though I have never worked in a bakery (or food service at all for that matter) so I wouldn't know.

Baking Pan Grease
1 cup shortening
1 cup oil ( I used Canola)
1 cup flour

I threw them all in a bowl and blended with my mixer on high til smooth. I put mine in a Tupperware container and put it in the fridge. I don't know if that is necessary though. To use just brush on with a pastry brush.

 

 

Peanut Butter Cup Cupcakes

This is the same recipe I used last time. This time I made full sized cupcakes and used the above baking pan grease and they popped right out!

Peanut Butter Cupcakes from In the Kitchen with KP. I got about 36 cupcakes. They were a little flat but they were sturdy and moist, which was perfect for this project.

The batter is thick and delicious. If you eat too much of it then I cant guarantee how many cupcakes you will get out of the recipe. It is seriously good batter.

 

Thick batter makes it easier to get into the tins, yay! Make sure you DON'T use any liners!

(I forgot to take a picture of them straight out of the oven)

I looked up a ton of different peanut butter cream filling recipes and borrowed from all of them. Here is what I came up with:

Peanut Butter Cream Cheese Filling

1 cup creamy peanut butter
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter, softened
4 cups powdered sugar (approximately)
1 tsp vanilla bean paste (or pure vanilla extract)
2 tablespoons-ish milk

Cream together the first 3 ingredients until smooth and beat in the powdered sugar. Get it nice and fluffy and a little on the stiff side (Sorry! I rarely actually measure these types of things). Mix the vanilla and enough milk to get it to your desired filling consistency. I had about half a recipe left over after filling mine, it's going in the fridge. I always like having frosting and fillings on hand! It would make a delicious brownie topping!

Once your cupcakes are cool, pop the centers out of them with a fork and fill them. I stabbed a fork halfway through them to form a circle and pried them out (boy, I make it sound like work).

 

If you have a melon baller, feel free to use one, I just don't have one. Also, for neater cupcakes, you can always pipe the filling in. Once filled, I put the tops back on. I did find that I needed to shave off about half the cake attached to the top in order for the top to fit back on decently. Take one guess where the middles went.

Melt about 3/4 of a package of almond bark (about 10 ounces). I microwaved mine in a wide mouthed glass measuring cup (2 cup size). Dip the cupcakes about 3/4 of the way in. I was going to go all the way to the rim but I realized for the sake of slightly cleaner fingers (while making them and eating them), I should leave a little room to hold the cupcake.

 

 

All that's left is to frost and enjoy!

 

 

Chocolate Fudge Frosting

 

This one is seriously a little all over the place because I didn't want to go to the store and I wanted it deliciously chocolatey.

 

3/4 cup evaporated milk

1 cup milk chocolate chips

1 cup cocoa powder

1/2 cup butter, softened

4-5 cups powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla bean paste (or pure vanilla extract)

2-3 tablespoons of milk

In a small saucepan, heat the evap milk over low heat and add in the chocolate chips. Stir until melted and combined. In a medium bowl, add cocoa powder and melted chocolate. Beat on medium with a hand mixer until smooth. At this point I added 2 cups of powdered sugar and mixed again. When it was smooth and I was sure it wouldn't melt the butter I tossed that in there too and continued mixing. I added in the vanilla and the rest of the powdered sugar. Add in a few tablespoons of milk until it's a nice piping consistency. Fill up a bag and frost. I used a 1M tip. Here are the rest of the pics!

 

  

 

 

 

 Enjoy. These are rich, delicious and definitely worth the work.