Gooseberry Jam

Today I made this gorgeous Gooseberry Jam. It looked so marvelous in the jars that I just had to share it with you. I am always amazed at the lovely pink colour that comes out of all those little green beauties. 
I followed the tried and true formula of equal parts of fruit and sugar. This is 1 kg of raw topped and tailed gooseberries: cooked until they breakup, and 1 kg of sugar: dissolved in the fruit and boiled until it sets. 
I checked the setting by using a sweet thermometer to check that the jam reaches 106 deg. C, and by putting a teaspoon of jam on a plate and into the freezer: if a skin forms on the top then the jam is ready. Put the hot jam into sterilized jars, lids on, and your a domestic goddess already.

This is the smaller batch of raspberry jam I made earlier in the week. We have really enjoyed some great raspberry picking this season. All I need now is a few days of sun for the strawberries to ripen, and my season's jam making will be done.

Sweet Tarts for Afternoon Tea

Anyone who has ever had anything to do with agriculture in general knows that farm labour functions on its stomach. Nothing can be better than a hearty meal and a cup of tea after a few hours of burning sun, dusty nor west wind and general hard slog. 

Yesterday out of the blue we got the SOS from mother - she was sick and the shearers were crutching lambs at the farm for the day. For those that are not farm raised, crutching is, in the words of Little Miss 3, "trimming the wool off the lamb's bottoms." It was all hands on deck helping in the yards with keeping the sheep up and no one available to cook the meals. So in the car and off we went. LM3 was stoked with a surprise visit to Nana and Poppa's house.

With no time to spare and morning tea scheduled for 9.30am, a quick stop in at Darfield Bakery and Cafe supplied the morning tea. The food was very good indeed; the Afghan's actually tasted like homemade and the staff were very obliging in finding enough cold savouries for us. Another half hour in the car and we were there. While LM3 and I attended to the garden, chickens and ducks, The Chef cooked a lunch of vegetable soup, roast pork with new potatoes and apple and berry pie. With lunch out of the way it was my turn to come up with a nice afternoon tea.

Keen to use some of the fruit from the garden, as well as making an indulgent treat, I decided on using my Walnut Sweet Pastry as a base for a couple of different tarts.

Make the walnut pastry and leave to chill. Set the oven to 190 deg. C.

For the Gooseberry tarts: I washed, topped, tailed and sliced in half approximately 1 cup of gooseberries. Mix with 1 tablespoon of cornflour and 1/3 cup of sugar. 







For the Caramel tarts: Combine 60g butter, 1 can of condensed milk and 1 tablespoon of golden syrup in a small saucepan. Stir over a low heat until the butter is melted and the mixture starts to thicken. It needs to be stirred constantly or it will catch on the bottom and burn. Set aside while rolling the pastry.

Roll the pastry out between 2 sheets of plastic wrap until about 4mm thick. Cut into circles, I used a fluted cutter, but a simple jar will do the same job. Place each one into the bottom of a muffin or tart pan. The mixture is quite delicate and needs to be handled gently, especially on a hot day. Press a little piece of cooking foil into each tart case and bake blind for 6-8 minutes. Take from the oven and remove the foil.





Fill half the tarts with the gooseberry mixture and the other half with the caramel. I popped a chocolate melt on top of some of the caramel ones. Don't overfill.

Bake for a further 8 minutes. The filling should have bubbled. Be careful, as you can see, a couple of extra minutes can leave them over baked! Leave to cool in the tin for about 10 minutes before attempting to remove by easing out with a knife. 

I got short of time and had to leave the tarts in their tin to take up the hill to the wool shed. Everyone was happy with their afternoon tea, Nana was feeling better after a day in bed and LM3 had a lovely afternoon inspecting the livestock.  

Foragers Fruit Pie with Sweet Walnut Pastry

Most people associate a holiday with not having to do terribly much in the kitchen. But I aways find that one of the greatest joys of the holiday season is having the time to enjoy doing some cooking without all the usual working week pressures. Today's offering came about after a few afternoon hours spent foraging in my mother's garden. I found some of the best of summer's bounty: raspberries, black currants, gooseberries and red currants all fell into my bowl. I've made this particular pie before and it adapts to whatever fruit is available at the time of year.

Foragers Fruit Pie with Sweet Walnut Pastry

Pastry:
4 oz butter

4 oz caster sugar

1 egg

1 1/2 cups plain flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

3/4 cup chopped walnuts

Cream the butter and sugar until pale and creamy. Beat in the egg. Fold in the sifted flour and baking powder, along with the chopped walnuts. Wrap in food wrap and chill in the fridge while preparing the filling.

Fruit Filling:

5 cups of prepared fruit: I used a mix of raspberries, red and black currents and gooseberries.

3 heaped tablespoons cornflour

4 heaped tablespoons caster sugar

Prepare the fruit by stripping the red and black currents from their stalks. Don't worry about the little tuft on the bottoms of the blackcurrants; they wont be noticed once its cooked. Cut the gooseberries in half.

Reserve some raspberries to sprinkle onto the top of the pie as the ones that are incorporated into the fruit mix will break up. Gently fold the sugar and cornflour into the fruit.

Construction:
On a large chopping board, roll the pastry into a large circle between two sheets of plastic food wrap. It's a very delicate pastry and will break up easily.

The trick is to peel the top sheet of wrap away and place the upside down baking tray over the top - flip the whole lot, board and all, over and remove the second sheet of plastic wrap so the pastry is sitting on the baking sheet. Pile the fruit mixture onto the pastry, leaving a gap around the outside. Sprinkle the extra raspberries on top. Gently flip the extra pastry from around the outside over the edges of the pie.

If any leaks develop, putty them shut with a little extra pastry. Bake at 180 deg. C. until the filling had thickened and the pastry is golden brown. With quite a wet filling its important to ensure the pie is baked enough for the bottom to be sufficiently cooked.

Leave it to sit and cool before attempting to cut. It's best served either warm or at room temperature. Because its so large and delicate, its best served as is on the baking tray. You can make two smaller pies instead of one enormous one.

Sprinkle with icing sugar, pour some cream into a jug and call the family. Nothing could be better on a bright sunny summer's evening.