Slow cooker gingerbread spiced apple butter

Apple butter is a largely American preserve - Pinterest is full of recipes at this time of year. For me it's an ideal way to use up apples from our tree, we love it. Put simply it's a cross between a very soft jam and a thick apple sauce. Oddly apple butter is completely dairy free - the butter is a nod to how you use this preserve; spread thickly on toast, heaped onto drop scones, fluffy, American style pancakes or waffles or even dolloped generously onto porridge.

I last made apple butter when I was pregnant with Harry - I spent a weekend making apple butter, chutney and anything else I could use up the harvest from our two apple trees, giving them away to everyone that helped with the mammoth move into our then new home. The last couple of years have found me up to my eyes in a newborn, and then a toddler so apples have been given away. But this year I'm feeling a little more like I've found a balance between my role as Mama and a blogger so it felt like the right time to revisit my love of preserving.  This recipe is ideal when trying to find a balance - once the apples are peeled, cored and chopped all you have to do is add them to the slow cooker and leave it on low for 12 hours. The smell of the cooking apples fills your house like an advert for autumn.

I prefer my apple butter to be on the tart side of things, and this kind of preserve is much more forgiving of an adjustment to the spicing or sweetness without impacting on the final product.



Dressed up sweetly, jars of apple butter make a lovely autumnal gift, or just a glorious addition to your fall breakfast table.



Slow cooker gingerbread spiced apple butter
Yield: 6 half pint jars

6lb cooking apples
1 cup date syrup
Juice of 1/2 a lemon
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 and a half teaspoons ground cloves
1 and a half teaspoons freshly ground nutmeg
1 pint of water

Peel, core and slice your apples - I borrowed this amazing gadget from a dear friend which made the whole process much quicker.
Put the apples into your slow cooker
Add the date syrup, lemon juice, spices and water
Put the lid on and leave on low for 12 hours, to start with stir every hour or so, to mix everything up. I did this every time I remembered so it's not something to set an alarm on your phone for.
Use a stick blender to puree the now thick, fragrant apple mixture
Take the lid off the slow cooker and leave on high for another hour to thicken up - you want the apple butter to be spreadable rather than pourable.

Sterilise some jars, I needed 6. I pop the jars into the oven on low for about 10 minutes, then add the hot apple butter before putting on the lids.
Then, if you're me, it's time for labelling and generally prettifying any you want to give away.

Apple butter doesn't keep like jams or jellies so you're looking at a month or so, kept in the fridge, once opened.

I'm adding this to  Farmersgirl Kitchen and BakingQueen74 monthly Slow Cooked Challenge.

I'm also adding this to A Mummy Too's Recipe of the week link up

Blush gooseberry and chia seed jam

Blush gooseberries are a fruit that's new to me - I'd never seen them to buy but quite excitingly that's what grows on the gooseberry bush in our garden so I was keen to do something with them. And of course jam it was.

Previously I've made Gooseberry and apple jam which was and is a huge favourite of mine, but as I said in my Periscope video this morning, life with Harry doesn't lend itself to getting the maslin and jam jars down from the loft, sterilising everything and only then starting to make the jam. This recipe took less than half an hour from start to finish, used a normal saucepan, one jam jar, a potato masher and a tablespoon which is much more conducive to happening whilst Harry naps.

Speed and ease of making aside - one of the reasons this is such a straightforward recipe is the teeny tiny chia seeds. These understated black pinpricks work in jam by absorbing and holding up to ten times their own weight in water. As you cook the fruit and honey down, the little black seeds develop an almost gelatinous coating which is why they make such a perfect addition to a quick set, relatively healthy jam. This removes the need for large quantities of sugar - by using honey I've in fact kept this recipe entirely free from refined sugar.

However, becuase this isn't a traditional jam - as I said in the Periscope video it won't keep for months and months on end in the cupboard or loft. It'll last about a week, maximum two in the fridge - so if I were you (or me in fact) I'd make it when you have your eye on a batch of scones, some homemade bread or scotch pancakes which would all benefit from a large dollop of this glorious confection.

This is such an easy recipe - so easy in fact that you can do it while sleep deprived!

Blush gooseberry & chia seed jam

400g of fruit - I used Blush gooseberries, green gooseberries and a handful of foraged blackberries
3 tablespoons honey
3 tablespoons chia seeds

Prep your fruit - in the case of gooseberries, wash, top and tail them
Pop the fruit in a large pan with the honey and cook over a medium heat for 5 minutes until the berries start to soften and come to the boil
Mash the living daylights out of the fruit with a potato masher
Turn the heat down to low, add the chia seeds and continue to cook for 20 or so minutes, stirring every couple of minutes

Here you have it - Blush gooseberry and chia seed jam. Perfectly sweet, beautifully set and so easy a sleep deprived mother running purely on coffee can do it whilst making her first Periscope. True story.

I'm entering this into Ren Behan's Simple and In Season this month. 

Preserving exploits: The October edition

Today, a bright, crisp and chilly Sunday saw me thus attired - naturally for sloe picking. M and I marched off in the sunshine, to our local spot for foraging, only to find a complete absence of sloes. When we had last been there for the blackberries there were definitely some sloes there, not a great deal, but a few. Today however, none. At all. Clearly lacking in tenacity I suggested giving up, but remembered where our Brown Owl gets her damsons from and wondered if there might be sloes there. So we hopped in the car and pottered over, fortunately finding plenty of fruit to forage. 

The Blackthorn bushes had already been well stripped with many of the sloes being out of our reach, so we developed new rules - if you couldn't reach the berries with your feet flat on the floor and your arm outstretched, they belonged to the blackbirds. Seeing as the 'harvest' was fairly sparse in our area I felt that was fairer, so no walking sticks, branches or any adaptations to make our work easier were used. We're both slightly scratched, but nothing a hot bath couldn't cure, and the sloes are ready to go into the freezer overnight. 

I was absolutely stunned to discover we had picked 1.5kg of sloes, as I thought we had far less. By my reckoning, that's plenty for 3 litres of gin. If I normally get you a Christmas present and it's you don't drink - tell me now! I'll pick up sugar and gin tomorrow and will strain the last lot of blackberry vodka tonight so that I can put my large kilners back in rotation. 

I should probably update you - as this weekend has been a bit of a bottling spree as it were - all the Blackberry vodka has been bottled, the Blackberry and blackcurrant rum has been sweetened and strained, and the Blackberry gin is just waiting for the new bottles to be sterilised so that that can go in. I'm like a one woman distillery! 

So, sloes are ready to go - and this round up of my preserving exploits for the last couple of months is also my entry to A Little bit of heaven on a plate's Home Made and Well Preserved linky

Blackberry vodka and also here 

Also... Rhubarb and ginger jam (which I'm saving for Christmas presents but desperately want to eat myself!)

Preserving prettiness: Rhubarb and ginger jam

Rhubarb and ginger is one of my favourite flavour combinations. I keep meaning to bake a cake based on it, but as yet have forgotten. Most often I stew rhubarb with a tiny bit of sugar and some ground ginger to top porridge or yoghurt.

The other weekend Tesco were selling off their rhubarb for under half price. I nabbed two of the 400g packets with the original plan to stew it. On noticing that I had a tub of stewed from M's mum already in the freezer I thought a new plan was in order. So it was time to break out the maslin pan, jam spoon and jars and get preserving.

This is based on a WI recipe

800g rhubarb cut into 1 inch pieces
800g granulated sugar
50g crystallised ginger (the one covered in brown sugar if you can get it) finely chopped
Juice of 1 lemon

Cut the rhubarb up and put in a large mixing bowl. Top with the sugar and cover with a tea towel. Leave overnight.

The next day stir in the sugar - most of it will have dissolved, if you feel like it's not started dissolving, leave longer (I left mine for 2 days without incident)
Pour into your pan, scraping down the sides of the bowl to get everything out

Chop your ginger really finely (this is my favourite of any photo I've taken. Ever)

Add the ginger and the lemon juice to the pan
Bring gently to the boil, stirring all the while. Skim off any scum that comes to the surface (or be lazy like me and just stir in a knob of butter at the end)

Boil for 30 minutes or until the sugar starts to flake on the edges of the pan

Do the saucer test to make sure that the jam has set
Use a funnel to pour the jam into sterilised jars, seal and when cool label

It's as simple as that. I may have taste tested the scrapings in the pan as this is destined to be Christmas presents. Yes, I said it again.

I feel pretty, oh so pretty... Preserving

Over the last couple of weeks when we've been going along in the car, I've not paid M a great deal of attention (sorry). My eyes have been trained on trees and hedgerows looking for a glimpse of the bounty late summer and early autumn brings the keen and nifty cook.

The blackberries are nearly there, those that have benefitted from the (occasional) sunshine already turning glossy and purple, those in more shady spots just hitting a glorious rose. I dragged M out this afternoon and between us we managed to pick 2lb or so of beautifully ripe blackberries - I have earmarked half of this for apple and blackberry jelly (one of M's mum's recipes) but the other half is destined for more alcohol. 

I haven't seen either elderberries or sloes yet but they are normally Autumn's later gifts.

As you know whilst my patience with dough and children is legendary, my patience for my need to preserve less so. It was with (a swiftly stifled) squeal of delight on Friday evening that I noticed that Sainsburys had marked down three punnets of blackcurrants and two of blackberries. I gazed around me, sizing up the other shoppers, trying to decide if there might be any competition, and then swooped in, scooping up the punnets into my trolley and heading off in search of the Basics rum. Apparently Sainsburys don't do Basics rum, so I got the next one up the ladder.

I followed the recipe I used a couple of years back where you start by making and straining a berry juice, and then add spices and alcohol, leaving it to mature briefly before boiling up with sugar and bottling. Previously I did this with redcurrants and you can see in the photos in the original post the pretty pink colour of the end result. Unsurprisingly doing this with blackberries and blackcurrants produces a stunningly dark and glossy liquer. The vodka and this rum are all destined to be gifts 

I wanted to write this post despite the recipes not being new ones, and the photos all being on Instagram already to remind you just how easy preserving is and how fabulous the results can be. You don't need a sugar thermometer, jam sugar, a maslin pan, or even a jam spoon - I start with my Ikea 365 pan, a long handled wooden spoon and a saucer in the freezer. That's it. I don't even buy jam jars, I save all ours, and ask Guide parents to donate any they have. Sterilised with boiling water and in a low oven, you're good to go. Also, my jellies (and alcohol is all strained through an old pillowcase in a seive. Yes, the picture below is an old pillowcase. 

If you're west of me, you may still be able to get some strawberries at your local PYO so why not have a go at strawberry jam (see the idiots guide on that post)

Otherwise, go, forage (or buy heavily reduced) blackberries and have a go at vodka, rum or jam. I'll put my recipe for blackberry and apple jelly up as soon as I've done it. 

For all my preserving exploits - click here and you'll be able to scroll through and pick the ones that appeal to you. 

Herb oils: two ways to infuse

I seem to be all about 'doing the double' this week, unlike our amazing athletes it's all about the food, no medals here. Sad times. Although I am entering this as part of Karen at Lavender and Loveage's Herbs on Saturday linkup

Now I have to confess (despite using the word twice in my last post) I don't really 'do' drizzle. To me it makes me feel like I'm trying too hard, like I'm pretending to be a restaurant chef when we all know I'm a home cook in slippers and a Cath Kidston pinny. Not just that obviously, I'm not some kind of slipper & pinny wearing pervert!

However, flavoured oils to me come under the heading of preserves. And we all know how excited the Pantry gets about the prospect of preserving. Too excited.

The first flavoured oils I made were chilli oils as a Christmas present for my dad. Simply add dried chillies to an unflavoured oil (groundnut works well) Decant into a sterilised bottle, seal and keep in a dark cupboard. The flavour will get stronger and stronger the longer it's kept as the chillies continue to infuse, so that's best kept for lovers of that chilli kick.

However today is all about the herbs. In my bundle of goodies from Asda was a bag of watercress. And as luck would have it I had some parsley and basil in a jug on my worktop.

Pantry tip: store cut herbs as you would cut flowers (but maybe in a jug not your best crystal vase) topping up the water regularly and they'll stay fresh far longer.

I should just note that salad leaves like rocket grow like weeds in the tiniest window box or pot, and even when carelessly neglected will grow beautifully. You can reseed your pot intermittently so that over the course of the summer you have a cheap, quick and instant source of salad.

Pantry tip 2: yesterday I mentioned when to spend your money on mozzarella and when to save it. Olive oil is similar, to cook with use a plain and simple olive oil (or even an unflavoured oil like groundnut) but if you're using it raw as it were go all out with the extra virgin. Don't go mad but you want one that tastes fresh and vibrant as it is. Although you're infusing herbs into it, the flavour of the oil will continue to shine through.

Watercress & herb oil - the quick and easy one

Fill a 1 pint jug with your herbs. I used watercress, parsley and basil. Blitz these in a food processor, until really finely chopped.

Measure half a pint of good quality olive oil and pour that into your food processor with the motor running slowly.

Taste, season if necessary and use over salads, grilled meats or you could add toasted pine nuts and finely grated Parmesan for a quick and easy take on pesto. You probably won't want salt if you're taking this on to pesto as the salt from the cheese will be enough.

If you decant this into a sterilised jar and ensure that you cover it with a layer of extra olive oil it will keep in the fridge for a week or so.

What's nice about this is how the really peppery kick of the watercress comes through, contrasting with the softer flavours of the basil and parsley.

Watercress and herb oil: take two - cold infusion

Now for the preserving. This means that the oil will keep for much longer, and the flavour is intensified. It is strained through muslin as you would for a jelly so the pieces of herbs are discarded.

You start the same way with a pint of herbs, which you bring to yhe boil in a pan of water, straining almost immediately it comes to the boil and refresing under cold water.

Then blitz this, adding half a pint of good olive oil.

Strain this mixture through a seive letting the oil drip through slowly into a bowl. Resist the urge to push the oils through as that will make your end result cloudy.

You can bottle at this stage, using sterilised bottles, or you can strain again, lining your seive with muslin (or a clean, old pillowcase) and then bottle.

This will keep in the fridge a little longer than the easier option and is a wonderful addition to salads (especially yesterday's mozzarella and tomato salad) It also makes a lovely present as the verdant green oil is so beautiful and a fantastic alternative home-made gift for someone who perhaps doesn't like marmalade, jam, sloe gin, or elderberry cordial.

Moonlight and Vodka. Blackberry vodka to be precise

It feels like ages since I've done any preserving - I think marmalade was my last foray into one of my favourite pastimes. Seriously preserving is up there with Musicals, good books and baking. What can I say? It's just who I am.

So, we're wandering around Sainsburys and there are three, lonely punnets of blackberries. Wildly off season, imported from Turkey, but less than a pound for all three. Faced with such a bargain, I broke my "not if it's not in season" rule and decided to indulge. And that's when blackberry vodka was born, between picking up the blackberries in aisle one, and finding the value vodka in aisle 27 my decision was made.

And then I got home and realised I had no idea how to make Blackberry vodka, I had an idea that it would need sugar, but as for quantities, I just wasn't sure. A bit of Googling threw up eleventy million recipes, so I just decided to go back to my sloe gin recipe and use that as a starting point. Blackberries, being by their very nature (I tested just make sure) sweeter than sloes meant I cut down the sugar.

70cl vodka
300g blackberries (washed)
100g sugar

Then, quite literally, just simply...

Add the sugar to a large kilner jar

Add the blackberries
Pour on the vodka
Seal the jar
Put in a cupboard, and turn upside down daily for a week or two to help dissolve the sugar
Leave in the cupboard for another 4-6 weeks

Strain through a muslin/ very fine seive
Bottle the remaining liquor
Enjoy! It's fabulous added to a glass of prosecco/ champage, just a splash makes it pink and gives a lovely fruity/ slightly sweet note.

Marmalade 2011. Part two. Spiced Seville Orange and whiskey

I haven't changed the recipe I used last year at all for marmalade so this is more of a picture post today. But I thought I would add some pointers that helped me today.

When I cooked up the Sevilles I did add some spices, star anise, cloves and cinammon - just to see what difference it made. Somewhere in my head I had the idea for lightly spiced marmalade.

• Read the recipe through properly before you start - I was using 3lb of Seville's today and got some of my proportions of ingredients wrong.
• Don't worry if it takes longer to set that you remember/ anticipate
• Keep stirring
• Don't wear your pjs to make it - or at least not without a pinny
• Don't break your wrist 3 and a half months previously and have to finely slice 3lb of orange zest with a cast on. Even if said cast is purple.
• 3lb yielded 10 jars - make sure you sterilse enough

More Marmalade: Sevilles not required

Last weekend I knew I wanted to stay in, stay warm and potter. Hopefully you've already read the slow roast shoulder of pork that was one part of the outcome of this. If not, please do - it really was a simple, slow cooked wonder.

I found myself in that post Christmas position of having a fruit bowl with clementines, lemons, limes and oranges in. Also, randomly a grapefruit, which I don't eat, because  the fruit and juice make you metabolise medications more quickly which can a real risk with some conditions. I guess it turned up in a veg box and I hoped that inspiration would turn up for it, hence it was starting to look slightly sad in the fruit bowl. My original plan for this week just gone being that I was going to be working away all week I didn't want them to go to waste.

Post Christmas my jam cupboard was looking somewhat bare, preserves had been sent out as Secret Santa presents, gifts to my assistant Guiders and pretty much anyone else I could foist some off on! I was originally holding out for the Seville's but Mark's mum had mentioned to me a five fruit marmalade and I thought I'd give it a bash.

I didn't use a recipe as such. but used my original post on Marmalade as a guideline, ending up with gloriously rosy marmalade punctuated by the green and yellow shreds of the different fruits. It's lovely on toast, and my Great British Bake Off book has a lovely recipe for a Sticky Orange Marmalade cake that I think it would work beautifully in. I'll link back when I make that.

Fruitbowl marmalade

2lb of mixed citrus fruit - I used oranges, satsumas, limes, and a grapefruit
4lb of sugar
4 pints of water
3 lemons, juiced

You will also need:

Sterilised jam jars
Either lids or waxed discs and cellophane toppers
Heavy based pan and long handled wooden spoon
Muslin and string.
Sharp knife (I used a paring knife which was perfect for the job)

Wash your fruit.
Now cook the fruit (except the lemons) whole in 4 pints of water for 2 hours on a low heat. This softens everything and gives you your liquid for later (you need at least 2 pints left at the end of the cooking time, so top it up as necessary).
Take your oranges off the heat, and out of the pan using a slotted spoon or similar, and pop them on a chopping board. Quarter them as this will cool them down faster.

Take out the pips and pop these in a saucer or dish - you'll need them later

Scrape out the flesh from each quarter and pop that in the pan you're going to cook the jam in
Then really really finely (unless you like chunky marmalade of course) shred the skin. Because you've cooked the oranges this is much much easier than it would be otherwise, but it's still fiddly and takes a while. I have to admit my fruit is a bit randomly shredded as one arm is still in plaster.

You need to do this to all the oranges. Yes, all of them. Time to start up http://broadwayworld.com/radio.cfm

Ok, so the oranges and the flesh is all in the preserving pan. Add 2 pints of the water from the water you used to cook the oranges in (you can top it up if you've not got enough) and bring to a boil. You do need some extra pectin and for this I just added the lemon juice, I left out the pips as I completely forgot about them.

Add the sugar - just granulated is fine.

Put an old saucer or little plate in the fridge now
Put the pan on the heat and bring to the boil whilst stirring. You want a rolling boil - biggish bubbles that pop on the surface.

Continue to cook whilst it bubbles, stirring all the while until it 'flakes' This took about 40 minutes in total, although I tested after half an hour despite knowing it was still too light in colour, but not wanting to wreck it I thought I should check.  Depending on the fruit you use, it will be faster or slower - If I remember rightly the Seville Orange and Whiskey marmalade only took about 20 minutes.

Once it's done this, take a teaspoonful or so and put it on your saucer that's been in the fridge. You want after a minute or so, the top to wrinkle as you run your finger over it but the underneath to be jam like in consistency.

While all of this is going on, sterilse your jars by washing them in hot soapy water and then drying in a low oven. Fill them with the marmalade and when slightly cooler, add lids or waxed circles and damp cellophane.

Mine is unlabelled as yet (I'm embarrased about my handwriting because of my broken wrist) but be sure to label it with the date, year and what it is.

I find that I always have a tiny bit left over that I pop in a ramekin and eat on toast over the coming days (keep it in the fridge).  If I know if it's sharp or sweet or how it tastes I'm going to be able to give it to the right recipient - or keep it for myself.

There you have it, one Saturday afternoon happily spent preserving in the warm. Result, jars of Fruit bowl marmalade in my jam cupboard.

I declare it Gin o'clock: Sloe gin

It is with much interest that Mark and I follow @Queen_UK on twitter, she never ceases to amuse us with her acerbic wit and sardonic asides. And my promise does say that I will "serve my Queen and my country" so naturally the possibility of making sloe gin was not to be turned down.

Like the recent Elderberry cordial sloe gin was something where there was no one definitive recipe for - although at least I didn't need to check which bits were poisonous with the sloes! Last year I held out to wait for frosted sloes, only to find that the blackbirds had thoroughly filled their tummies. This  year Mark's parents helped me out when they came across some on a walk, which was a relief as I couldn't fimd any locally. (Damn living in town)

So without a definitive recipe, here is my general
Penelope's Pantry Sloe Gin Guidelines...

Wash and prick the sloes (you could miss this step by freezing them overnight to split the skins) and then put them at the bottom of large kilner (or any) jars. 
I had 2 pints (1 litre) of gin and so split the sloes in half between 2 kilner type containers
Add 12oz sugar (I just used granulated)
Top with the gin, screw the lids on tightly and leave in a dark cool place

For the first 2 weeks (or until the sugar dissolves) shake your containers every day. Then just give them a turn over or shake as you remember.

At some point you will need to strain the berries out of the gin, from all the guidance I've had (both internettty and real life) it seems that whenyou do that is entirely up to you. the lovely man I spoke to at the Newbury show drains his after six weeks, other people wait up to a year. I think I'm going to strain mine relatively soon so that I can bottle it before Christmas.

Again when you drink it is up to you - all my research indicates that older sloe gin matures into a soft madeira like flavour, whereas when it's newer, it retains the tartness of the fresh fruit. Personally I prefer younger gin in a champagne cocktail at Christmas, and the older is an amazing after dinner drink - or one to secrete about your personage in a hip flask for a winter walk!

Make of our hands one hand: Let's make Christmas

I was so very excited when Vanessa Kimbell announced Let's Make Christmas, I had allsorts of ideas for my contributions, and had planned to spend some time making things over the last week. Then I got a cold, which was uncomfortable, and annoying, but ultimately not the end of the world. Then I had a fit and broke my wrist, which was also uncomfortable and annoying and felt like the end of the world. I wasn't sure I was going to be able to participate as I had planned to utlise Fourth Friern Barnet Guide power (TM) at the sleepover we had planned this weekend as I was planning to contribute things to make with your children. And not having children, Guides are the next best thing.

So Plan A was, to put not to fine a point on it, stuffed. Some tears and a small tantrum were had, before Mark and his mum came to the rescue. I'm not submitting the planned liebkuchen, but we put our heads together and thought, well what can you do with a borked wrist and a stinking cold if you are planning to Make Christmas? And then we realised - raid  your cupboard of jam. Having spent a large part of this year practicing preserving I thought instead of struggle to make something and be dissapointed in it. I would do exactly what I will do if I'm still splinted/ casted up come Christmas, and that is use the things I've been putting by. But prettify them for Christmas.


So my first submission (yes, there's more than one!) for Let's make Christmas is a terrific trio:


My first jam, jelly & marmalade.


Seville Orange & whiskey marmalade


Strawberry jam


Crabapple jelly - the recipe for which I haven't blogged, so will add it here when I'm back home <watch this space> as I'm currently being looked after by Mark.

2 3/4 lb Crab Apples
3 Cloves
1 lb sugar per pint of extract

Cut the crab apples into quarters. Don't bother to try and peel them, they are far too small and will be straining anyway so will lose the skin, pips etc.
Put the fruit in a pan, with cloves and 1 1/2 pints of water.
Bring to the boil and simmer gently for about an hour until soft and pulpy. Stir from time to time to make sure it doesn't catch on the bottom of your pan.
Spoon the pulp into your incredibly effective, purpose built pillowcase filtration device or jelly bag if you use one. Personally the swearing and bulldog clips involved in getting a pillowcase to stay on an upturned chair on my kitchen table and not fall in to the mixing bowl just adds to the experience for me. No, really.
Strain for at least 12 hours, DO NOT STIR. What you want is a gloriously clear jelly and giving in to the temptation to push the pulp through will make your jelly cloudy.
Measure your extract, and for each pint weigh out 1 lb of sugar (when you get to half pints, find someone friendly who can do maths if you are anything like me).
Stir and heat gently until the sugar is disolved.
Turn up the heat and boil rapidly until setting point is reached. This took about 10 minutes, but will depend on how wet your fruit is.

I only got 3 jars of jelly from these quantities, like quinces, crab apples clearly don't like giving up their wares. That said, this is lovely, slightly tart jelly that goes really well with a ploughmans or pork dishes.

The blacker the berry the sweeter the juice: elderberry cordial

This post is fairly long awaited for which I'm sorry, but hopefully it's worth it. Preserving has been an amazing new skill to learn this year, and I am loving my jams and jellies, but as the autumn rolled in I started to think about casting my net wider, towards foraging and alcohol.

I haven't done any foraging before, and Mark's parents actually did this for me because of my unpredictable health, much like the sloe gin I still have to post about the elderberries were something I had wanted to try for a long time, I'd originally planned to make this last year but Essex seemed to suffer some kind of freakish cold snap where we went from there being an abundance of berries in the hedgerows to there being none overnight. It's been less sudden this year, but the fruit has seemed to be around a little longer (there were still crabapples on the trees whe I started this post)


Elderberries are more interesting to me that their blossomy overblown precedent, elderflowers. I find cooking with those odd, their floral aroma overpowering most other flavours. That said, I do want to try making cordial, as that in a gin based cocktail I can manage. Actually I suspect I could manage aubergine in a gin based cocktail.


Elderberries however, the aura of mystery that surrounds their poisonousness, like blackcurrants the juice that runs deep red, their beauty as the last rays of summer sun leave us and the leaves start to turn. And they're free. Who doesn't love free stuff.


Importantly though, elderberries are poisonous, the calyx - or little stem at the top of the berry contains cyanide, and as such it's vital that you either pick these over incredibly carefully before starting this recipe, or strain it trhough a pillow case so that none of the calyxes get through (if you have a proper jelly bag that would work too).


A friend of mine who blogs at The new Mrs P recommended her recipe, but as things are of late I felt obligated to tweak it. I don't know when I turned this corner but I never seem to cook exactly what's prescribed any longer, I'm always tweaking and adapting recipes to suit either my current tastes or whims, or what's in the fridge so I don't have to supplement my beloved Riverford veg box unless absolutely necessary.


The fantastic thing about this cordial is that it is so versatile, you can make it into a tea and drink whenfeeling poorly or just in need of a pick me up. Also you could take a tablespoon of this daily as a traditional way of warding off winter coughs and colds. I say this having bottled most of what I made up for gifts, and now suffering from the end of a rotten cold and regretting making it for gifts.


This is my second gift for Let's Make Christmas, and Mark's mum helped me to prettify up the bottle with a festive necker!


Elderberry cordial

Take all  your berries, rinse in a seive or colanderand then put in a big pan
Cover with water and add some cloves, cinammon sticks and star anise
Bring to the boil and simmer for about an hour
Leave overnight, and strain in a highly technically suspended (on an unpturned kitchen chair) pillow case or jelly bag

I ended up with about 3 pints of juice at this point (the next day)
Return to pan with around 450g sugar per pint of juice - I used slightly less, partly to taste, and partly because that was what I had inthe house.
I added another handful of cloves as I'd strained out the spices I had boiled up the fruit with earlier
Bring back to the boil and simmer gently until all the sugar is dissolved. Again I'm highly technical with this and wait until I can't hear the sugar on the preserving pan any longer.
Then strain into sterilised bottles, adding around 4-5 more cloves per bottle.


The wonders of the interwebs tell me that this will last for roughly 2 years, but as someone who's only keeping the spare bits, I've enjoyed it so much that I've finished the cordial I had kept for myself, and not earmarked for gifts!

Preserves round up: home made and well preserved

I was chatting on twitter a while back about the preserving I've been doing (I'm waiting on my badge that says I'm preserves queen) and realised that since first attempting marmalade I've done a fair bit. Susan of A Little bit of heaven on a plate tweeted back to tell me about her post on preserving. So I thought I'd take the opportunity to link up with another blogger, and do a round up of everything I've been up to.

If you bear in mind that roughly this time last year I was too anxious of boiling sugar to do anything other than preserve some redcurrants in rum (and leave that shrub in the dark to steep, for ooh too many months to mention) I think the learning curve I've been on this year is fabulous. Most recently this hit home when I knocked up a sugar syrup for my Christmas cake fruit and barely even blinked. One of the best things about blogging is that you can see yourself growing and developing and being someone that spends most of my waking hours doing that with and for others, be they adults at work or Guides or Brownies in my free time, it's lovely to have that reflection about yourself.

I thought it might be useful as even with the search function and some fairly detailed tagging on my part I can't get everything to come up in an accessible fashion (another reason to go to WP perhaps?) to link to all my preserving posts - and I'll add to this post and link to it in the sidebar, so you can always find it as I do more.

So here's my round up of my preserves so far:

Green tomato chutney

Seville orange and whiskey marmalade

Strawberry jam

Gooseberry jam

Apple and mint jelly

Plum jam

Spiced redcurrant rum