Blueberry Jam

Today's task is jam.  Since we've run out.  And I have yet to find a no-sugar added jam that is good in the stores.  AND it all costs a mint and I'm sick of paying so darn much for Diabetic Friendly stuff!  So I have sort of self-taught and mined the internet for jam making tips and have been making my own for a couple years now. 

It's not as daunting as you think. 

Just take some time to familiarize yourself ahead of time and plan.  Check out thrift stores and/or yard sales for jars but buy new rings and lids.  Glass can be sterilized and reused over and over and over but the rings and lids should be new at first.  Then you can reuse your rings but always be sure to get new lids.  The seal is important.  Ask your mother, or grandmother or other family member, you'd be surprised at the knowledge and goods they have. 

The must haves:

The jar grabber thingie.

 

I know this is totally technical and hard to pronounce.  The general name for it is jar lifter, but that would have saved words and a joke so I've chosen the high road of proper vocabulary.  Sorry, sometimes you just have to do what's right.  Said jar grabber thingie can and should be found in any respectable grocery store with a decent canning section.  Bi-Mart has a good one, as does Winco, big stores here in the Pacific NW area.  Links to all my equipment will be found below post. 

**I tried canning a couple times using just a pair of regular tongs.  Trust me, spend a few bucks and get this.  The cheap way is dangerous and more difficult than it needs to be. 

The funnel thingie. 

 

Seriously. I tried the aim method and it just screws things up, this thing is cheap and will save you headache and a whole lot of mess and swearing.

Get your pectin too.

I get the low sugar/no sugar variety and have used both Ball and Sur-jel with the same results.  I just get whichever one is cheaper.  Get the low/now sugar needed ones.  You can't just not put sugar in it if you get the regular kind, it won't work.  Take a minute to read through it just so you know what it says; every box has directions and they are all some level of ridiculously confusing so it's good to figure out where your "oh s&^%" moment directions are.  It says you shouldn't double the recipe but I'm telling you, next time I make jam I'm going to, because getting 2 jars albeit large ones out of a batch is just lame, I wouldn't do that if you are making jelly though, it's too sketchy, I have yet to have jelly turn out right.

Decide how much and what kind of fruit you are using.  You can totally use frozen fruit, I pick a truck load of blueberries from a local farm during the summer, and wash, pick through and freeze them and use what I want through the dreary, life sucking winter months.  There's something somehow hopeful at the smell of cooking blueberries in January.  Plus it's so flippin cheap:  $15 for 2 gallons compared to $95.84 (!!!!!!) if you buy them per pint at $5.99 at the store.  'sigh, I love this type of math.  Plus they're good for you, score! 

Set up a water bath:

I actually use a big pot and I put the lid rings top side up around the bottom of the pot.  I didn't have a canning pot until this last summer and it's freakin' huge.  It takes like 4 months to warm up and while the cage thing is neat and all, it's just way too much water and time for my need-it-now world.  So I went back to my spaghetti pot again unless I'm doing a lot.  You just have to make sure that once your jars are in you will have at least 1/4 inch water over them.  I recommend to do the displacement test, it's way better to see that you have too much water in the sink than on the stove. 

Get that on the stove and simmering while you do the next step.

The next step:

Get your rings, lids and jars together.  I usually allow at least a couple more than I think I'll need.  It will save you, I promise.  Stick the jars and rings in the dishwasher and set it to wash with heated dry, sanitize if you have it.  This ensures hot jars that won't break with hot stuff being added and sterilizing everything in one easy step.  It's also WAY easier and faster...unless your dishwasher takes an hour and a half to do even the most basic wash cycle, at which point you have to start that part fairly early.  Put the flat part of the lids into the water bath pot so they sterilize and get hot.  Why use a separate pot?  Just make sure you have some tongs or something to take them out.

You can do this in a small space, but clear your counter first and take time to organize yourself.  I have a towel I fold up on the side of the stove where my water bath pot sits.  I put my water-bathed jars of heaven there after their 10 minutes of hot tubbing...mmm.  On the other side, by the pot I cook the jam in, I have a cookie sheet covered with paper towel or something to catch all the drips.  Why not take a minute to prep so you don't have scrape sticky fruit guts off the stove, right?

Blueberry Pomegranate bubbling happily

Then, follow the directions on the pectin container and cook your fruit.  Feel free to add spices, herbs, lemon zest, orange zest, whatever to the jam recipe.  I'd steer clear of lime zest, it's too bitter imo.  My oldest, now 13, suggested one year I put some basil into the blueberry jam, and you know what?  It rocked.  And yesterday, I tossed just a teaspoon or 2 of balsamic vinegar with the blueberry jam and it totally kicked %$#.  I'm all about experimenting.  I don't even like the sugar jam varieties anymore, you can't taste the fruit and it's just yucky.

Once cooked, ladle your hot jam of the Gods into the prepped and still hot jars you just got from the dishwasher, snag the lid parts from the water bath pot and lid up.  I like to put the lid and ring on the jar, tighten a little and then using the jar grabber thingie lift up the jar and tighten with your hotglove clad hand.  It's way easier than trying to just pick it up with your hand to tighten it.  Tighten it well, but don't reef on it.  Then, again using the jar grabber thingie, lower sealed jar into water bath and process.  I do 10 minutes, but read your directions for altitude info, it varies.  Make sure you get some of that goodness into a glass or ceramic bowl (it will melt plastic!) and let it cool so you can eat some now. 

Canning is about organization; get your stuff set up and you are good.  Scrambling for your stuff as your jam is bubbling and spitting little clots of pain and death at you is never fun.  Plus it hurts like hell if you get it on your hand, so don't.

Below are some links to the stuff I mentioned, and to a website I have visited to find farms in the area.  With the changes to our environments and the responsibilities we have to the land and each other as a society, it's good to support local farms, cut down on the fuels we consume to have things shipped halfway across the globe and save some money while doing it.   Do it if you can, because there are so many who can't.  Plus it's fun and a great way to get the kids out of the house during the summer before mayhem lapses into murder. 

http://pickyourown.org/

This website is a tad clunky but it's a great source of information and detailed directions.  Well worth the visit.

http://www.amazon.com/Back-to-Basics-Jar-Lifter/dp/B000FKEUUQ/ref=sr_1_24?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1294331114&sr=1-24

http://www.amazon.com/Back-Basics-176-Canning-Funnel/dp/B000FKHLOS

http://www.amazon.com/Jarden-Brands-1440071200-Pectin--1-75oz/dp/B000PBN79U/ref=sr_1_3?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1294333931&sr=1-3

New Year and Indian Food

It's the New Year.  Which means I've totally been imbibing more "stuff" than I should have.  And so have you.  Admit it, even though we do really well not having that come-and-get-me dessert at the Holiday party, we probably did have some extra wine.  Or a lot of extra wine.  Because it's the Holidays.  And you have to. 

But now it's time to get back on track.  Yup.  You know it, and I know it.  BuuuUuuuut...this is not a bad thing.  Because you have to admit, it feels so much better to do things right. 

So in light of healthier New Year cooking, I'm making Indian tonight.  The idea of course is to make this heavenly, spicy concoction that will transport me to another world while being at the same time healthy and full of veg.  I'll let you know how it goes!  Recipes tomorrow though, these are all untried so I want to check them out before I post them. 

The Holiday Diabetic

Happy and Merry Yule, Christmas, Hanukka and Kwanzaa to all, and to all a good night!  I hope to find you, my many readers in good cheer!  I am waiting for the oven to cool from my diabetic friendly pumpkin pie, with sugar free shortbread crust.  So I can put in, on timer the ham for the morning brunch to be had with family tomorrow.  I will put up recipes for my additions to a diabetic friendly holiday fest, but alas, must wait until a day after today, and after tomorrow most likely,  Love with you all at this Holiday time!

Double (say it) neufchâtel

I failed. Yesterday anyway.  Well the day before if you want to be specific.  The recipe mentioned in my last post didn't work well at all when butter was replaced by (say it) neufchâtel cheese.  There, I said it.  I blew it.  I hate throwing cookies away.

I personally think it was part recipe(cornstarch), part that it needed some butter. Either way, I tried a different recipe, that called for more flour (of which I replaced one cup flour for rice flour). I think my failure had to do with the higher moisture content in the (say it) neufchâtel cheese and the corn starch, the cookie produced was tough and weirdly chewy and just no bueno. 

I've not had much luck with cookie recipes containing corn starch come to think of it. The recipe listed in the previous post was rated pretty high on Allrecipes.com but the fact that I hadn't tried it yet just shows that I clearly need to try all these ideas of mine before I go broadcasting, so I solemnly swear from now on to try these things first.  BuuuUuuut I did try again, as you knew I would.  As usual, the link to the actual recipe is at the bottom and all my tweaks are in red.  So here goes:

Shortbread Cookies II

• 2 cups butter, softened *I used one stick butter and 4 oz (say it) neufchatel cheese
• 1 cup white sugar *I used a bit over 3/4 cup splenda
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract *didn't have any (GAH!) so put 2 tsp lemon juice in instead
• 4 cups all-purpose flour *3 cups all purpose flour, one cup rice flour.  In the future I'd do more rice flour, less wheat.  My grandmother makes shortbread with just rice flour and it's awesome
•  *I put in the zest of one orange, you could do lemon too.  You could add cocoa powder too, maybe 1/4 cup.

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C).
2. Cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Stir in vanilla; add flour and mix well. 
3. I found the cookie dough to be WAY to dry for anything but smooshing into a 9" pie plate.  I also reserved some for a pie crust for my diabetic friendly pumpkin custard pie, details tba.  
4. Put through cookie press and form cookies onto baking sheets. Bake for 10 - 12 minutes.  Baked shortbread laden pie plate for probably around 45 -50 minutes.  Did I mention AWESOME?!

Nutritional Information

Amount Per Serving  Calories: 490 | Total Fat: 31.1g | Cholesterol: 81mg Powered by ESHA Nutrient Database

Nutritional Information

Shortbread Cookies II

Servings Per Recipe: 12
Amount Per Serving
Calories: 490

• Total Fat: 31.1g
• Cholesterol: 81mg
• Sodium: 219mg
• Total Carbs: 48.6g I cut this into something like 16 pieces (I didn't count before we ate nearly all of it), not including the amount I set aside for pie.  So, maybe 4 g carb per cookie if I guess that my reserve would have made 4 more cookies.
•     Dietary Fiber: 1.1g
• Protein: 4.6g

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Shortbread-Cookies-II/Detail.aspx

Christmas Cookies and Pies and stars in your eyes

I got a question this am from a friend who has a friend who has a friend that is diabetic, about cookies.    It was typical, until this year, that I made all sorts of cookies and truffles every Christmas with the intent of giving them all away to my friends and family.  And some of them even made it out.  But mostly I ate them.  So obviously this year, my first officially diabetic Holiday season, making a bunch of cookies and truffles wasn't in the cards and I've had to revamp my gift giving ideas.  So you're all getting steak rub.  There, I said it.... 


Shortbread is great for diabetics, although kind of high in fat.  It's low in sugar though, even if  all the butter kind of kills it.  Although you don't eat this stuff all day, every day, nor should you.  But I might.  So I am going to tweak things around and try and get it a little lower in the fat arena. 

I'm a fan of...say it...neufchatel cheese.  Not only for the fact that it's cool to say....come on, say it with me...neuf-cha-tel.  Although I must admit when I just went to check just now that I spelled it right, I find that I have cream cheese, not...say it...neufchatel cheese.  Ah well, cream cheese has 9g fat for 2 tbsp (...say it...neufchatel is half I think so 4.5g), compared with a whopping 22g fat for butter.    That and butter is like nine dollars a pound and cream (...say it...neufchatel) cheese is like a dollar fifty.  'nuff said

So here follows the recipe I'm going to use today to make some lovely shortbread cookies.  Thanks Linda!  Link to original recipe is below this post.  I'll put my tweaks in red throughout the recipe, as usual.  I should also add that I've not made this particular recipe but I'm a fan of allrecipes.com and this one comes at nearly 5 stars from about 549 reviews.  I'm going to use the handy dandy cookie press I hooked up this year at a yard sale but you could do anything, even roll them out and use a cookie cutter if you want, making sure to reduce the cooking time, Just don't roll them thin, that's no bueno.  They need to be a little on the thick side, like 1/3 to 1/2 inch thick.  I likes me the thick cookie and these just don't cook well if they are thin.  I'm going to make 2 batches, one with just....say it....neufchatel cheese, no butter, and one with half and half butter and...say it...neufchatel cheese.  As usual, if you cut the sugar and replace with sucralose, use only half the called for amount.   

Melt - In - Your - Mouth Shortbread

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter, softened *replace half or all the butter with...say it...neufchatel or cream cheese
• 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar *use 1/4 cup sucralose .  Taste the dough, if it's not sweet enough, just add more 
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour*try rice flour  BUT, if using regular flour, use white flour not whole wheat.
• zest of a whole lemon, or orange is awesome
• try adding some unsweetened cocoa powder here, maybe a couple tablespoons 
• No liquids!  Trust me.  It's bad.  And you don't want to eff up your awesome cookies.  So no vanilla extract or anything like that.

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). I'm using a cookie press here, so will decrease the heat to 340 degrees, these do better low and slow.
2. Whip butter with an electric mixer until fluffy.  Beat the hell out of it. The more you beat, the better your cookie texture.  Plus it's gratifying to beat the hell out of something this time of year, since you clearly can't beat the hell out of the dude in that giant stupid truck who flipped you off.....aaaahhhh.....ya, so focus, back on track. Stir in the confectioners' sugar*splenda, cornstarch, and flour. Beat on low for one minute, then on high for 3 to 4 minutes. Drop cookies by spoonfuls 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Roll out and cut, or use cookie press.  PLUS if you roll or use cookie press, you can have more than one cookie, bc you will have made smaller cookies than the recipe calls for.   Score!
3. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes in the preheated oven. Watch that the edges don't brown too much.  These things don't brown really at all, you want to pull them when they still have a little give, or they get dry.  But if they get dry, you can always dip them in your coffee or tea or whatever. Cool on wire racks.

Nutritional Information **based on original recipe**

Melt - In - Your - Mouth Shortbread

Servings Per Recipe: 24
Amount Per Serving
Calories: 111

• Total Fat: 7.8g
• Cholesterol: 20mg
• Sodium: 55mg
• Total Carbs: 9.7g
•     Dietary Fiber: 0.2g
• Protein: 0.9g

Nutritional info above is based on the full butter version.  Removing the sugar will reduce the carb count some but since these are pretty low sugar anyway, it won't make a huge difference.  


http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Melt---In---Your---Mouth-Shortbread/Detail.aspx?ms=1&prop25=50385235&prop26=DailyDish&prop27=2010-12-20&prop28=CompleteYourMeal&prop29=FullRecipe1&me=1

Tiamisu? Why Thank You!

I made heaven on a pie plate last night.  A fluffy, orangey, lovely cloud of marscapone cheese, ladyfingers and whipping cream.  And it was easy.  Like easy.  

No sugar added, except for what was in the ladyfingers, which are surprisingly low carb.  At least lower carb than I expected.  I got the Trader Joes ones, and you can have 5 cookies for 13 grams carb, if I remember correctly.  I also got the marscapone cheese at Trader Joes, they rock, and the cost is WAY better than the local supermart.  Like $3 at TJ's and $6 at the local store that starts with an A and ends with 'sons.

As it happens, tiramisu is my favorite dessert anyway, so it was great that it adapted so well.  I'd show you pictures, but our main computer took off for warmer climates and we can't do any picture stuff on the laptop, or it will fly south too.  But I'll share the recipe anyway:

Amy's Awesome Tiramisu

2 containers marscapone cheese (room temp)
one pint whipping cream
one box ladyfinger cookies
an orange, or lemon or neither if you like.  Espresso or coffee is rockin' here too.  About a 1/4 cup.
sucralose, or other sweetener to taste

We were out of sweetener, so I winged it and put in a package of no sugar vanilla pudding mix.  Yep, it rocked.  I think I'll try banana next time.  You could also use neufchatel cheese here, if you like, it's a bit of a stronger taste but would still be good.  I'd use one 8 oz package here if I were to do that.  Which I think I might for Christmas.

Whip the marscapone cheese, with the zest of whatever fruit you choose.  Oranges are great here, as you can squeeze the juice on the ladyfingers, moistening everything up.  In a different bowl, whip the whipping cream, adding sweetener to taste, maybe a little vanilla extract, or almond or lemon or anything would work here, so if you wanted to make a peppermint tiramisu, you could.

After the whipping cream is all fluffy and lovely, stir it in with the marscapone.  I ended up using the mixer again here, I know you are supposed to use a spatula, and slowly mix together, but I'm a lazy cook and did the mixer, and it worked fine, although was maybe not as fluffy as it could have been.

While the beating and whipping are happening, you can turn a child loose with the cookies, arranging them in the bottom of the pie plate, or square casserole dish.  You could make individual ones in ramekins too, mmmmmMMmmmm.

Once everything is arranged and beaten, pour the orange juice(coffee) over the ladyfingers.  I followed here with a sprinkling of unsweetened cocoa.  Then spoon on the lovely goodness, sprinkle on some more unsweetened cocoa and put the whole thing in the fridge to chill.  Then lick the beaters (you know you want to) and after about an hour or so, cut and serve.  It flew off those pretty princess plates we were using, and everyone loved it.  Yay!

Apple Banana Chocolate Awesomeness

I love banana bread.  

I love nearly everything about it.  And if you add pumpkin to it, I'm gone.  It's lovely.  After my unsatisfying coffee shoppe (I like spelling it that way) experience this morning, I got inspired and made the following recipe.  The company at said coffee shoppe was fabulous, but the coffee shoppe itself not only didn't have a single thing I could eat freely, but the girl also sort of pretentiously suggested I go to Portland to find a coffee shop who did in fact provide for such a picky person as to need low sugar or low carb for my health.  But I don't live in Portland, I live in Beaverton, so I ended up with a bran muffin that I paid $1.95 for and of which I was only able to eat half.  So, while the company more than made it worth going, I felt the need to make myself a coffee shoppe-related goodie once home.  And my son is going on a cave tour/field trip tomorrow and will appreciate the nice banana bread in his lunch.    

I've made the base banana bread recipe many times, and it's by far the best I've found.  Easily tweakable, moist and without oil;  it's healthy and yummy; and when I replace the sugar with extra bananas and some splenda; perfect for my diabetic self.  And it smells awesome.  And it is awesome, because there's  chocolate.  I'd put up a pic, and I took one, but our computer is out so I have no way to upload.  So I'll just leave this to your diabetic imagination.  Moist, dark banana bread, with a hint of chocolate and cinnamon.  mmmmmmmmmMMmmm

I got the original recipe from the net, but haven't been able to find it again, so if I've re-used your recipe, let me know and I'll give props where props are due, this is the best recipe I've used, by far.  I almost always double it and it works fine.  And if you feel the need to add some oatmeal perhaps, just add a couple teaspoons of milk extra and some extra baking powder.  This current tweak is never before tried, so I'll comment to review it once done, but it sounds and smells awesome and like I said, I've made this base recipe many, many, times, and I've yet to have it truly suck.  Some times it's been maybe not as good as it could have been, but that's my fault, not the recipe.    

I'll list the base recipe then my tweaks in red: Remember:  I doubled the recipe, so what's listed here are the single batch ingredient lists, with my add-ons and tweaks. 

Nana's Banana Bread

The dry squad:

1 3/4 cup flour  *1 3/4 cups wheat flour, 1 1/2 cups buckwheat flour and 1/4 cup almond flour this time

1/2 tsp baking soda *1 tsp

1 1/2 tsp baking powder * 3 tsp for double batch, a little more if using oatmeal

3/4 tsp salt *I still use 3/4 tsp for a double batch

I added 1/4 cup unsweetened chocolate to the dry squad here

The wet stuff:

3/4 cup sugar *I doubled the recipe, so used 5 bananas and 1/2 cup splenda here)

1 beaten egg *2 eggs

1 cup mashed bananas *I use 2 more bananas here, sorta mushed up with my fingers

1/2 cup milk 

The fun stuff:

about a half cup cranberries

a good handful of dark chocolate chips

a cored, peeled and chopped apple

Yes I do indeed use 7 bananas altogether.  But if your banana experience is anything like mine, I'm tossing these things into the fridge regularly.

Put in all 5 mashed bananas (ones you've tossed in the freezer and then thawed work the best) and beat the life out of them.  If you've beaten them long enough then they get all lovely and frothy and yummy.  Then add in the splenda and the eggs, beating some more.  

Then, mix your dry squad together in a bowl, stirring well to get all the baking powder and soda and salt mixed in.  Cuz that's just yucky to bite into a giant bite of baking soda.  Especially if someone else made it and you can't say it's bad...  

You know that look you make, like when your kids make you something and you have to eat it, or break their little hearts in pieces.  "Wow, this is great!  Thanks, I love it!"  meanwhile your taste buds are trying to murder each other.

But I digress.  Once you mix the dry squad, alternate it with the milk about a third each at a time, until it's all mixed and happy.  You want it all to mingle, but don't kill it.  

Then using some big spoons, you can spoon it into prepped cupcake cups, maybe do 12, and still have enough for a second batch AND a loaf.  Or, if you have those cute little mini loaf pans, then go for like half an hour, maybe checking at 20 minutes.

350 degrees for about 15 minutes, for muffins or until the middle just barely depresses, but isn't gooey.  And for those of you who don't stick your fingers into hot from the oven muffins, just use a tooth pick.  If you have sort of moist looking crumbs, that's good.  If you have batter, then maybe let that go for a couple minutes or more, just for grins.

If you do a loaf, then go for 45-50 minutes, or until the above mentioned toothpick test is completed and passed.  Mini loaf pans take from 20 to 30 min.

Then let it cool off, and eat.  I have 2 boys and a hubbs, and this stuff never lasts for long.  Makes a great snack, like when you get up predawn to drink a cup of coffee before the hooligans come down to eat and get ready for school.  It's healthy so you don't die (ideally) but just decadent enough to satisfy your need for Apple Banana Chocolate Awesomeness.  Because it is...Awesome...really....try it...