So far . . . another atmospheric river moved through the Pacific Northwest. Any snow we got last week is now mostly gone.
We had a surprise visitor this week.
Frequently we see deer, birds, chipmunks and cats moving through our outdoor spaces. To our amazement we saw a fox scoping things out, then scampering away. So cool.
With inclement weather the majority of our time this week was spent on kitchen projects.
Fire roasted pizza is the best.Juicing fruit
We’ve been perfecting our pizza dough and sauce and we’re finally getting around to processing all those pounds of fruit and berries we froze last summer.
We usually put off canning during the heat of summer and schedule most projects during the colder months.
This has become a standard winter activity, especially when the weather isn’t conducive to excursions.
Lemon syrup
Apple juice
Added to this year’s preserving, we are trying small batches of fruit juice and syrups. These are delicious poured over a scoop of yogurt or ice cream. They are also great for refreshing spritzer drinks and used to sweeten sauces.
Ft Rock … an amazing geological structure
We did manage an afternoon jaunt to Fort Rock , , , mostly just to get out of the house. We had a great walk and managed to view some soaring hawks. It was so quiet and we had the road to ourselves. Heaven!
Spent a couple of days trying to recover drone footage that mysteriously disappeared from the camera card.
Gave up . . . so you get JQ’s fun stroll footage. The cloud cover offered excellent backgrounds.
In all it was a great day jammed into the middle of a good week.
So, now we have to wait and see what the weather brings next week. At this point it seems the outlook could be anything.
It has been a very un-winter like winter and the blame is on an oceanic weather pattern. This “Southern Oscillation” (ENSO) or El Niño/La Niña isn’t a recent phenomenon.
In the sixties an environmental scientist, Jacob Bjerkness, linked known changes in ocean temperatures with shifts in atmospheric condidtions.
Hoarfrost on barbed wire
So as the trade winds off the coast of South America shift, the Pacific Northwest’s winter is affected.
As with most weather events, the measures are in less than accurate terms. Less snow? Less than what? . . . warmer, wetter winter . . . perhaps?
The lack of snow on roads just presents more opportunities for adventure. So, bring on your oscillation.
Quail feathers caught on a wayward breeze
Tip’s favorite spot
“Sculp Snack” streamer
Despite the weather, we managed a trip to the Crooked . . . meeting our minimum once a week fishing trip quota.
The remainder of the time was spent in the kitchen, getting caught up on canning projects and starting the holiday baking (see recipes below).
Just in time for the holidays, Loganberry Icebox Cookies
Portions of last season’s berries have been waiting in the freezer for cooler temps and preserving. We discovered a new fave . . . berry goo.
Raspberry Syrup
Well, technically it’s syrup.
This Raspberry Syrup is only pourable when heated, so we/ve taken to spooning it out of the jar over warm waffles on Sunday mornings. The flavor is intense.
Cowboy Candy
We also put up some Cowboy Candy. Pickled chillies. It’s a super simple pickle.
We use a variety of sweet and hot peppers, including banana and jalapeños, adjusting the heat to our tastes.
With a nod to German traditions, JQ made Christ Brot (Sweet Christmas Bread). It features rum soaked citrus and almonds in a sweet bread dough covered in a sugar glaze.
Sweet Christmas Bread (Christ Brot)
Creating the sugar crust
Features rum soaked citrus
The loaves, warm out of the oven are drenched in melted butter, covered top to bottom with vanilla bean sugar, then dressed in sifted confectioners sugar. Yeah, num . . . so much better than Stollen.
Six shopping days to Christmas and then it’s the new year.
Wow, this one went by in a rush. Looking like the week ahead is rainy, so we’re planning more baking and reading, with the mandatory fishing trip thrown in there somewhere.
12Tbspunsalted buttercut in to pieces and softened
1largeegg yolk
2tspvanilla extract
1 1/2cups flour
2/3cup dried fruit (match complementary dried fruit with jam, i.e. cherry jam with dried cherries)Dried fruit helps thicken jam mixture.
6Tbspjam or preserves
Instructions
Process sugar, brown sugar, and salt in food processor until no lumps of sugar remain, about 30 seconds.
Add butter, egg yolk, vanilla, and process until smooth and creamy, about 20 seconds, scraping down bowl as needed.
Add flour and pulse until cohesive dough forms, about 20 pulses.
Transfer dough to counter and pat into 5 inch square. wrap square tightly with plastic wrap and chill until firm, about 1 hour.
Heat dried fruit and jam in small saucepan over medium heat until just bubbling, Let cool completely about 30 minutes. Process fruit mixture in clean, dry food processor until smooth, about 15 seconds.
Roll dough between 2 pieces of parchment paper into 10 inch square, about 1/4 inch thick. Freeze dough until firm, about 15 minutes. Cut chilled dough into four 2 1/2 inch wide strips.
Spread jam mixture evenly over 3 strips and stack, fruit mixture side up. Place plain strip on top. Wrap stack in plastic and freeze until firm, about 15 minutes.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line baking sheet with parchment paper. Slice chilled dough into 1/4 inch thick rectangles and place, one inch apart on baking sheet.
Bake until edges are just golden, 13 to 15 minutes, rotate sheet half way through baking. Immediately and carefully transfer cookies to wire rack and let cool completely before serving.Optional: Dust lightly with confectioners sugar.
In large bowl.combine rasberries, lemon juice, sugar and water. Let sit at room temperature for at least 2 hours.
Scrape berry mixture into stockpot and heat. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly, hold at a boil for 6 mintues.
Have a mesh sieve placed over a second sauce pan and run hot syrup through the sieve. use a wooden spoon to 'mush' all but the seeds through the sieve.
Ladle strained liquid into hot canning jars, clean rims with vinegar, add lids and hand tighten rings.
Process in hot water bath (an inch or two of water covering jars) for 15 minutes.
3 lbspeppers (jalapeno, banana and a variety of small sweet peppers)
2cupscider vinegar
6cups sugar
1/2tspturmeric
1/2tspcelery seed
1Tbspgranulated garlic
1tspcayenne pepperadjust to personal taste (we omit altogether)
Instructions
Wearing gloves and a mask, remove stems, seeds and membrane of peppers. Slice into 1/4 inch strips. In the case of jalapeños, you can include seeds and membrane, which will increase the heat.
Bring vinegar, sugar, and spices to a boil (use a pan large enough to hold the sliced peppers) reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Add in the peppers and return to a boil for 4 minutes.
With a slotted spoon, transfer the peppers into warm, clean jars to within 1/4 inch of rim.
Bring syrup back to a boil and hold for 6 minutes. Ladle syrup over the peppers, adjust for about an inch of head space and release trapped air. Wipe rims, add lids and hand tighten rings.
Process in hot water bath (and inch or two of water over the top of jar) for 10 minutes.
8 1/2Tbspunsalted European style buttermelted and cooled slightly
2eggs
1/3cupsugar
1/4tspsalt
1grated peel of a lemon
3/4cupblanched almondschopped
TOPPING
1/2vanilla bean
1/2cup sugar
9Tbspunsalted butter
1 1/4cupconfectioners sugar
Instructions
Two days before baking, place the raisins and citrus peel in a bowl and add the rum. Cover and set aside, stirring occasionally.
The day you plan to bake, stir flour, yeast, sugar and grated lemon peel together in a large bowl.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the milk, melted butter, and eggs. Make a well in the flour and pour the milk mixture into the well, stirring as you go. Knead briefly until dough is shaggy.
Dump the dough out on a lightly floured work surface and knead by hand until smooth, 5 to 7 minutes. Add flour only if absolutely necessary, form the dough into a ball and place back in the large bowl. Cover with a clean dishcloth and set aside in a warm, draft free spot for 30 minutes.
Gently pull the dough onto your work surface and pat out until about 1 inch thick. Distribute the chopped almonds and rum soaked fruit (include any rum remaining in the bowl) over the dough, and then gather the sides up around the fruit and almonds. Kneed together until the fruit and nuts are well distributed throughout the dough. Form the dough into a ball, place back in the bowl and cover with cloth. Allow to proof for another 30 minutes.
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Divide the dough in half and form each into a round loaf. Place the loaves on the prepared baking sheet, cover and set aside for 30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place the baking sheet in preheated oven and bake for 40 minutes or until loaves are golden brown.
While loaves are baking, make the topping. Place the vanilla bean in small food processor or blender with 2 Tbsp of sugar and pulverize until the sugar turns nearly to a powder. Combine with remaining sugar and set aside. Melt the butter.
Remove the baked loaves from the oven and let cool on rack for 5 minutes. Brush melted butter over loaves evenly. Do several coats until you have used up all the melted butter.
Sprinkle vanilla sugar evenly over the buttered loaves, lifting up the loaves to coat all sides evenly.
Finally, sift the confectioners sugar evenly over all the loaves, making sure to coat all sides. Let loaves cool completely.
When loaves are completely cool, wrap in foil. Loaves can be frozen for up to a month. Serve in slices.
There are seventy-five hundred varieties of apples in the world, a third of these get grown in the United States. If you are still picking up Red Delicious at the grocery you’re missing . . . a lot . . . of great apples.
Now most of these varieties come from crosses of heirloom trees and their differences lay mostly in minute fluctuations in sweetness. It is also worth noting, how very difficult it would be to find samples of all apple varieties in any one place.
Fruit trees are regionally specific, but the Pacific Northwest is a major player in apple production.
There aren’t many types of fruit that offer this level of variety. Nor, perhaps, share the apples level of popularity.
In recent years the types of apples you’d find at a local grocer has expanded. To some degree this is being pushed by a more global market.
Ruby Mac Apples
Seckel Pears
Red Rubens Apples
However, family orchards, like you find on the hills above Hood River, have done their part in the propagation of old and introduction of new apple types, as well as other fruit varieties.
Hillsides filled with orchards and exposure to so many different types of fruit is the reason we drive to the Hood River a few times every Fall.
The Kiyokawa Fruit Stand
The Kiyokawa Family Orchard grows around a hundred varieties of apples, from Akane to Zestar, most of which won’t show-up in the produce aisle at your local grocer.
Warren Pears
There’s also a couple dozen different types of pears . . . Anjou to Warren, and again lots of unique names. At any given point in the season there will be thirty different boxes and bins of tree ripened fruit to choose from.
Still room for some more fruit in that bag
What is ready for sale sits in a ring of wooden racks supporting boxes loaded with fruit and wearing placards noting sweetness level and some tasting notes. You buy a container (bag or box) sized to meet your needs and then fill that bag from any of the available boxes.
We chose the standard bag which held a couple dozen apples and half a dozen pears. This translated into six different apple varieties and two different kinds of pears. We also picked up a couple of small bins of plums, most of which were devoured on the trip back over the mountain to home.
Is it really fall before you fill a bag with fresh apples grown on the hills overlooking the Columbia River?
Pretty much all of you are enduring record heat this week. It makes getting outside a bit more difficult. However, there are some upsides to the current high temperatures.
Ice cream. In our case . . . berry sorbet (recipe is linked below).
We are at the height of berry season, so of course this is a great time to enjoy the harvest. Typically we’d be canning jam and jelly, but that’s counterproductive in this heat wave. We are freezing fruit this summer to be used for projects in the fall, when heating the house isn’t a problem.
But there is no reason not to enjoy fresh berries now. We have found a great way to ‘store’ some of that fresh berry goodness. Sorbet!
It is simple to make . . . just fruit, a bit of sugar and a dash of lemon juice. We take our ice cream very serious in this house and have a high tech ‘churn,’ but any ice cream maker will work.
This batch was made with loganberries. We still have a bit of strawberry sorbet in the freezer. Paired with a scoop of homemade vanilla ice cream, it brings back memories of old fashioned creamsicles.
All in all, it is even better than lemonade or iced coffee at chillin’.
Gradually the days grow colder and our interest in the weather is focused on the next snowstorm.
We’ve finished up this year’s canning projects, and our plan to replenish a dwindling supply of Apple Butter and Crabapple Jelly is now complete.
If you spend time in a kitchen it’s likely you’ve put-up jam. If you tend a garden, you know the difference between hot-water bath and pressure canning.
While not essential, most pantries benefit from simple canning efforts. It is a great way to elevate your PB&J.
Elstar apples, honeyed & crisp
We’d put up a few pints of jam at the height of berry season, but the cool days of fall make it a much more pleasant task.
Farmer’s markets present good places to pick fresh for a dinner or two, but not for canning. Between the last sunny days of August and that first snow in October we swing through the Fruit Loop and pick out a mix of eating and cooking apples, as well as a handful of pears.
Apple Hand Pies
This week we finished up the last of the apples with a baking project. Apple pie scaled to Hand Pie . . . not turnovers but with laminated dough. Joanne Chang has a recipe for a flaky, buttery crust which we fill with apple, cinnamon and sugar. Perfect pie for a picnic box and very easy to make.
We’ll attach the recipes to the bottom of the post and encourage you to try the crust recipe on any pie.
In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle, paddle together the flour, sugar, and salt for 10 to 15 seconds. Cut the butter into about 12 pieces and add it to the flour mixture. Paddle slowly until the flour is no longer bright white and the mixture holds together when you clump it, and there are still lumps of butter the size of pecans throughout…30-45 seconds.
Whisk together the egg yolk and milk in a small bowl and add them all at once to the flour-butter mixture. Paddle very briefly, just until it barely comes together, about 30 seconds it will look really shaggy and more like a mess than a dough.
Dump the dough out into a clean work surface and gather it together into a tight mound. Using the heel of your hand, smear the dough starting at the top of the mound and sliding your hand down the sides of the mound along the work surface, until most of the butter chunks are smeared into the dough and the whole thing comes together. (The technique is called fraisage, and makes for a very flaky pie dough.)
Wrap the dough tightly with plastic wrap and press down to make a disk about 1 inch thick. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour before using.
The dough can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 4 days or in the freezer for up to 4 weeks. Wrap in another layer of plastic if storing for more than 1 day
In a saucepan, combine about ¾ of the blueberries, the superfine sugar, cornstarch, and salt, and stir together with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula. Turn the heat on medium high and stir occasionally, until the blueberries start to soften and let out juice. Bring the mixture just to a boil, then remove from heat. Add the remaining blueberries and the lemon zest and stir to combine. Set aside to cool to room temperature.
For Apple Filling
Peel, core and slice apples into small bite size pieces. Add brown sugar, flour and seasonings and stir. Allow to macerate (soften) for ½ hour.
Basic Hand Pie
Preheat oven to 325 degrees and place a rack in the center of the oven. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set it aside. Remove the pate brisee from the fridge about 15 minutes before using it to soften slightly.
Generously flick flour over the work surface. Portion out 6 individual pieces of the dough and roll each one out in a circle 1/8 inch thick. Dock the dough all over with a fork. Lay the circles on parchment paper. Whisk the egg for the egg wash in a small bowl. Use a pastry brush to brush the egg wash over the perimeter of one circle. Place 2 heaping tablespoons of the fruit filling in the middle of the circle. Carefully fold the circle over the filling to make a half-moon keeping the filling inside and press firmly around the edge of the circle to seal. Repeat to fill the remaining circles.
Freezing Hand Pies: At this point you can freeze the hand pies on a baking sheet until solid. Transfer them to an airtight container, and store in the freezer for up to 2 weeks. When you are ready to bake the pies, remove them from the freezer and bake as instructed, adding up to 5 minutes to the baking time.
Brush the tops of the hand pies with the remaining egg wash and sprinkle them evenly with the sanding sugar. Bake for 35 to 45 minutes, rotating the baking sheet midway through the baking time, until the pies are evenly golden brown. Remove from the oven and let cool.
Hand pies should be enjoyed the same day they are baked, but they can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature overnight. If you are serving them the next day, refresh them in a 300 degree oven for about 8 minutes.
This week we finished up the last of the apples with a baking project. Apple pie scaled to Hand Pie . . . not turnovers but with laminated dough. Joanne Chang has a recipe for a flaky, buttery crust which we fill with apple, cinnamon and sugar. Perfect pie for a picnic box and very easy to make.