Monthly Archives

July 2015

Breads, Breakfast/Brunch, Desserts, Sweet Snacks

Blueberry Bread with Lemon Glaze

Here is Kat’s silly tip for the day, which you probably already know, but I am going to tell you again. When making muffins or quick breads, has it ever happened to you that the “stuff” (i.e. blueberries, chocolate chips, nuts) all gravitates to the bottom and then you have a nice top but everything else ends up in a gooey mess? solution: toss the berries, chocolate chips and/or nuts with a couple of spoonfuls of flour, creating a light coating. Then mix them into the batter. This makes the “stuff” grippier and it doesn’t all sink to the bottom!
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Breakfast/Brunch, General Reference/Tutorial

Easy Jostaberry Jam

What in the world is a jostaberry? Well, I had absolutely no idea wither until I picked them … by accident … thinking that they were large black currants. Oops. They are a hybrid between a black currant, a North American coastal black gooseberry and a regular gooseberry. Of course! I don’t think that this helps anyone much, but is essence, they are a large black currant or a small black gooseberry, about the size of a cultivated blueberry (so not the Maine wild blueberries, but more the high bush kind) that taste a little like a gooseberry and a lot like a black currant. Clear as mud? I thought so.

From a linguistic point of view — me being German and all — it is kind of interesting too: The name Jostaberry was created via combining the German words for blackcurrant and gooseberry, namely Johannisbeere (“Jo”) and Stachelbeere (“Sta”). Following German pronunciation of “J”, it should be pronounced “yostaberry” in English.

But what they really are is a great base for jam. This turned out wonderfully. It’s not too sweet, has the distinct tartness that any currant jam will give you and jelled really nicely as well. It will go great mixed into my morning yogurt.
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Breakfast/Brunch, General Reference/Tutorial

Blueberry Lemon Thyme Fruit Preserves

I went PYO berry picking again, this time for blueberries, raspberries, red and black currants, and unexpectedly, jostaberries (see the next post on that). And so I decided to make some more jam. This one is a variation on your typical blueberry jam, but I added lemon and lemon thyme. It doesn’t really taste thyme-y, just clean and fresh with a hint of “what’s that flavor?” Summer in a jar.
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Cookies, Sweet Snacks

Cherry Hazelnut White Chocolate Thumbprints

when I was a little girl, my Oma and Opa in greater-Stuttgart had this great cherry tree. I used to love hanging out under that tree, playing in the mud in the early summer, and then enjoying the bounty of the tree later in the summers. My sister once pulled me out of that tree (well, she pulled the ladder, not realizing that my legs were still looped over it, while I was sitting on a pretty high branch) and I broke my foot, but that is the only bad memories that I have of cherries from when I was a child. I love love love cherries.
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General Reference/Tutorial, Savory Snacks, Sides

Pickled Cherries (small batch)

Either you’re going to think that I am crazy, or you think that this is genius … pickled cherries? Who would have thought!

But they are amazingly good and should take my word for it and make a batch yourself. This is only a small batch and worse case, you will have to give the ones that you don’t like away, but trust me, you will be making more! Sweet and briney, a perfect addition to a cheese plate or along side pork. And while cherries are in high season and relatively inexpensive, you should go for it.
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