I saw a photo of Clementine Jam the other day and just had to make it — and tis the season as all sorts of mandarins and other citrus fruit are in season — check out the color! It is simply fantastic and likely the brightest colored jam that I have ever seen. And it tastes good too. It is a little bitter, but that can often be the case with citrus jams and preserves, but it will be spectacular on toast. Oooooh, or on pancakes. Yummy and seasonal.
fruits-and-berries
So I’m plugging away at Cookie Madness, but I couldn’t help but make one last pie in these pre-Thanksgiving days. This one uses heirloom apples called Baldwins that I got at Russell Orchards last weekend. Very nice apples; firm and not too tart. Loving my lattice work too. The rim was a little messy so I used a leaf cookie cutter to pretty it up a little bit.
And now for something a little different …. Have you ever eaten roses? Yes, as in the flower that one gives on Valentine’s Day? The flowers turn to fruit (rosehips) which are edible. I commonly know rosehips from tea, but recently while I was in Germany, I found rosehip jam, and of course was curious. It’s a floral flavor for sure, though I am not sure I could identify the taste as ‘roses’. At any rate, I decided to make some of my crumble shortbread bars with the jam and some almonds and they turned out quite nice. I could see them being eaten with tea or coffee in the afternoon.
Often people send me viral photos of cool looking bread design or fancy pie crusts. I love this but one of the things that you often see is the pre-baked pies, but never the end result. Like, what does it look like once You’ve baked it? Is the still as pretty? Or does it all bake together? I decided to give this style of pie — it’s really just a boring old double-crust apple pie, but with the fancy swoosh top crust — a go, and at least with this one, the pattern turned out pretty neat. Pleased with the result.














