Gooseberry Coffee Cake

It’s been a while.

This blog and uncanny itself are never far from my mind and I continue to be inspired by the beautiful, local and seasonal dishes that show up on various news feeds. I want to immediately react, I want to try them and I want them to inspire in me a new spinoff recipe. It has been a humbling experience to watch as elements of your life that you have passion for slowly recede and make way for more pressing concerns, like two small children and two more on the way. I lumber and huff and waddle my way through the day and I count my blessings when it reaches 7 p.m. and I can collapse on the couch and not move an inch.

Sometimes though, you can find a way to combine function with creativity. Over the summer, I diligently froze strawberries, black currants, raspberries, rhubarb and gooseberries with the helpful advice from Hitchhiking to Heaven served us well throughout the winter, but there is still more that needs used up. I work hard at preparing freezer meals for when the twins arrive and life gets chaotic, but when my freezer is already stuffed with fruit, it’s time to take action.

This recipe is simple and completely not my own. It’s a recipe that is handed down and floating around everywhere and I’m not sure who to credit. My recipe is from my mother in law and is called Lunar Rhubarb Cake. Actually out of rhubarb, gooseberries are a wonderful replacement since they maintain that tart/sweet balance and it’s easy to use frozen fruit and easy enough an almost 4-year old can help!

My Sous Chef

Gooseberry Coffee Cake

Unknown credit, but here’s a great recipe from Canadian Living .

1/2 cup softened butter

1 1/2  cups sugar (I used 1 cup)

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 cups flour (I used a GF blend)

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup butter milk

2 cups fresh or frozen gooseberries (tips and tails snipped)

Topping:

1 cup brown sugar

2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 cup softened butter

1. Grease a 9×13 pan and preheat oven to 350.

2. Cream butter and sugar together. Add egg and vanilla and beat until smooth.

3. Combining your dry ingredients. Stir in your dry ingredients into your creamed sugar/butter mixture, alternating with the butter milk until combined.

4. Fold in your frozen gooseberries and pour into the pan and bake.

5. Combine brown sugar, cinnamon and butter until crumbly and dollop over the top of the cake. Bake for 45 minutes or until tester comes out clean.

]]> http://uncannypreserves.com/2013/05/02/gooseberry-coffee-cake/feed/ 2 uncannypreserves IMG_8637 Gooseberry Coffee Cake http://uncannypreserves.com/2013/01/18/multiple-life-by-the-power-of-two/ http://uncannypreserves.com/2013/01/18/multiple-life-by-the-power-of-two/#comments Sat, 19 Jan 2013 02:21:58 +0000 uncannypreserves http://uncannypreserves.com/?p=917 Continue reading →]]> “Adding up the total of a love that’s true, multiply life by the power of two.” ~ Indigo Girls

Sometimes life is so mysterious and changes so quickly, you can’t make these things up if you tried. We found out, to our pleasant surprise that we were expecting baby #3. In early January, at our first ultrasound, the technician asked whether I could accurately read the screen and interpret what I was seeing. Since I was no expert (and since it kind of looked like feet), I answered no, I couldn’t figure it out. “Well, here’s Baby A and here’s Baby B”.

And just like that, life changed in a heartbeat. Heartbeats.

Our family of four will surge and swell to become a family of six. Toddler girl is excited to be a bigger, bigger sister. At only 14-months old, little toddler boy has no clue what’s coming. It will be a time of adjustment and growth, giving and taking, patience and understanding. There are increased medical risks for myself and the babies, but I hope and have faith in the close and attentive care of my new care providers. In amongst the swirl of emotions and feelings of dreadful inadequacy, I can’t help but marvel at life’s creative forces.

In honour of the New Year and in celebration of all good things, please celebrate with us. Until Valentine’s Day, please enjoy 10% preserves sold online at our Etsy Shop.

Happy New Year.

In case you missed it, we’re participating in the December Photo Project of a picture a day until December 25th and here are the first 10 days worth of photos that capture the beauty of our everyday life. Hope your days are just as lovely!

Want to join me? A picture a day for the first 25 days of December. Pictures are posted on your blog/Flickr/Facebook album in spirit of celebration and creativity.

Disclaimer: I feel like this recipe was obvious to everyone but me. If that’s the case, smile and shake your head at me. If not, read on!

This recipe was born out of necessity (yes!) for a piece of frozen crumbly gluten-free birthday chocolate cake that was screaming for a side kick. The obvious pairing of ice cream wasn’t available and I wasn’t about to make buttercream frosting for one, but this is where whipped cream came in handy.

It’s really, really simple:

1. Cool your whipping cream, your bowl and your beaters then whip it, whip it good.

2. Fold in your jam. Any kind of loose set jam, really. I’ve been eating my Strawberry Vanilla Bean with and on everything and it was perfect with chocolate cake. It has a really soft set and blended perfectly, but avoid the stiff jam/jelly and opt for something that will fold nicely into the cream and help it retain it’s airiness. Start with about 2:1 ratio of cream to jam and if you want more jam, add more, just remember that the more jam you add, the looser the cream will get.

I know it’s obvious, but think of the possibilities! Tomorrow, when our American friends are gobbling up their pumpkin pie, what about a big dollop of Spiced Apple Butter Whipped Cream? Heaven.

Let me know if you give this a try.

After a very industrious and active summer of undertaking a large wholesale order for my fantastic new friends at River Orchard, taking up an intense running program and being present to my children, the summer moved at lightening speed. I looked forward to Autumn with great anticipation of preserving the harvest and taking a slower pace, since I had a freezer full of summer’s bounty that I could tackle at my leisure, using the helpful tips at Hitchhiking to Heaven.

I should have known that “the best laid schemes of mice and men/Go often awry” and that I should never become too comfortable with life. A life-changing illness in a dear friend has knocked me from my place of comfort and rendered me helpless. I walk around in a daze as my thoughts jump from my friend, to the meaning of life and suffering, to justice and fairness, randomness and design. I was lucky to fly out and visit her, stocking her freezer full of good food. Food made with love and prayers and good wishes that I trust will nourish and nurture her and her family. Each month, I send more jam, hoping that the sweetness of life will be hers.

Even in our sadness, life continues and we rejoice in what we have, here and now. My uncanny toddler girl turned 3 and my little uncanny boy turned one. They bring life and laughter and are always beacons of hope and know just how to sustain me. I’m sure before long, I’ll be back in the kitchen and back at the Sackville Farmers Market. Until then.

Peach Prosecco Jelly

It’s peach season, one of my favourite seasons and while peaches aren’t local to our region, I can at least be kept in good supply of beautiful peaches from the Niagara region.  Mr. Uncanny and I would visit many of those orchards when we were young and early married, living as students in Toronto and vacationing in the wine region, drunk on love and a few too many wine samples.

Peaches bring back fond memories for us but even more so about our daughter. I don’t post a lot about our family. I respect their privacy and their inability to approve of the pictures or stories I’d post. It doesn’t make me any less proud of them though and I often wish I could crow their accomplishments all day long. Honey Bear and her brother are my heart’s delight and being able to stay home with them, while balancing my creative passion through uncanny is a gift that I know many parents would love to enjoy.

Honey Bear’s birthday falls in the height of peach season and in fact, I was in early labour with her when making a big batch of peach conserve. I was 5 days overdue and determined to have a real gritty early labour experience, complete with laundry and jam making. I’d stir through each 2 minute contraction, clutching my back and trying to concentrate getting the conserve to the perfect setting point. It did. I called it my Pre-Game Jam and gave it out to the nurses and doctor at the hospital, but one jar remains in my pantry and I can’t bring myself to open it.

To me, that is the essence of canning. You bottle a moment, a season, a feeling, a wish. Everything I dreamed about our first encounter, all my hopes about her childhood, all my best wishes for her as she grew into an adult. All of it, as I stirred and stirred in the morning before we’d meet.

So this jelly is a love song to our girl. She turns 3 and like this jelly, she continues to sparkle and shine with sweetness.

Peach Vanilla Prosecco Jelly

Yield: 3x250ml

3.5 lbs peaches, peeled, pitted and chopped (reserve the peach skins)

2 vanilla beans, split and caviar removed

2 cups sugar

1 cup prosecco

1 pouch of Certo liquid pectin

Directions:

1. Add vanilla beans and peach mixture to a slow simmer and cook for about 10 minutes, until softened, mashing with a potato masher.

2. Strain mixture in a jelly bag and measure out 1 cup of juice. (Save the pulp and the skin. I’ll tell you why in a minute.)

3. In a clean pot, add peach juice. prosecco and sugar. Stir and bring to a boil for a couple of minutes until all sugar has dissolved.

4. Add in liquid pectin and boil hard for one minute. Remove from heat and ladle into jars. Process for 10 minutes in a boiling water bath. Voila!

** One of my favourite things to do with the peach pulp and skin is to turn it into a peach syrup, which I learned about from Homemade Trade. What a fantastic way to make those peaches stretch even further. There is still lots of flavour in the pulp and that vanilla bean still has ways to go. **

Cheers!

Pepper Jelly Glazed Cheddar Scones

I make a lot of preserves. I love selling at the Sackville Farmer’s Market and catching up with old friends and meeting new ones. There really is no better place to be on a Saturday morning. Each year, I make 20-30 different types of preserves and almost 400 jars of preserves. You’d think that I’d finally figure some things out, like, how to make a great jelly (strain, strain, strain!) or that if you don’t add enough underripe strawberries, you’ll never get a great set on a pectin-free strawberry jam. So, I continue to plod on, making rookie mistakes and plunking those jars of unsellable preserves in my pantry.

Well, I have almost 100 jars in my pantry. Too many. Way too many! Apparently, some lessons need to be learned over and over again.

Like jelly, especially pepper jelly. Maybe it’s just me, but when it’s hot and humid, I have the worst time getting a jelly to set properly. I’ve opened windows, I’ve closed windows and brought up a dehumidifier, I’ve tried canning first thing in the morning or really late at night and still, it can be endless jars of jelly that either set too quickly before I could gently tilt the jars and distribute the little bits or it’s a runny syrup. Often times, if it’s not a problem with the set, it’s a problem because I’m neither paying enough attention nor thinking through the steps and so another batch of preserves gets shipped off to the pantry.

This recipe utilizes one of those jars of unsellable jelly – a beautiful apple cider jelly and jalapeno jelly that is perfect and tasty but oh so cloudy. Natural apple cider has sediment and needs to be strained, preferably in a coffee filter, to make the jelly a beautiful amber hue. Since there is only so much pepper jelly one can eat on crackers, enter scones.

I’m a sucker for a sweet scone, but I had no idea a savoury scone could be so incredible. I made these for the end-of-the-year book club meeting with the additional jelly stirred into some cream cheese and ready to be slathered on the warm scones. They were flakey and rich and all the flavours worked well together. Even better that a lonely, neglected jar of jelly got a new life.

Pepper Jelly Glazed Cheddar Scones

Barely adapted from Canadian Living’s Green Onion and Cheddar Scones

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tbsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup cold butter, cubed

1 cup shredded extra old cheddar

1 egg

1 cup milk

2 tsp assorted fresh herbs - I used lemon thyme and chives

1/4 cup jalapeno apple cider pepper jelly, melted over low heat

Mix together dry ingredients and with a pastry knife, cut in the cold, cubed butter until it’s a coarse and crumbly mixture. Add in the cheese and herbs and stir.

In a separate bowl, whisk egg and milk together and pour over the dry mixture. Stir until barely combined and turn onto a lightly floured board and knead 10 times (Canadian Living is very specific on this and I’ve heard from other expert scone makers that ten is the magic number here). Roll or pat to about 3/4″ thick and cut out with a cookie cutter. I often use a 2″ round cutter as it seems the best size, or cut into fours for a traditional wedge shape. Place scones on a parchment paper lined baking sheet.

Glaze scones with melted jelly and bake in a 400 degree oven for 15 minutes. Let cool before tucking in (that jelly is really hot and can scorch the roof of your mouth. Trust me on this.)

Enjoy!

Strawberries have arrived! For me, it’s the fruit that really marks the beginning of the summer season and I’ll go just about anywhere to get my hands on plenty of them. While my garden patch is doing well, it provides just enough for the occasional treat so it’s off for my yearly pilgrimage to the u-pick farm where I usually pick my weight in berries, put up the majority of them and freeze the rest. It’s labour intensive, but it’s brief and you have a year’s worth of sunshine to see you through to the following June.

This year, I was excited a new strawberry patch opened up nearby, saving me almost 1.5 hours of driving. Hick’s Berry Patch has beautifully laid out rows, each identified by their variety. It’s easy picking and the berries were wonderful.

Just don’t get lost en route…

An hour and 17 lbs of strawberries later and I’m armed and ready to start this year’s Strawberry Preservefest. While almost all of them were earmarked for Cocagne River Orchard, I saved the last bit for a spur-of-the-moment and late night attempt at something unique and really special. Born out of a necessity to use up some sweet Marsala wine I inadvertently bought for a Chicken Marsala dish, it’s a gorgeous, deep red jam with a beautiful set and rich flavour.

Strawberry Marsala and Vanilla Bean Jam

Strawberry Marsala and Vanilla Bean Jam

Yields: 2x250ml, 1x125ml

4 cups crushed strawberries

1.5 cups sugar

Juice of 1 lemon

1 vanilla bean pod, halved and seeds removed

1/4 cup sweet Marsala wine

1. In a large pot, stir vanilla bean seeds and pod in crushed strawberries. If possible, let sit and marinade for a couple of hours. Remove pod before boiling. (I rinse the pod off and put it in granulated sugar.)

2. Add sugar and bring strawberry/vanilla mixture and bring to a soft boil over medium heat. In about 10 minutes, check the gel point. Mine took about 14 minutes for a soft set and I tested using the frozen saucer test.

3. Once set to your liking, stir in 1/4 cup of Marsala wine and ladle into hot jars. Process for 10 minutes in a boiling water bath.

*****

Uncanny has some exciting news: For the first time in our history, we’ll be available for retail outside of the Sackville Farmer’s Market! We’re very excited to be working with Cocagne River Orchard a family run apple orchard located in beautiful Cocagne, New Brunswick. Owners Denis and Nicole are long-time supporters of buying local and living gently on the land and uncanny is delighted to be working together, highlighting the best of South-East New Brunswick. The orchard is available as a u-pick, so when you’re done picking apples from their beautiful property, please visit their boutique where you’ll find a wide range of uncanny products and other interesting finds.

*****

On the theme of growing and going together is a really special preserve that has been crafted from the abundance of local and readily available ingredients. A helpful way to look at flavour combinations is to tour your garden and look at what’s in season and chances are, those flavours will compliment each other. Right now the rhubarb season is winding down, the strawberries are turning red on the vine and the roses are in full bloom. All the makings of a lovely, summery preserve!

If you’ve never preserved with rose petals before, as I hadn’t, give it a try! Here are just a few benefits:

1. They make your kitchen smell like a fairy tale.

2. They are easy to harvest. Nip them in the bud stage and  give them a 2 minute bath in cool, soapy water and a thorough rinse to ensure no bug friends join the party. They open during the day and the petals are ready to fall out by the evening. Super easy harvesting.

3. The flavour is really subtle. I was worried the preserve would taste like a funeral home, but it added just the right amount of floral note. Don’t worry, this is not a jam you’ll be dabbing behind your ears!

My strawberries weren’t perfectly ripe but I wanted them included in the preserve so I opted for my homemade Strawberry Liqueur. All together, you have three beautifully pink ingredients.

I went with a French style with this preserve, letting the rhubarb macerate for a couple of days before boiling the syrup and adding the remaining ingredients back in. I think it’s a darling of a preserve.

Rhubarb Rose Petal Preserve

2 3/4 pounds of chopped rhubarb

2 3/4 cups sugar

juice of 2 lemons

1/2 cup rose petals or petals from 2 small roses. Please make sure they’re unsprayed.

**Optional: 2 tbsp Strawberry Liqueur **

1. Slice the rhubarb and toss sugar and juice of one lemon together and pour into 9×13 pan. Cover with parchment paper and refrigerate overnight.

2. The next morning, strain rhubarb mixture and pour juices into a large pan. Add the juice of your second lemon with the strained rhubarb juices. Bring to a boil and reduce by about half. Stir in rhubarb and fresh rose petals and stir over low-medium heat until the preserve is cooked to your liking. I like a bit of texture, so I reduced my liquid to the setting point and added the fruit in. It didn’t take long to finish and the jam is chunky. If you want a smoother, more stewed-like jam, don’t boil the rhubarb juice as much and give your rhubarb extra time to cook and break down.

3. Remove from heat and stir in your strawberry liqueur. Pour into sterilized jars and process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes. Enjoy!

Perfect for Tea Time.