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Not to echo the sentiment of those who have written their December Can Jam posts already, but doesn’t it seem like just yesterday that we were all marmalading? This was the first year that I canned ANYTHING, and I think it was quite successful so far. I’ve learned so much, it’s almost laughable. The first time I made blood orange marmalade, I had no idea at which point to stop cooking it, and I was almost positive I would mess something up, get botulism, and die. But by March and April, I was feeling fine, feeling like I finally understood what to do and how to do it. Even now, I still learn things here and there (like the fact that your lids shouldn’t soften in boiling water, but rather in “just simmering” water) but over all, I think I understand how the process works. I’ve even explained to people (a few times) how pectin works! But I know from now on that canning will part of my life for a long, LONG time. I’m looking forward to handing out my handmade goodies to my family members this year at Christmas!
I’ll do a round-up of my Can Jam recipes tomorrow possibly, but we have guests this weekend and I just wanted to squeeze this in before the deadline!
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Habenero Hot Pepper Jelly
Adapted from Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving
Yields 3 8-oz jars
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Gather:
1/3 cup finely sliced dried apricots
3/4 cup white vinegar
1/4 cup finely diced red onion
1/4 cup finely diced red bell pepper
1/4 finely diced habenero pepper
3 cups granulated sugar
1 pouch (3 oz / 85 mL) liquid pectin
Prepare:
Combine apricots and vinegar, let stand for 4 hours or overnight.
Prepare canner, jars and lids.
Add red onion, bell pepper, habenero, and sugar to apricots. Bring to a rolling boil over high heat, a boil that cannot be stirred down. Add pectin and stir to combine. Boil hard, stirring constantly, for 1 minute. Skim off foam and pour into hot jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Wipe rim, center lid on jar, and screw band down until finger tight. Boil in a water bath for 10 minutes. Remove jars and let cool.
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Last time, we left off at the beginning of the primary fermentation stage, as part of our great saga of home brewing our first batch of pecan brown ale.
The big push of activity, or at least the things that must be done in a very precise manner, all comes at the beginning of the home brewing process, i.e., EVERYTHING that we talked about last post. The transition from primary to secondary fermentation is quite painless, actually. Which is great, because you can excuse yourself from a whole night of doing chores/laundry/your tax return, etc., on the basis of transitioning your beer betwixt the first and second ferments…
And instead just watch an episode of Vampire Diaries or two. Preferably while drinking wine. (It’s a great system, beer brewing.)
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(My Best – But Probably Not Very Good – Explanation of) How to Home Brew, Part Deux:
After you move your cooled, yeasted wort to a sterilized plastic tub for the primary fermentation, the wort will remain in the primary fermentation stage for about 5 days. This can be longer, or shorter, depending on a number of factors, namely, how much sugar there is to be digested by the yeast and how fast the yeast is able to digest the sugar.
The air lock will tell you whether the yeast is active or not. A few hours after you seal up the wort, the air lock will begin bubbling as the yeast begins to break down the sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide. The bubbles, obviously, are the carbon dioxide being released out of the wort. The flow of bubbles will be fast, for about two days, slowing down to nothing as the beer marks its third or fourth day of fermentation. Wait for the bubbles to die down completely, then wait one MORE day after that before you move to the secondary fermentation. Capiche?
On the day you intend to move to the secondary fermentation stage, sterilize the siphon, clear tubing, and the carboy (the large glass container above) or a second food-grade plastic tub with a diluted hot water/bleach solution.
Attach the siphon to the clear plastic tubing, and direct the other end of the tubing into the carboy (or second food-grade tub). Start the siphon by either pulling up on the interior tube (if it’s an automatic siphon) or sucking on the tubing to start the flow (if it’s a manual siphon).
The only important thing to remember when siphoning from the primary fermentation vessel to the secondary fermentation vessel, is to avoid sucking up any of the sediment that has formed on the bottom of the plastic tub. Essentially, you will sacrifice about an inch of your beer that is sitting in the primary fermentation vessel.
I really had no idea why there was even a secondary fermentation at all, honestly, until I googled it. According to homebrewing.com, a second fermentation isn’t actually necessary, although it’s preferred by most home brewers since the beer isn’t filtered before bottling, like commercial beer. If, after you taste the beer post-secondary-fermentation, the beer tastes too much like yeast, then you can even send it through a third fermentation period. With each additional fermentation, the dead yeast (and other sediment left over from the breakdown of grain and malt) will settle in the bottom of the vessel, which will yield you a much more clear looking and purer tasting beer.
So, after all but the last inch or two of beer has been siphoned into your secondary fermentation vessel, either top the vessel with an airlock or, for a carboy, a simple layer of saran wrap, held fast with a rubber band or two. The yeast won’t have as much sugar left to convert into alcohol in the secondary fermentation (most of it was converted during the primary stage) so there will probably be less carbon dioxide build up in the secondary fermentation vessel. Still, if you are using saran wrap, check it every day or so to make sure the carbon dioxide buildup hasn’t busted open the plastic wrap – even though bacteria can’t live in alcoholic environments, we are still aiming for a clean fermentation vessel.
Next post – the final step… bottling the beer!
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James Pants / Darlin’
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Apple Butter, all wrapped up with some ribbon laying around
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It took me a little more than a week, but here is my Dummies’ Guide to Home Brewing!
I know some of you may not be interested in this… which I totally get. Because brewing beer isn’t for everyone. But hopefully you’ll enjoy the pictures and learning about the overall process!
As of now, this is our first batch, and I’m still getting the details straight. If I have any readers that are also homebrewers, feel free to correct me in the comments! We’ve already gone through the primary fermentation on this first batch, and we’re in the secondary now (all this will make sense with my next blog post if you’re confused), and we’re bottling tomorrow. So I’ll have another post explaining primary vs. secondary fermentation vs. bottling, as we finish all of these stages ourselves.
And just for my knowledge – is there anyone out there interested in home brewing? Or am I just annoying you with this post?
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Pecan Brown Ale
Adapted from The Complete Joy of Home Brewing
Yields about 5 gallons of beer, or about 50 12-ounce bottles
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Gather:
2 handfuls of rice hulls
8.5 pounds pale malt
1/2 pound chocolate malt
1/4 pound black patent malt
1 pound crystal malt
1 ounce Fuggles hops (boiling hops), in a small cheesecloth bag
1 ounce East Kent Goldings hops (aroma hops)
4 cups pecans, chopped, in a large cheesecloth bag
1 10-gallon Rubbermaid water cooler
1 stainless steel false bottom
1 12-inch piece of copper pipe
1 3-inch piece of high temperature hose
1 4-foot piece of clear hose
1 large stainless steel pot (holds about 6-7 gallons)
1 wooden spoon
1 6-gallon commercial food-grade plastic bucket
1 large plastic tub (large enough to hold the stainless steel pot)
a top to a Tupperware container, about 5 inches across or larger
at least 6 bags of ice (about 60 pounds)
automatic siphon
air lock
thermometer
hydrometer
bleach
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(My Best – But Probably Not Very Good – Explanation of) How to Home Brew:
Clean your water cooler, false bottom, pipes and hose, and stainless steel pot. These just need to be clean, although you don’t have to go as far as sanitizing them with bleach, since the homebrew will start hot, and will therefore be almost impossible to harbor bacteria.
Place the false bottom in the bottom of the water cooler. Attach the piece of high-temperature hose to the valve on the top of the false bottom. Detach the push valve on the outside of the water cooler, and push the copper pipe through the hole, threading the copper pipe into the open end of the high temperature hose. On the outside of the water cooler, the copper pipe should still be sticking out – attach your piece of clear hose to the copper pipe, and wind the hose through the handle on one side of the water cooler. Essentially, the hose should wind upward, so that the brew will not flow out of the water cooler due to gravity and water pressure. (If this is the first time you are homebrewing, test your set-up by filling up the water cooler with water, to make sure the valve/pipe/hoses are watertight. Once you know your set-up is watertight, you can skip this step in further homebrew sessions.)
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The false bottom, attached to the piece of high-temp hose and the copper pipe
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Meanwhile, heat at least 3 gallons of water in your stainless steel pot. You want to bring the water up to 190 degrees and keep it at around that temperature until you’re ready to start the protein rest stage.
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Scattered rice hulls along the false bottom
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Scatter 2 handfuls of rice hulls on top of the false bottom. Slowly pour your hops on top of the rice hulls, alternating with 190 degree water. You want to add just enough water to moisten the malt, but not enough to make a soup. Stir the malt to moisten with water, using a wooden spoon or spatula, and be careful NOT to scrape the inside walls of the water cooler, and make sure NOT to touch the false bottom in the cooler, either. If you scrape the inside walls of the water cooler, bacteria can grow in the grooves between brew sessions. If you hit the false bottom in the cooler while stirring, you can jar it and cause malt to get into the hose, which can cause blockages in the hose which can ruin your whole batch. (It helps to have two people at this stage; one to pour the malt into the Rubbermaid, and one person to slowly add water and stir to moisten the malt.)
The temperature of the malt for the protein rest should hover at about 130 degrees, so add water (stirring between additions of water) until the grains are moistened, and then adjust for temperature. If your grains are above 130 degrees, add cold water and stir until the grains cool down to 130. Screw on the water cooler cover, and let sit for 15 minutes, periodically checking the temperature of the malt and adding water as necessary.
Meanwhile, boil another 4-5 gallons of water in your stainless steel pot.
Once the 15 minutes is up, proceed to the mash stage – add hot water to the malt about 1 gallon at a time, stirring continuously, and checking the temperature intermittently, until the temperature of the mash reaches 155 degrees Fahrenheit. The mash should be a soupy consistency – if you reach 155 degrees before the mash reaches a soupy consistency, add cold water until the appropriate consistency is reached. (This is another point where it helps to have two people: one person to pour water, the other to stir the mash and intermittently check temperature.) Let mash sit, covered, in the water cooler for 45 minutes.
Meanwhile, boil another 4-5 gallons of water in your stainless steel pot.
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Sparge in process
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Once the 45 minutes is up, prepare to sparge. Get a small plastic cup for tasting, and set next to your water cooler. Put the water cooler on a higher surface (such as a countertop) and set your large plastic bucket below the water cooler (such as on the floor). Unwind the hose from the side of the water cooler, and point the hose into the plastic bucket. The water that comes out of the mash will be dark brown, and it is called the wort. The wort coming out of the malt will be sweet, and the idea is to leach out all the sugar from the mash by pouring hot water through the mash until the water no longer tastes sweet. Thus, as the wort that comes down the hose begins to slow, take your tasting cup, and put it under the hose to catch a small taste of wort. Taste it to make sure it is still sweet. If it is still sweet, then have your helper pour some of the hot water into the mash (place the Tupperware top on the top of the mash, and pour hot water onto the Tupperware top – it will diffuse the water pressure and encourage water to slowly filter through the mash instead of simply falling through the middle). Continue pouring hot water, tasting more frequently as the wort tastes less sweet.
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Kristy tastes the wort
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Obviously it’s quite difficult for me to explain when to stop sparging (i.e. when to pinch the hose and stop the wort from pouring into the bucket). Both times we have brewed, we stopped when it tasted as though the wort was still a little sweet, but the aftertaste was more starchy. If you feel that you aren’t sure, I would say stop sparging. Also, if you accidentally add a little bit more wort, it’s not such a big deal – you’ll know to stop earlier next time. Your beer will still be delicious!
If you end up with less than 5 gallons of wort in your bucket (remember, stop adding wort when it stops tasting sweet) then you can add more water to your bucket. Essentially, the sugar that you extract from the mash is finite, and because sugar is converted into alcohol in the fermentation process, the amount of alcohol in the batch is finite. But, the percentage alcohol can be lowered if you dilute the wort with additional water. None of this is really something you have to worry about as long as you follow the recipe – if your recipe is supposed to yield 5 to 6 gallons of beer, then make sure you add enough water to make sure you have 5 to 6 gallons of wort. Otherwise you will end up with a much higher alcohol percentage.
Empty your stainless steel pot, and pour the hot wort into the stainless steel pot. Add the boiling hops and the pecans. Cover and bring the wort to boil, and boil for 60 minutes. (This is called the “boil” stage. I know, it’s a convenient name, right?)
You can also dispose of the used malt now. Scoop ‘em out and put them in a double-lined trash bag. (Hint: these are hot, and feel like a giant hot compress. If you use them like this. Yes, that is my backside.)
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The boil in process
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At around Minute 40, add the aroma hops to the boil. Also, pitch the yeast. Pitching yeast simply means adding the yeast to a small amount of warm water, so that the yeast can activate, a.k.a. “bloom.” At this time, also prepare your ice, i.e. run out to the store and GET ice if you need to.
After 60 minutes of boiling, spread a 5-inch layer of ice in the large plastic tub. Lift the hot stainless steel pot into the plastic tub. Add ice around the hot pot. The object is to cool down the wort to about 80 degrees, as quickly as possible. (Remove the bag of boiling hops and pecans at this point as well.
Up until now, you’ve been dealing with hot malt, hot mash, and boiling wort. With such hot temperatures, you haven’t really needed to be super sanitized with your equipment, because any bacteria that got into the mash and/or wort would have been killed during the 60-minute boil. Now, you’re dealing with a cooled wort, which means that any bacteria that gets into the cooled wort can thrive. THUS, any equipment used from now on MUST be sterilized. The best way to do this is to fill your sink with a solution of bleach and hot water, and soak/wash any equipment in the bleach solution. Rinse with hot water and allow to dry.
Get another clean (it doesn’t have to be sterilized though) plastic cup and set next to your plastic bucket. Attach your (sterilized) clear hose to your (sterilized) siphon. Use the siphon to suck the cooled wort from the stainless steel pot into your (sterilized) plastic bucket. While siphoning, take a sample of cooled wort straight from the hose. Add the cup of water and bloomed yeast. (If some yeast sticks to the bottom of the cup, add more warm water to the cup, swish to get the yeast to unstick, and add to the plastic bucket. (A little extra water won’t hurt anything.)
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Air lock
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Put the top on the food-grade bucket. Top with air lock (and fill with water as necessary).
Let sit for about 5 days. This period is called the primary fermentation.
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Gillian Welch / Revelator
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The “centerpieces” at my Thanksgiving table.
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So, as soon as Nathan moved here, he started on us about how we should start brewing beer. Of course, (you know me) I was ALL over this. Brad even more so… because he loves beer. Because he’s a dude. I say, one more thing to make at home! Self-sufficiency to the maximum. Nathan even had all of his beer brewing equipment, save for one GIANT stainless steel pot, shipped out here.
Today we went to our local home brewing store, The Brew Hut, and got all of our barley malt, yeast, and hops to use in brewing our beer.
Tomorrow I’ll share more pictures and my explanation of (read: The Dummies Guide to) how to brew beer.
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Remember how I confessed to never having tried apple butter yesterday?
Remember how I said I remedied that immediately?
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Yeah. This is how I remedied that.
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It would be waaaaay too easy for me to take the easy way out and just do one batch of classic apple butter. I mean, you know me by now. You knew that when faced with 14 cups of apple butter, I would make 4 different kinds. Right?
Right.
Of course, I hit the classic apple butter – just some cinnamon, nutmeg, and clove thrown in. Very delicate, not too sweet. I like it. I kind of wanted to eat it straight out of the jar.
Then I figured, a ginger apple butter. Extra-light coloring, a hint of ginger to spice things up a bit. Ginger is like cowbell – you always need more.
And let’s do bourbon! I mean, I have plenty laying around, for pete’s sake.
Finally, I had to play the savory note. Flavor Bible says: rosemary. Thankfully, when I burnt this batch a bit, I just called it “caramelized.”
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Mostly all I want to do right now is eat it straight. But as an apple butter virgin, I ask you, dear readers: how do you eat your apple butter?
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Classic Apple Butter
Adapted from Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving
Makes 8 8-oz jars
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Gather:
6 pounds apples, peeled, cored, and quartered
water as needed
2 cups brown sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Prepare:
Cook apples over medium heat in a large saucepan. Add water to just cover the bottom of the pan. Stir the apples occasionally and add more water if the apples begin to stick. Cook apples until softened, about 15 minutes. Put through a food mill. Measure puree, and divide into smaller batches if you will make adaptations as directed below. Prepare canner, jars, and lids. Return puree to pot, add in sugar and spices as directed; add in ginger, reduced bourbon, or rosemary as needed. Stir until sugar dissolves and butter becomes thick and begins to sputter. Ladle into hot jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Process for 10 minutes, adjusting for altitude as necessary. Leave in canner for 5 more additional minutes; let stand for 24 hours before checking seals. Store for up to 12 months.
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Adaptations:
Ginger – Skip cinnamon, nutmeg and clove. Add freshly grated ginger to taste before canning and processing. I used about 1/2 teaspoon for each 8-oz jar.
Bourbon – Reduce cinnamon by half; skip nutmeg and clove. Reduce 1/2 cup bourbon over medium heat. Add to apple butter before canning and processing. (I used about 1/2 cup straight bourbon for 4 jars of bourbon apple butter.)
(Caramelized) Rosemary – Reduce cinnamon by half; skip nutmeg and clove. Add finely minced rosemary to taste before canning and preserving. I used about 1/2 teaspoon per jar. Burn apples unintentionally for about 3 minutes before freaking out, complete with wild hand gestures and increased heart rate.
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The Decemberists / Down By the Water
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The other day, Brad and Nathan and I were discussing eggs benedict, and I confessed to never having had hollandaise sauce before. Nathan looked at me with complete fascination, like I had grown a second head or something. Brad just turns to him and deadpans, “Yeah, every once in a while she’ll confess to never having tried some completely normal food. It’s like she skipped her childhood or something.”
I guess hollandaise is a big thing? I wasn’t aware.
The same can be said for pear and apple butter – I’ve never had either. I KNOW. Do you feel sorry for me? Do you feel like I’ve been living a half-life until now? I get that a lot, it seems.
So, the theme for November’s Can Jam was pomes. Not poms, as in pomegranates. No, I mean pomes, as in apples, pears, quince, etc.; I’m talking about all the fruits that have those wee little seeds in the star pattern on the inside. I decided to go with both a pear butter and an apple butter, simply because I had tried neither. Obviously, I know what a pear is (I’m not THAT deprived), so I could guess what pear butter would taste like. I decided to go with a simple pear butter, with the addition of ginger, because apparently pears and gingers go very well together, according to my trusty copy of the Flavor Bible.
And guess what?
PEAR BUTTER IS KIND OF AMAZING. This is not a revelation for most of you, I’m sure. But this is totally the pome-version of like, the discovery of the New World for me. This pear butter is not too sweet, a little tangy from the lemon juice, with that sharp bite of ginger in the background. I didn’t cook mine too long because I wanted to retain the freshness of the pears.
Up next (i.e. tomorrow): Apple butter!
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Gingered Seckel Pear Butter
Adapted from Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving
Yields 4 8-oz jars
Gather:
3 pounds seckel pears, stemmed and de-seeded, quartered
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon fresh grated ginger
Prepare:
Cook pears, lemon juice, sugar, and ginger over medium heat for 5 minutes until the pears begin to soften. Puree through a food mill and return puree to pan. Prepare canner, jars and lids. Cook until pear butter is thick and sputtering, about 20 minutes. Puree again with a blender if desired before canning. Leave 1/4 inch headspace, and process for 10 minutes, adjusting for altitude. Turn off heat and let sit in canner for 5 more minutes. Remove from canner and let sit 24 hours. Check for seals and store for up to a year.
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Winter Gloves / Plastic Slides
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Uncanny is a series in which I explore the different uses for jams and preserves that we put up during the summer. Because even though each jam you make is wonderful on its own, a veritable taste of summer in a jar… sometimes, you just get TIRED of eating summer on toast.
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I forget why this came to me… but I’ve been culling inspiration from the most random places lately. Whether it be a dish I had a restaurant (recipe coming tomorrow!), or a product I saw in the grocery store, or just from talking with my mother at 4 pm as to what she should make for dinner at 6 pm, from the somewhat limited pantry she keeps. (Mom, you know it’s true — you keep nada in your pantry and it’s HARD to figure out what you should make! So don’t play.) Anyways, so I’m not entirely sure when, why, or how this came to me, because fruit dressings are very popular. Who hasn’t had raspberry salad dressing? Let’s ignore the fact that the aforementioned raspberry salad dressing usually tastes like crap (at least the raspberry vinaigrettes that I’ve partaken of…) But still, it’s not like this is a new idea.
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This is one of those crazy savory interpretations of sweet preserves and jams that you’ve got in your pantry. You can take almost any jam, jelly, preserve, marmalade, what-have-you and adapt it to this recipe, and serve it over whichever salad greens and toppings you prefer. There’s just an unending list of adaptations.
- I used plum jam, because it was one of the open jars hanging out in my fridge, but you can use whichever canned sweet preserve you want.
- Try using a different vinegar! I used white balsamic vinegar because I wanted to maintain the color of my salad dressing… but you could use whatever vinegar you like: balsamic, red wine, apple cider, brown rice; the possibilities are endless.
- Add herbs or spices to your dressing – try a little fresh thyme, or a dash of cumin.
- If your original jam was chunky, but you want a smoother dressing, throw it in the blender until the dressing reaches a consistency you like.
- Throw in a bit of mustard if you like. I chose not to add any mustard in this vinaigrette, although mustard plays a huge role in most of my homemade vinaigrettes.
I also added a bit of hot water to my dressing, since the jam I started off with was very, very thick. The hot water thinned out the jam to more of a liquid consistency without me having to add more vinegar, which would overwhelm the jam flavor (trust me, I know… my first batch was kind of heavy on the balsamic. Blech.)
Then serve over spinach, arugula, or baby mixed greens. Top with whatever salad accoutrements you prefer – I had my Plum Jam Dressing over mixed greens with goat cheese and toasted pecans.
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Which jams will you be trying this out with? I’m anxious to hear your ideas!
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Plum Jam Salad Dressing
Original recipe from The Kitchenette
Makes 1/4 cup
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Gather:
2 tablespoons plum jam (or other jam of your choice)
1 tablespoons white balsamic vinegar (or other vinegar of your choice)
1- 1/2 tablespoons hot water (optional, to thin out thicker jams)
1 tablespoon olive oil
salt and pepper
Prepare:
Add all ingredients to an empty canning jar. Cover with lid and ring, and shake vigorously until combined. If desired, run dressing through blender or food processor until consistency desired is achieved. Serve over salad of your choice. Store leftover dressing in jar in fridge.
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Other Uncanny Ideas from Around the Interwebz:
in Smoothies – Use whichever jams you have to spice up a morning smoothie! (via Food in Jars)
Thumbprint Cookies – A small dollop of jam on a sugar cookie. This is great because you can use whatever jam you have in your pantry! I can think of quite a few tasty interpretations… (via Sugarcrafter)
On Toasted Sandwiches on Food in Jars – This makes me wish I had put up some spicy tomato jam this summer! (via Food in Jars)
In Bread – Use up home-canned applesauce and fruit butters in this tasty whole grain bread. (via Food in Jars)
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Wolf Parade / What Did My Lover Say? (It Always Had to Go This Way)
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So even though I’m very happy with my jams this year, and I’m sure all of the jam you canned was like, superfreakingdelicious and all that, but sometimes, you just get TIRED of eating jam on toast, or a bagel, or a piece of cardboard (if you’re dieting). I will be the first one to admit, I ate my weight in jam on toast for May through July. But eventually the monotonous texture started to get to me… and after a while I wanted something different.
Thus the inspiration for a series on the blog, entitled Uncanny (extra points to my sister-in-law Amy for suggesting that title!)
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I wanted to do things for this series that could be easily adapted to whatever preserves you have in your canned goods pantry. I used a jar of my blueberry-cinnamon-vanilla jam, but you should use whatever you have around. Hey, you could even make this with store-bought jam, although I’m not sure it will bring the mouth-gasms like the home-canned preserves do. Adapt this recipe to whatever jam/jelly/conserve you want, whether it be blueberry, raspberry, peach, apple… I could go on. Feel free to spice up your jam before you spread it on the crust… I stirred in a 1/2 tablespoon of lemon juice, just to punch up the fresh flavor of my blueberry-cinnamon-vanilla jam.
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The recipe itself is very adaptable, too. If you want, add some pecans and throw them on top with the streusel. Add a thin layer of shredded unsweetened coconut onto the crumb topping before spreading your jam. If the amount of butter offends your health sensibilities (clearly I have no sense, so this isn’t a problem for me) then compensate by adding some wheat germ into the crumb layer. You could even switch out the flours, maybe substitute a cup of almond flour for one of the cups of all-purpose flour. My point is, it’s a very adaptable recipe! Have fun with it!
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Streusel-Topped Jam Bars
Inspired by Smitten Kitchen’s Peach Shortbread
Makes 18 bars
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Gather:
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, very cold and cut into cubes
1 large egg
1 (8 ounce) jar of jam, jelly, or preserves
1/2 cup rolled oats
Prepare:
Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C). Prepare a 9 inch x 13 inch baking pan by lining it with parchment paper. Add sugar, flour, baking powder, and salt to a food processor bowl and pulse a few times to combine; alternatively, whisk together in a medium bowl.
Add the butter and pulse about 10 times until the crumbs are the size of peas; add the egg and pulse until combined. (No food processor? How do you live? Use a pastry blender, a fork, or two knives to cut the butter into the flour mixture.) Press 2/3 of the crumb mixture into the bottom of the pan, pressing firmly. Pour the jam onto the crumb base, and spread using an offset spatula or the back of a spoon.
Add the 1/2 cup rolled oats to the remaining crumb mixture, and stir to combine. Sprinkle the oatmeal mixture over the jam layer. Bake for approximately 30 minutes, or until the edges begin to turn brown. Cool completely in pan before cutting into squares.
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Cory Chisel / Home in the Woods (Live) lovely guitar-pickin’ and gravelly male voice pairs wonderfully with these jam bars
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