Showing posts with label blackcurrant jam. Show all posts
Showing posts with label blackcurrant jam. Show all posts

Thursday, August 7, 2014

Black currant jam



We have no Jam in the house. Wow unbelievable. So I rummaged through the freezer and found 1.5kg of black currants. Aaron is away for work, the boys are in bed, so I whipped up 8 jars of jam. Yummy. I used my recipe here

Had some of the end bits all warm over cold vanilla icecream, so yes!!!

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Thursday, September 5, 2013

A doing day

Today was a day to get things done. I intended to work most of today but the weather got in the way, so I work tomorrow and today I tried to do those things that have been hanging around.
First I went to aquacise with Dawn, it was pretty full on. Then I ...

Put Rimu door knobs on the hall cupboard doors. (Saved from when I redecorated Eli's bedroom)

Then I made a pile of crystalised orange peel. Yummy in Xmas fruit mince and hot cross buns. I don't approve of all the imported fruit and veges we have. We can grow our own, we should be supporting NZ growers. So I only every buy oranges when the NZ ones are in the shops. My mother gave me $10 for my birthday specifically for NZ oranges as she knows I love them. So when eating them I kept all the peel in the freezer and today I preserved them.

It is not quite spring and so fruit has not yet come on but we have run out of berry jams. I had some blackcurrants in the freezer, so I pulled them out and made 7 pots of yummy jam.

I then pulled down the Roman Blinds that I had made for our room as they were mouldy and yucky (that is what not having double glazing will give you). So I painted these wood mouldings as the new curtain rails will go on these and then they will be screwed to the walls. I undercoated, then I did two top coats. By the time I go to bed tonight I will have the new curtain rails up.

I completely dismantled the blinds and kept all the bits for some time when I decide to make others.

In amongst all that I did the usual - two loads of washing out on the line and in, mopped the floors, dealt with the kids, did dinner and lit the hot tub............ off for a soak now.


Sunday, November 11, 2012

Blackcurrant Jam and Dairy Free Banana Cake

The finished product
A great book
I have half a cow coming off the farm in the next few weeks so need to empty the freezer. Last year my blackcurrants were so prolific that I still had three containers of them in the freezer when I looked today. As we used the last blackcurrant jam on Friday, I figured that was what I would do with them.

For those of you with lot of blackcurrants what we normally do is free flow freeze (try saying that fast!) them and I use them instead of blueberries when making the blueberry muffin recipe. They are tarter and stronger in taste and we all love it.

Anyway this Jam recipe is a conglomeration of years of trying and a lovely Victorian Jam and Preserve book that my gorgeous friend Marie Pearce gave me as a wedding present (Hi Marie - still haven't finished making your birthday present, am working on those screens).

Rather than type the recipe out I have taken a photo of it. You should be able to read it ok. I use a higher portion of fruit to sugar than most recipes. I also don't stew the blackcurrants as long as most recipes as I do not want my fruit to be mush - I like fruit in jam to still be semi whole. More like a conserve.

Anyway this recipe is good and is not boiled so long that it goes hard in the jar the way it can sometimes. (My other hint is that I never buy specific jam jars. I just use jars that seal from chutneys, jams and sauces from the shop. They clean up and reseal very well)

The recipe



Dairy Free Banana Cake
I made this dairy free today as I did not have any butter out soft and I wanted to use the time the jam was cooking to make something. (and I had four bananas that needed rescueing)
into a bowl put: 1 and 1/8th Cups neutral oil, 3 eggs, 1 1/8th Cup sugar, 4-5 soft bananas mashed and whisk together. Into the liquid put 3 Cups flour, 1.5 teaspoons baking powder. Then put 1.5 teaspoons baking soda into 3 tablespoons warm water and dissolve, put with all other ingredients. Stir all well and pour into prepared tin. I used a ring tin as this is a large cake and the ring cuts the cooking time down. 180oC for about 40 minutes.

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A gorgeous break in Rarotonga

Woo hoo, A holiday with no kids for 11 days. Bliss, relaxing and warm! BTW it was an early 20th wedding anniversary present to ourselves....