Jam Crazy

I went over to my in-laws house the other day, and Marianne had this HUGE bucket filled with cherries. Of course, I naturally start devouring them. I asked her where she got them, and she told me they were from Aunt Moni's house. She has a huge cherry tree and it is practically laden with cherries. My mind started racing as to what all I could make with this wonderful little balls of goodness. Then, it really hit me...well, DUH! I'm going to make a crap load of cherry jam and some cherry pie filling.

On Thursday, when I got back from Regensburg, I went straight over to my in-laws and Franz and I went over to Aunt Moni's to pick another bucket full of cherries. Well, I couldn't get up on the ladder, so Franz had to do most of the hard work, while I stayed on the ground picking ripe cherries and basically eating my weight in cherries. Good lord were they good! After about half an hour, the bucket was full...and by full, I mean there were about 4.5 kilos of freshly picked sweet cherries. (I'm really drooling just thinking about this...)


OK, now I've got the bucket of cherries, now I need to borrow Marianne's cherry pitter machine (see the previous post on making the Cherry Cake) and I need to run to the store to get some extra jars, since I don't think I have enough, and I need to pick up some "gelier zucker". This sugar that they have here is awesome! It already has the pectin mixed into it in the right proportions, so all you have to do is add 500 grams of this sugar for every 1000 grams of fruit...so easy!

So, I got home, got all the cherries washed and started the piting process at about 8. Let me tell you, it takes about an hour to pit 4.5 kilos of cherries. Luckily, there was a decent movie on, so I just had that on in the background while I was piting. So, after all the seeds were removed, I ended up with 3.58 kilos of pitted cherries. Not too shabby. So, I dump them all in the pot, get out my hand held blender and go to town until it is pretty smooth. Once it was smooth, I added the sugar and put it on to boil. Now I had to get the jars all ready. I had already washed them, so now just to do a quick sterilization (pour boiling water into them) and put all the lids into a pot of boiling water, and I'm ready to go.

Thank God for my huge Ikea pot. I use it just about once a year to make jam, but it is totally worth it's weight in gold! I brought it over from the states, and I'm not sure if Ikea has this pot over here...I'll check that today while I'm there...

Ok, back to the jam....It was boiling nicely, and I kept de-foaming it...there is always a bit of foam at the top...don't worry, I didn't throw this goodness away, I put it in a jar for Markus to mix with his cottage cheese! I'm such a thoughtful wife!

After having it boil for about 5 or 6 minutes, the time came for the moment of truth...pouring it into the jars. I don't have one of those fancy funnel things, (but I think I am now in the market for one!) so I just had to pour it from the pot directly into the jar. It was just a bit messy, but it worked. Sweet! This made 13 jars of cherry jam. HEAVEN!


Oh, and I forgot to mention, Markus was in Frankfurt during this whole jam making craziness.

Now, it's Friday...at the beginning of the week, I always said that I was going to go to the strawberry field in Hirschau and pick a wagon full of strawberries and make strawberry jam on Friday. That is exactly what happened. Don't get me wrong, I was tired from the jam session (haha) on Thursday night, which ended at about 11pm, but I was determined.

So, I headed down to Hirschau at about 10 and I went to my in-laws since Marianne wasn't sure on Thursday if she wanted to go or not. She ended up not really wanting to go...ok, that's not true, she wanted to go, she just didn't have time, so she is going today (Saturday). So I headed out to the strawberry field on my own. No worries though. It was nice outside...it was cloudy, so not too hot, but it was humid...not Houston humid, but humid nonetheless.

The absolute great thing about strawberry fields, is that while you're out there picking, you can eat as many strawberries as you want. Oh, and I did :). I think I ate my weight in strawberries. This baby is going to either look like a cherry or a strawberry...or just especially like the taste of those two fruits!


I got my pick on, and about 45 minutes later, I left with 6.28 kilos of strawberries for about 12 Euro! Once again, HEAVEN!


Oh, and I forgot to mention that while I was picking the cherries, my wonderful father-in-law went and picked another bucket of cherries for me so that I could make the cherry pie filling! What a great guy!

So, I'm back home, at the whole jam process again. Strawberries are definitely easier...you don't have to pit them, just pluck off the stem...no problem there. I only cooked up 5 kilos of the 6 though. I didn't have enought jars for 6 kilos of strawberries, so now I have 500 grams of frozen strawberries, and Markus and I devoured the rest.

This 5 kilo was PLENTY! It made up 28 (yes twenty-eight) jars of jam! YUM!!!

That second bucket of cherries that Franz picked was pited last night and half of them went to making a cherry pie filling (which, oh my god, is basically an orgasm in a jar) and the other half is now in my freezer waiting for me to do things with it.

End Cost:

Sugar: 8 Euro
Fruit: 12 Euro (the cherries were free)
Jars: 12 Euro
Being able to eat this goodness for the next year: priceless!

This jam extravaganza resulted in 13 jars of cherry jam, 28 jars of strawberry jam, 5 jars and 1 ziploc of cherry pie filling and about 4 other bags of frozen fruit!

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie...finished

I just took it out of the oven and oh my goodness...does it look (and smell) amazing! I can't wait for this 15 minute wait time to be over. On a side note: As I said, it runs over, and boy did it. I tried some of the run over, and man, it is so freaking good.

So, without further ado, the finished pie...yum...


And a picture of the runoff...just so you know I'm not lying :)

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie...continuted

Alrighty, so the pie is in the oven. I shall continue where we left off...First though, preheat your oven to 425 F or for us on the metric system, 220-ish C.

Take the crust out of the fridge and roll it out on a floured surface. With the recipe that I gave in the last post, it makes 2-nine inch pie crusts...or in my case, a top and a bottom crust (with some left over).

You've got the pie crust all rolled out, so place it nicely in the pan...What I do is I fold it in half then place the fold in roughly the middle of the pan and then fold it out. I just find it easier, but be careful, because the crust has a tendency to tear...I just put a bit of crust over the tear, especially since it's the bottom layer, and no one will see it. :)

I cut off the excess crust, you know, the stuff hanging over the sides...but that's just me, you can do your crust how you please.
Spoon the filling into the crust. At this point, you can do one of two things. You can either roll out the top crust and place it over, making a few slits for steam to escape, or you can make a lattice top. I'm quite partial to the lattice top myself, so that is what I do. It's a bit more work, but I've got time on my hands :).


After you cover the pie with whatever crust topping method you choose, brush an egg wash over it. It makes the crust pretty. What I also do is sprinkle some sugar on top since I always liked having that extra crunchy sugary goodness.


So, now you're ready to go. Be sure that you have a cookie tray in the oven because this sucker like to run over sometimes.

Put your pie in the preheated 425 F (220-ish C) oven. You'll want to bake it at this heat for 15 minutes, then turn it down to 375 F (190-ish C) and bake for another 50-60 minutes. Seriously, it takes this long! If the crust starts to burn, just cover those parts with foil.

Let it stand for about 15 - 20 minutes before devouring it! Trust me...you'll burn your tongue if you don't. Enjoy it with whipped cream or ice cream or both. Personally, I like it plain. It is just so good.

Spring is in the air!

WOOHOO!! Finally! Spring is here! We had a lovely weekend of being in the sun! Charlie enjoyed it too, meaning he jumped into every body of water, no matter the size. He was one happy pup!

Another way to tell that Spring is here, strawberries are on sale! Yes! And, what's more, the store had some very good looking rhubarb too. You know what that means! Yup, the first strawberry rhubarb pie of the season is currently being made in my kitchen. I know, I should be in there right now, but I have to let things sit a bit before I can put the pieces together. Basically, that means, I have to let the crust cool enough before I can roll it out. This will be a two part, maybe even a three part post, simply because I'm so excited about this pie! It is my absolute favorite pie! Oh, and it is Markus' favorite too :).

For the crust:

(notice the Jif dad!)

Since I can't just run out to the store and buy a ready made pie crust, I must make them myself. However, luckily, I have the pie crust making gene. My mother always told me that it takes a certain gene to be able to make a pie crust. Either you can make one, or you can't. Trust me, I can. Before I got my lovely food processor, I sat here cutting the damn butter into the flour, then the shortening into the butter...such a hassle, but it always came out lovely. Now that I have the food processor, it cuts the time tremendously.

I use a recipe out of Joy of Cooking, "Delux Butter Flaky Crust" or something like that. It's pretty easy.

2 1/2 cups of flour
1 teaspoon of sugar

into that cut 1/2 pound (2 sticks) of butter until it has pea size looking things. Very exact, I know :).

Then cut in 1/4 cup shortening.

Lastly, mix in 1/3 cup plus a couple of teaspoons of ice-cold water until smooth-ish. IT MUST BE REALLY COLD WATER! However, on a side note, I don't usually use all the water. I just eyeball it.

Wrap it in plastic wrap and put it in the fridge for an hour or so.



Obviously, this isn't the exact recipe from Joy of Cooking, but I've made it so many times, that this is what I use and these are my directions :).

Now, on to the filling....my favorite.


This is everything you'll need:
3 cups of rhubarb
3 cups of strawberries
1 1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup cornstarch
1 tbs fresh lemon juice
1 tbs vanilla bean paste (optional, but it makes it REALLY good)
1 tea cinnamon


So cut up the strawberries and rhubarb (I also like to peel my rhubarb, but I don't think you have to. Oh, and NEVER eat the leaves or the roots of rhubarb as they are poisonous. There, that's my public service announcement.). Put them in a large bowl and then add everything else for the filling and mix it all together.


Alrighty, so now I must get back into the kitchen since I believe my crust is ready to be rolled out. I'll get the rest of the recipe to you in the next post...ha...what a cliffhanger!