Sweet Cherry Pie Filling

A couple of weeks ago, one of our local farm markets was selling Lapin cherries (sweet cherries) for $19.80 for a 20 pound case.  

That's a big deal!  Only a couple of weeks before that, cherries had been selling for $5.00/pound!  It was a work night when I came upon them but I bought a case anyway.  (I probably would have bought more but common sense, in the form of my husband's voice in my ear, prevailed.)

We enjoy canned cherries but, even more than cherries canned in syrup, we find that we enjoy sweet cherry pie filling.  Not that we actually use it much for pies - we rarely make a cherry pie - but it makes an excellent cherry crisp, or cherry muffins, or a filling for cake during the dark winter months when fresh cherries are but a fond memory.

Since common sense had prevailed and I wouldn't be likely to find a case of cherries at the price again, I decided to forgo canning them in syrup and made the whole 20 pounds into pie filling.  I canned it in pints and now have 20 jars lined up in my pantry, just waiting for wintertime baking.

Here's my recipe.  Please note that while I am an enthusiastic home canner, I'm not an authority on the subject.  If you're canning cherry pie filling (or anything else), purchase a reputable canning guide book. (Putting Food By and the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving are both very good.)  Review their instructions on safe canning practices, then follow them to the letter.  Canning is no place for approximation or improvisation.  Food safety is a science and safe practice is, quite literally, a matter of life and death.

To can Sweet Cherry Pie Filling, you'll need:

• Sweet cherries (Lapins or Bings both work very well), washed, cut in half, and pitted

and, for every 8 cups of prepared cherries:

• 1 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup quick cooking tapioca
• 3/4 teaspoon almond extract

Combine the cherries, sugar, and tapioca in a large pot and stir them gently so that the sugar is distributed throughout the fruit.   (My pot holds 24 cups of prepared fruit - about half of my 20 pound case) so I mixed in 3 cups of sugar and 3/4 cup tapioca.)

Cook the cherry mixture over medium low heat until it boils and thickens, stirring occasionally so that the mixture heats through evenly and doesn't stick to the bottom of the pan.  Stir gently!  You don't want to break up the cherries any more than you have to.

While the cherries are heating through, prepare your canning jars.  Wash them either in your dishwasher or in hot soapy water, then put them in a large pot.  Add enough water to cover them by at least 2 inches and bring them to a boil.  Reduce the heat to hold the water at a simmer until you're ready to use the jars.

Prepare sealer lids for your jars according to the manufacturer's directions.

Fill your canner with water and bring it to a boil.

When the cherries mixture has boiled and thickened, remove it from the heat and stir in the almond extract.  Ladle it into your jars, leaving about an inch of head room.

Put the lids on the jars and screw on the sealer rings to finger tight.

Process your jars of pie filling in a boiling water bath, 25 minutes for pints or 35 minutes for quarts. 

Remove the jars from the canner and allow them to cool to room temperature.

Test the seals.  Store any unsealed jars in the fridge and use them up within a few days.

Wash the outside of the sealed jars with warm soapy water, give them a rinse, and gently towel them dry.

Label the jars and store them in cool space, out of direct light, until you're ready to use them.

__________________________________________
This post is linked to Gallery of Favorites hosted by Premeditated Leftovers and The 21st Century Housewife, the Pity Party hosted by Thirty Handmade Days, to Foodie Friday hosted by Rattlebridge Farm, to Strut Your Stuff Saturdays at Six Sisters' Stuff, to Weekend Potluck hosted by Sunflower Supper Club, to Scrumptious Sunday hosted by Addicted to Recipes, to Makin' You Crave Monday hosted by Mrs. Happy Homemaker, to Busy Monday hosted by A Pinch of Joy,

 

 

 

    

Slow Cooker Pinto Beans With Ham, and How to Can Them

Pinto beans are beautiful when dried, but cooked...not so much.  It takes a better photographer than I am to make a plate of pinto beans and rice look pretty!  It's a shame, really, because they make an excellent meal: delicious, nutritious, and cheap.  

I didn't always like pinto beans.  Until I was in my middle thirties, I'd never had them other than from a tin and I disliked them intensely.  Up until that time, Mexican food had no part in my diet so I was unfamiliar with the comforting flavour of refried beans or even, for that matter, with the idea that you could or should spice bean dishes at all.  

Of course I didn't like them!  Who would like a bowl of unseasoned, under cooked, woody textured, beige, beans from a can?

When I did eventually learn to cook pinto beans properly, the flavour was a revelation to me.  I discovered that a plate of beans and rice can, indeed, be a wonderful thing.

I always cook pinto beans in my slow cooker.  I soak them, then cook them until they're very tender.  I find the texture comforting.  Some of you may prefer a firmer bean, though, so I've added some alternate cooking instructions at the bottom of the page.

Last time I cooked them, I paired my pinto beans with ham.  

I'd cooked a toupee ham for dinner earlier in the week, and used the leftovers in the cooker with my beans. I cooked a lot of beans (I often do), so I canned the extras for use on days when I'm too rushed to fuss with dinner. 

I've included instructions for both cooking and canning the beans here.  

Please note that while I am an enthusiastic home canner, I'm not an authority on the subject.  If you're canning pinto beans (or anything else), purchase a reputable canning guide book (Putting Food By and the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving are both very good).  Review their instructions on safe canning practices, then follow them to the letter.  Canning is no place for approximation or improvisation.  Food safety is a science and safe practice is, quite literally, a matter of life and death.

You are unlikely to find canning instructions specifically for beans and ham.  When canning any food that contains more than one ingredient follow the processing instructions for the ingredient that requires the longest processing time, at the highest pressure.

To make Slow Cooker Pinto Beans with Ham, I used:

• 2 pounds of dried pinto beans
• 2 pounds of cubed, cooked ham
• Reserved water from simmering the ham (You can use stock instead if you prefer)
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• Salt and pepper to taste

I covered the dried beans with cold water and left them to soak overnight.  

(Use a big bowl.  They expanded right over the top of  my 8-cup measuring cup, spilling bean soaking water all over my counter.)

I put the soaked beans in my slow cooker, together with my cubed ham.

I sprinkled the cumin over top of the beans and ham and then stirred them all together.  

Once they were stirred together, I added enough of the ham cooking water to just cover the top of the mixture.  

I put the lid on the slow cooker and cooked the beans on "low" for about 4 hours, until they were as tender as I wanted them to be.  You can adjust the cooking time to suit your own preference.

When they were cooked, I lifted enough beans and ham out for our supper and seasoned that lot separately, adding in salt, black pepper, and chili powder.  I served the seasoned beans over brown rice, and topped them with fresh salsa.

I cooled the rest of the beans, in their cooking liquid, before refrigerating them for use the following day.

When I was ready to can the leftover beans, I put them in the oven to reheat.  

While the beans were reheating, I sterilized some jars, prepared jar lids according to the manufacturer's directions, and heated some water in my pressure canner.  I also brought a quart of vegetable broth to a boil, to supplement the bean cooking liquid when filling the jars.

When the beans were hot, I ladled them into pint jars, filling them about 3/4 full, 

and then added in a mixture of stock and the reserved bean cooking liquid, leaving an inch headroom in each jar.  

I added 1/2 teaspoon of pickling salt to each pint jar, wiped the jar edges, and then screwed the lids on finger tight.

I processed my beans at 10 pounds pressure for 75 minutes.  

Because I'd already cooked them, my beans didn't expand much in the jars.  Next time, I'll fill the jars a little fuller.

Beans that have been cooked in the slow cooker and then cooked again in the canner will have a very soft texture that makes them perfect for making refried beans.  If you prefer a firmer textured bean, skip the slow cooker step and cook your beans entirely in the jar.

To do this, drain the beans from their soaking water and fill your prepared jars 3/4 full with soaked, uncooked beans.  

Top up the jars with either boiling water or stock, leaving in 1 inch of head room.  

Add 1/4 teaspoon of cumin and 1/2 teaspoon pickling salt to each jar.  

Process at 10 pounds pressure for 75 minutes.
___________________________________
This recipe is linked to Hearth and Soul Blog Hop hosted by The 21st Century Housewife, Premeditated Leftovers, Zesty South Indian Kitchen, Savoring Today, Penniless Parenting, and Elsa Cooks

Chai Tea and Raisin Scones

A while back, Happy Housewife inspired me to make Bara Brith, a Welsh tea cake in which the fruit is soaked in tea before being mixed into the batter.  It was delicious!  That recipe, and the dietary requirements of a friend who is allergic to milk, inspired me to make these scones.

Often, when I'm looking for a starting point for making breads or quick breads, I look to my dog-eared copy of the Sunset Cook Book of Breads.  I love that book.  I baked my first-ever loaf of bread from one of its recipes, and have tested most of the rest of them in the decades since.  They're all good, so it was to my Sunset book that I looked when making this new scone.

Tea is acidic so I reasoned that it would work well as a substitute for buttermilk. I like the spices in chai tea, especially when paired with fruit, so I decided to use chai tea and raisins for these scones.  I substituted a dairy-free soy based margarine for the butter called for in the recipe.

The scones turned out so well that I ended up making a second batch later in the week, at my husband's request.  I used butter in the second batch - the batch I used for my photos here.

To make Chai Tea and Raisin Scones, you'll need:

• About 2 cups of very strong Chai tea, steeped in boiling water, without milk     (I used 3 tea bags in 2 cups of water and steeped it until it was very strong)
• 1 cup raisins 
• 3 cups unsifted all purpose flour
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 2-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup very cold butter, cut into small pieces
• 1 egg white beaten with a little cold water just until frothy or a little milk, for brushing on top of the scones
• sugar for sprinkling on top of the scones (I used coarse raw sugar crystals but regular granulated sugar will work fine too.)
  

Begin by steeping your tea, and measuring your raisins out into a heat proof container.

Once the tea has steeped pour it over the raisins, to cover.  Let the raisins soak until the they've cooled to room temperature.

When the raisins have cooled, drain them through a sieve, reserving the drained tea for use in your scones.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

Add the butter and work it into the flour by rubbing it between your fingers so that it breaks into flat pieces about the size and shape of cornflakes.

Add in the drained raisins and toss them through the flour mixture so that they're lightly coated.

Make a well in the middle of the dry mixture.  

Measure 1 cup of the cooled tea and pour it into the well.  

Mix the tea through the flour mixture, first with a spoon and then with your hands, kneading the dough until it holds together.

Pat or roll the dough into a square about an inch thick.  Cut it into individual scones and transfer the scones to a parchment lined baking sheet.

Brush the tops of the scones with either beaten egg white or milk and then sprinkle them with sugar.  Be generous.  The sugar will add a nice crunchy texture to the top of the scones.

Bake the scones at 400F until cooked through and lightly browned.  This took 18 minutes in my oven.

Serve the scones while they're still hot, with butter.

Leftovers can be cooled and stored in an airtight container but should be reheated before serving.
_________________________________


This recipe is adapted from the Buttermilk Scone recipe on page 89 of the Sunset Cook Book of Breads, published Lane Publishing Co., Menlo Park, CA, 1981
__________________________________


This recipe is linked to Gallery of Favorites hosted by Premeditated Leftovers and The 21st Century Housewife, FoodTastic Friday hosted by Not Your Ordinary Recipes, The Pity Party hosted by Thirty Hand Made Days, to Foodie Friends Friday hosted by Tracy at Busy Vegetarian Mom, Robyn's View,  Angie at A lil Country Sugar,  Michelle at From Calculus to Cupcakes, Marlys at This and That, Lois at  Walking on Sunshine, Lindsey at Family Food Finds, Cindy at Cindys Recipes and Writings, Keira at Luscious Delights, Tami at Food Forays, R Dawn, Amber, Erika, and Sarah at Everything in the Kitchen Sink, to Saturday Link and Greet at Country Momma Cooks, to Strut Your Stuff Saturday hosted by Six Sister's Stuff, to Weekend Potluck hosted by Sunflower Supper Club, to Think Pink Sunday hosted by Flamingo Toes, to Scrumptious Sunday hosted by Addicted to Recipes, to Makin' You Crave Monday hosted by Mrs. Happy Homemaker, to Craft-O-Maniac Monday hosted by Craft-O-Maniac, to Busy Monday hosted by A Pinch of Joy, to Manic Monday hosted by Bobbi's Cozy Kitchen, to Mix it Up Monday hosted by Flour Me With Love, to Delicious Dish Tuesday hosted by Mama Chocolate, Full Time Mama, and Coping with Frugality, to the Tuesday To Do Party hosted by The Blackberry Vine, to Tip Me Tuesday hosted by Tip Junkie, to Watcha Whipped Up Wednesday hosted by DJ's Sugar Shack, to Cast Party Wednesday hosted by Lady Behind The Curtain, to Look What I Made hosted by Creations by Kara, to Wonderful Wednesday hosted by Printabelle, to Thursday's Treasures hosted by Recipes for My Boys, to Tastetastic Thursday hosted by A Little Nosh,  and to Full Plate Thursday hosted by Miz Helen's Country Cottage.