Quick & Convenient Cranberry Sauce

Making a couple nights ago for E and another friend, I wanted to include a bit of color -- and to make the meal feel a little fancier than rice & beans (posts on this later). I have a ton of cranberries in the freezer (and plan to buy more) and thought a cranberry sauce would be lovely to go with -- color, a bit of tart flavor to go with slightly spicy beans, and plenty of all those good things that come from cranberries. And when I paired it with a bit of guacamole from an avocado I've had for a while and which finally ripened, I thought the presentation was pretty lovely.

But the cranberries: I also had a bit of frozen raspberry-lemonade in the freezer, from when a transient friend stayed here for a few nights and didn't want to repack it (or forgot about it?) in his cooler. That's kinda like orange juice in the traditionally cranberry-orange flavors, but a bit more...fun. Or so I hoped.

Turns out, that's a pretty okay combo and this cooked up, over medium heat in about 15 minutes. It didn't cook so long that the cranberries collapsed completely, which was also nice. Plumpish cranberries in cranberry sauce are, well, nice.

Cranberry Sauce
1/2 pound fresh cranberries
1-2 tablespoons (to taste, I used about 1 1/2) frozen raspberry-lemonade concentrate
2 tablespoons water

Combine all ingredients in a small sauce pan over medium-high heat for 3-4 minutes and then reduce heat to medium, stirring frequently, until the cranberries are soft, but retain their shape (about 15 minutes). Serve hot or cool.

Note: You can also keep this over "warm" for a while if you want, but make sure to check it from time to time to see if you need to add more water, so that it doesn't scorch to the bottom. You could cook it down for a while to create jam or preserves, if you wanted, but you will want to make sure that if you go this route you stir it often enough that it doesn't burn as the water evaporates.

Apple Cinnamon Yogurt Scones

Frosted Evergreen

When I lived in the Midwest, the restaurant across the street from my apartment sold wonderful scones -- which (probably for the best) I didn't try until my last year living there, thanks to a friend I met during a 2 week long field trip for a Sustainable Agriculture class. This friend talked up these scones endlessly and after losing a bet with him (I don't even remember what we bet on!), I brought him a blueberry-lemon scone from this restaurant, which was the one he requested. Since I had to buy one for him anyway, I bought one for myself, just to try it. And then I was hooked.

The scones had none of the qualities I dislike about scones. They were moist, namely, rather than crumbly. They had flavor, personality. I wound up buying a scone a week for a while, until I decided to give up gluten. Giving up those scones was one of the hardest things about going gluten-free. In fact, I've replicated them in the non-vegan version before, in one of my posts about things to do with mulberries.

Warning to those of you who have found my blog by looking for vegan or gluten-free recipes. This recipe is neither. I made these scones because I planned to take a few scones to a dinner party and I wanted something that wasn't nearly as sweet as the "breakfast" (dessert) style scones I'd made. These are much closer to many traditional scones in their lightly-sweetness, but still aren't the type of scones that crumble (or shatter) as you take a bite out of them. I've got no interest in making those.

However, this is apple season and I've got a few apples that are softer than I generally like for eating. I'm a bit picky about how soft apples are "allowed" to be, which in my mind, is "not at all soft." Apples should be crisp. For this recipe, I'm using one Gold Rush and one apple that I've already forgotten the name of, both bought from my local growers market--from a farmer who grows more than 60 types of apples and has been generous enough to talk to me about the apples (and recommend books about apple varieties and cultivation) for the past three months.

These scones are different from the standard buttermilk scones in that I use yogurt instead--the same principle, but less liquid. To help balance this, I use both yogurt and whipping cream (you could use 1/2 cup of yogurt instead, potentially, but you might need to add some additional liquid) that I've curdled with lemon juice--this also lets me reduce the amount of butter I use.

If you're in the mod for apple cinnamon scones, here are a few other suggestions:

*Chocolate chips with orange zest (like the Joy the Baker recipe originally called for)
*Blueberry-lemon
*Cranberry white-chocolate (use a white chocolate glaze with fresh cranberries and lemon zest kneaded into the batter)

There are many more combinations of course, depending on what flavors you like.

Apple Cinnamon Scones

makes four large or six small scones 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour  2 tablespoons granulated sugar 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast 1 teaspoon thyme 2 1/4 teaspoon baking powder 1/4 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon salt 4 tablespoons cold butter 1 egg yolk 1/4 cup low-fat or non-fat yogurt 1/4 cup whipping cream mixed with 2 teaspoons lemon juice or cider vinegar Easy Apple Compote (see my post on this) Place rack in the upper third of the oven and preheat to 425 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside. In a mixing bowl, sift together flour, sugar, nutritional yeast, thyme, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse meal. In another bowl, egg yolk, egg yolk, and whipping cream. Add to flour mixture all at once, stirring enough to make a soft dough. Turn out onto a lightly floured board and knead about 15 times. Roll or pat out into a 1/2-inch thickness. Cut into 8 large or 12 small squares (or more). On half the squares, spread a thin amount of apple compote(amount will depend on the size square you’re using and how much jam you want. I make small squares and use about 1-2 tablespoons compote). Place the remaining, squares on top to make a “sandwich.”  Place scones on prepared baking sheet and bake at 425 degrees F for 12-15 minutes.   Let cool for 5-10 minutes, and then serve.

Half have a maple syrup glaze

Agave-Sweetened Blackberry Jam

Blackberries are plentiful and everyone's out picking them. I see people people walking around with mason jars half-filled or filled with blackberries. I see people (like myself) wandering around with plastic bags and tubs gathering berries. And I see people (also like myself) picking just a couple and eating them.

You can tell a blackberry is ready to pick when it practically melts off its stem while you're pulling it off the bush. Usually at this point, blackberries have lost their sheen and are dark and perfectly black. My blackberries weren't all fully ready when I made this jam, as you can see from the picture, but I needed enough to make jam because I had enough that were crushing under the weight of their fellow berries and forming blackberry juice.

For the past couple of weeks, my fingers have been stained with blackberry juice, which has been lovely--and has made me even more excited for making blackberry jam (especially once my friend Rachael shared that she was making blackberry jam while listening to Iron & Wine one recent evening).

This is a simple blackberry jam, sweetened with agave nectar since some of my berries were under-ripe and tart.

Agave-Sweetened Blackberry Jam 
1/2 gallon fresh blackberries, well washed
2-3 tablespoons agave nectar
1 tablespoon lemon juice

In a medium pot, over medium-low heat, cook the blackberries until soft, then stir in the agave nectar and lemon juice.

Continue to simmer over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally until the jam has thickened to the desired consistency.

This will keep in the refrigerator, in a closed container, for about 2 weeks, or you can freeze it.

Mulberries Galore! (Part I - Mulberry Jam)



Mulberry Jam

Mulberries, despite what the children's song would like you to believe, don't grow on a bush. They grow on a tree--a tree that can become huge. Some people see mulberry trees as a pest, something they'd like to get rid of, because when birds eat mulberries, it turns their poop purple. Charming, right? But I'm not convinced that purple birdcrap is any worse than white birdcrap.

The town where I live has a ton of mulberry trees in the parks and they're all heavy with fruit right now. The other day, I went mulberry-foraging with Annie. We expected to collect maybe a pint of mulberries and if we'd been working alone, that would've probably been about right. However, together we were able to collect a half gallon of mulberries in about two hours (mostly spent wandering around seeking mulberry trees with branches low enough we could reach). Teamwork made this easier. One of us would grab a branch and pull it down (thus pulling other branches into reach). We'd strip the branch of ripe (black and dark red) mulberries and then start in on another branch.
Because mulberries are delicate, usually the best bet is to take a large towel or sheet and just shake the tree -- the ripe berries drop onto the blanket for easy collection. We, however, didn't have a large sheet with us (oh well) and our foraging resulted in purple fingers (and a few close calls with poison ivy) for both of us.

Annie talked about putting her mulberries over ice cream (yum!) and I decided to make mine into jam -- especially since we'd already made plans to collect more berries later in the week. I looked at recipes online. Either they called for a TON of sugar, or none at all. Since you should add some sort of acid to jams (i.e. - lemon juice or lime juice) you plan to preserve, I wanted some sugar added -- just enough to balance to acid. I wasn't planning to can my jam -- or even make freezer jam -- because I wasn't making enough, but I do believe in practicing safe preserving methods whenever possible.
The recipe I developed lets the flavor of the berries come through, is slightly tart, and just sweet enough. If you like super-sweet jams (or you prefer jellies without all that texture-y goodness) there are recipes online that looked wonderful. I let my jam cook about 30 minutes over medium-low heat and it firmed up more as it cooled.

Mulberry Jam (low sugar)
1 quart ripe mulberries, soaked and rinsed 3x
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup lemon juice

In a large saucepan over medium heat, add all ingredients together. Stir occasionally and allow the mixture to come to a high simmer/low boil. Cook, stirring frequently to prevent burning, until the mixture reaches the desired consistency. Yields approximately 10-12 ounces.

You could certainly can this jam with a pressure canner, or a water bath, make freezer jam (or, like me, put it in the refrigerator and use it in the next few days).



Mulberry Jam on a NutThin