Sourdough CocoNana Bread (or Just Another Reason Why I Love Dorie Greenspan)

I'm sure that it's no secret that I love Dorie Greenspan. I don't really know of anyone who loves to bake who doesn't, and I think it's because in addition to her very likable personality, she also writes impeccable recipes. I consult her Baking book often, another in the stack of cookbooks that I have whole passages memorized from. Every recipe I've ever made from it has been a success: from the "adult" chocolate ganache cupcakes (gracing my CakeWalk banner above) to the Corniest Corn Muffins, each has been an instant favorite, and I'm hardly exaggerating. If you have been reading for awhile, you'll know that I don't actually own this favorite baking book of all time, instead I trek three quarters of a mile down the road and pick it up from the library every time I need it. The date due stamps are adding up over the years, and every time I check it out I wonder when I will finally break down and buy a copy of my very own.

For my Kiddo's birthday party on Saturday, I made a slew of chocolate cupcakes, and then a variation of her Perfect White Party Cake layered with Chocolate Malt Buttercream frosting for our family party later in the day. As if I would enter panic mode from not having enough chocolate to celebrate the momentous occasion of 5 years of my pride and joy, I decided to also "sourdoughize" a quick bread of Dorie's that I'd never actually tried in it's unaltered version: Coco-Nana bread.

It could be because my Parents came down to spend a couple of days (and we do love our quick breads with the morning coffee), or maybe it's because I was growing my starter bigger to be sure to have enough for plenty of pancake batter, but making this sourdough morning bread wasn't a mistake. I used a whole cup of starter and let it rise overnight until it was billowy and sweetly sour. I decided to scoop out 4 muffin-sized lumps from the rather full loaf pan after remembering my debacle with a recent cake and I'm fairly sure that proved to be a good decision. One muffin went (warm) directly into the Birthday Boy's mouth, where he promptly declared it delicious and I had no additional mess to attend to.

sourdough, overnighted.

If you plan the night before for this bread, it can be on the breakfast table in a little more than an hour. If you are in a rush, pop all of the batter into muffin papers, and they bake in roughly half the time. Either way the bread ages gracefully, gaining chocolaty depth and brownie points with children. You can easily pretend that you are having dessert for breakfast, which Dorie says is perfectly acceptable. She also says of her "coal dark morning loaf": "At first bite (it) is chocolate-chocolate, and then the banana flavor kicks in - it's altogether winning and, while it may feel decadent to have it at breakfast, it would be just as winning, if a little less racy, as a p.m. treat."

Agreed. And, seeing as my folks brought down my order of local strawberries, I'll add that sliced berries make a pretty great topping to a poundcake-sized portion as well.

Sourdough CocoNana Bread (adapted for sourdough from Dorie Greenspan - Baking From my Home to Yours)

• 1 c. sourdough starter (100% hydration), fed somewhat recently
• 1 3/4 c. AP flour
• 1/2 c. buttermilk (I use my yogurt that is quite thin)

• 1 c. cocoa powder (I used natural process)
• 1/2 t. salt
• 1 t. baking powder
• 3/4 t. baking soda
• 4 oz. (1 stick) butter
  
• 3/4 c. granulated sugar
• 1/2 c. brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 large bananas, slightly mashed
• 1/2 c. chocolate chips, or 3 oz. chopped chocolate (bittersweet recommended)
  

Combine the starter, flour and buttermilk in a large bowl and mix well. Cover and let stand at room temperature until risen and puffy, or until you are ready to bake, but preferably at least 8 hours.

Preheat oven to 350 and set the oven rack in the center of the oven. Prepare a loaf pan by buttering it well. Have ready some muffin tins if you deem you have too much batter to contend with for a single loaf.

Sift together the cocoa, salt, baking powder, and baking soda in a medium bowl.

In a large bowl, or bowl of a standing mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat butter at medium speed for a minute or two until softened. Add the sugars and beat for 2 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, and beat for 1 minute after each addition. (The batter may look curdled at this time, and that's normal.)

Reduce mixer speed to low, and mix in the mashed bananas. Mix in the cocoa mixture until just combined, then add the sourdough starter mixture. Mix well by machine, and if the starter is too sticky and unruly, wet your clean hands and knead the whole lot together by hand to evenly distribute the sourdough. I try to do this quickly, gently yet firmly and I use my hands since it they seem to have one up on the KitchenAid. Stir in chocolate chips or chopped chocolate if using and mix to distribute evenly.

Spread the mixture into the loaf pan/muffin tins, and place the pan/tins on a baking sheet for some extra insulation. Bake loaf for about 60-70 minutes, and muffins for 30-35 minutes, until a tester comes out clean. Let cool in pans for 5 minutes, then turn out to cool completely.

This is some seriously chocolaty bread. Near black, or "coal black" as Dorie aptly says, is the best description, and it tastes it as well. I may try to cut back on the sugar next time, but it's so good, I may totally decide not to bother. After all, I've already tricked myself into thinking it's better for me since I used sourdough...

No matter how I vary my method of mixing, whenever I make sourdough quick breads I always have telltale streaks of unruly batter. Honestly, I couldn't tell at all (taste or texture wise) in this bread. In some breads I've made, the streaks taste a little chewy - the first attempts were worse and were almost hard, little pebbles of sourdough nearly inedible.

I'm convinced that the more I work with sourdough in quick bread the better I become at incorporating it, and anyway this bread is so decadent that it draws attention away from what almost appears to be just nuts studded throughout. Maybe it's all the butter than softens it up, and maybe that's just another reason to love Dorie Greenspan and her marvelous recipes. My breakfasts are all the better for butter laden quick breads, my life enriched by Dorie and her attention to details.

This post has been Yeastspotted.

Pie in the Sky July.

So it's July. What a strange year this has been in the Midwest. It seems everything is taking it's time to ramp up into full fledged Summer, and a turn of the calender recently only first brought some seriously hot weather. I know I'm a bit young for a midlife crisis, but I find myself in a crisis of sorts: why didn't my re-seeded radishes sprout? Why does the day seem to evaporate in 20 minutes? Why am I procrastinating a ton of kitchen projects? Why can't I find any tart cherries anywhere without driving half a day away? If you are wondering where I've been, it's probably because I'm too busy knitting myself a shawl for my complete transformation into "older adulthood". Granted it's a crazy color Noro shawl, but still...

The start of July also brings birthdays for both of my boys, my Husband on the 1st, and my soon-to-be 5 year old on the 9th. Both are good excuses to make cake, and this year I tried a recipe from The Art and Soul of Baking. The book is a Sur la Table book, and since the first Sur la Table opened recently in Wisconsin and I saw this book at the library, I figured I'd make a masterpiece and then have something fitting to gush over. Things never happen the way you figure however, and though the cakes tasted great, they totally lacked in the visual department.

This is partially because I used chocolate chips to make the ganache and they contain a stabilizer to prevent total melting, but it's also in part because cake knows that when I want it to rise extra high it needs to rise not quite so high. I cut out the centers of the cake to fill with whipping cream, and you can see the disks of replaced cake underneath the lumpy ganache glaze. The good news is that when refrigerated, they turned into a dense, heavy-handed chocolate punch in the face, so I was happy. And, happy that I also made full 5 egg yolk vanilla ice cream to go alongside.

I glazed them over a pan, and collected all the run-over ganache into a bowl and ran it through a strainer, something I should have done to begin with. A little jar of perfectly silky ganache is my reward, though I've been doing little but eating it by the spoonful...

I've enjoyed a string of unusual lunches recently. My Husband has been working later in the evenings lately, which cause me to feel even more like a diner's short-order cook. I hardly mind that, but instead mind that when we don't eat together my picky Kiddo (I think at 5 years old he's graduated to an older moniker) gets off easier in the trying something new department. I do usually get a bite or two of something new in him without too much fuss, but I tell you I am perplexed with his eating habits. For a kid who from birth was introduced to everything under the sun, I have no idea where it comes from. When I made the blackberry jam and insisted that he try a spoonful, he screamed and ran to his room. Jam! I have serious troubles.

While at dinner I am more demanding that we eat the same thing, lunches are a different story and we eat "leftovers" - whatever is already made or can be made from stuff already made. Here are a few of my favorites. They were also posted on my facebook page, if some of you think they sound familiar.

Eugenia Bone's recommend of omelet topped with pickled radishes. The pickled radishes are some of my favorite things in a long time, and I feel like this year I have given them my personal press that I did the candied jalapenos in the past. Amazingly, they are good on almost everything, and the leftover vinegar in the jar is great on salad. I use Bragg's cider vinegar, and hope sincerely that this Fall I can start my own cider vinegar. I think I'll have an apple press to get me on my way if I'm lucky.

Burnt-bottom pizza crust topped with hummus, bolted cilantro and well-fermented cortido. When I grilled pizza and the Kiddo didn't immediately devour his dough I knew something was amiss - it was that the bottom of his small dough was black. Not black in spots, but completely black. I actually stood with the half of leftover black-bottom crust (his idea of pizza is dough and sauce only, nothing else) in my hand over the garbage for a full minute before deciding to save it, and I was so glad I did. The black burnt bottom was surprisingly tasty when combined with cortido, and as I bonus, I remembered that I should eat the cortido that I lacto-fermented last August.

This one was actually supper, since it was an evening without all of us. I fried 3 pieces of bacon, "bacon ham" being one of the meats that my Kiddo happily eats, and used most of the fat to cook some red onion and a bunch of rainbow chard that I had got at the farmer's market last Saturday and then piled it on top of some scrambled eggs. I forget how much I love chard, and forget why I don't make it more often, since greens of any kind are something my Husband loves. When I ate it, I actually topped it with the other half of the sourdough English muffin - still one of my favorite things. English muffins are my Summer Bread Saviors since I always have them in the freezer, a good thing when I don't feel like heating up the kitchen.

It's not like I'm not cooking or eating or enjoying both cooking and eating lately, but it seems like I've not a lot to report. We're spending a whole lot of time outside and eating and cooking comes usually without too much planning. I spend more and more time away from the computer, am dreadfully behind at keeping up with my Internet friends. Part of this Summer weighs heavy on me since my boy is growing right before my eyes. I find myself just staring at him, wondering how he grew so fast, and in an instant I feel older. He will go to school this Fall all day. All Day! When he first nestled into my arms at 20 inches long, I never could have imagined that a big part of my day wouldn't contain him at some point, yet that is the barrel I'm staring down. I'm not that glowing new mother with a beautiful baby anymore. I'm the one that looks a little frazzled from repeatedly asking her wild kid to behave in public.

What time I feel I don't have to freely explore the worlds of cheese (and vinegar - I just had to dump my developing once-gorgeous wine version when I discovered black mold across the mat), I know I'll have in spades when I'm drinking my morning coffee in silence in a couple of months. Meanwhile, I fight back against this new feeling of "oldness", that my naturally night-owled self is transformed to an early to bed, early to rise self due to a Kiddo that can't wait to play himself into an early supper, bath, reading, and sleep regimen. If I seem a bit sparse this Summer, you may now know the reason why.

Sourdough Hybrid Pizza Dough.

Is it terribly American of me to feel like I could eat pizza at least once a week, if not more often? I'm not talking about frozen or delivery pizza mind you, but pizzas of my own concoction, made usually with leftovers on all accounts. For the past month, I dove more in depth into sourdough pizza dough, playing on variations of Peter Reinhart's non-sourdough version in Crust and Crumb.

early June (sourdough) pizza, baked in oven.

You'd think that Peter had asked me personally to run P.R. for that cookbook, but I can not help how excited I get when ratios seem to be perfect no matter what you do to vary them. So far, each loaf I've tried has been stellar: my results only failing when my patience for the rising wanes or when I suspect my starter isn't vigorous enough. Not once, however, has a loaf emerged that was inedible... and the same can be said of this pizza dough.

I have had a few hard and fast rules of pizza. I always bake at 500 or higher, and on a stone. I always topped with cheese after the pizza was mostly cooked. This endearing dough has me changing my once cemented pizza ideals. I've lowered my temps a bit to cater to it and pop the entire pizza into the oven with cheese and all. In exactly 10 minutes, I'm ready to eat pizza - and usually the dishes are done meanwhile. It's also a thicker crust, blistered outside with plenty of tunneling holes submerged within the outer crust. It's a pleasant escape from super thin (and nonetheless addicting) Lahey crust, and I love that it's fast, freezes well, and bakes directly from the fridge.

It's hard to get an idea of the weight of dough from a photograph. This dough is not at all dense, it's appearance is shocking to the actual weight of the dough - it feels airy, light. Because it contains both sourdough and active dry yeasts (what I affectionately call "hybrid dough"), it seems to have the best of both worlds when considering flavor and time spent.

It does it's second rise in the dark, cold privacy of the refrigerator and finally the time comes to bake: reaching in for a pleasantly plump, well risen orb is always a surprise - the dough is resilient, not prone to deflation without some coercion. It's the dough dreams are made of, and since I'm so addicted to Reinhart's bread that requests me to have a firm starter (rather than the 100% hydration that sits on the counter) going most of the time in the fridge, if I even have an inkling that I want pizza for supper it can be done in fairly short order.

Reinhart's dough uses a poolish, a pre-ferment starter made the day before from instant yeast. Instead, I use firm starter (also the base of the Reinhart Pain Au Levain that I love so well). With a little feel for the dough, you can probably use any type of starter if you also alter slightly the amount of liquid in the recipe.

Reinhart's recipe also calls for buttermilk. I make a viili style yogurt which is much more runny than commercial yogurt and substitute it often. I've also used whey, or whey mixed with some strained (Greek-style) yogurt. The dough should feel "soft, stretchy, and tacky, somewhat like baguette dough", but poolish starter is likely a bit higher in hydration. This dough is not so sticky, but more satiny, like the feel of an under-inflated balloon. A bit of practice will guide you to the correct feel, so long as you don't stray too far from the ratio.

(To make firm starter enough for this recipe: combine 1 c. 100% hydration sourdough starter with 1 c. bread flour and about 2 T. water, just enough to form the dough into a ball. Knead it lightly for a minute, and let it ferment at room temperature for 4 hours. Transfer to the refrigerator for at least 8 hours and up to 3 days. This starter is very sticky, using wet fingers will help. Let the firm starter sit at room temperature for an hour before using if you can, although I have used it right from the fridge in a pinch. The rising time for the pizza dough may be slightly longer if you do that.)

Sourdough Hybrid Pizza Dough (adapted from Peter Reinhart)

• 1 lb. (3 1/2 c.) bread flour
• 1 1/2 t. salt
• 1 T. instant yeast
• 1 T. honey or sugar
• 2 T. olive oil
• 3/4 c. buttermilk (Reinhart says to use it at room temp, but I never remember to take it out and cold seems to be fine, first rise time may increase a tad...)
• 8 oz. firm starter
• (additional room temperature water - as needed, about 1/4 c.)
  

Combine everything in a stand mixer. (You may also do this by hand). Mix with dough hook on low speed for 1 minute, then increase speed to medium and continue mixing 10-12 minutes. (If kneading by hand, mix in bowl until dough forms, then transfer to floured board and knead 12-15 minutes.) I usually have to add a little water to get the dough up to the right consistency. Dough is ready when it passes the windowpane test, and feels neutral in temperature.

Place in a clean bowl, cover, and let rise until it "swells noticeably", about an hour.

On a floured surface, divide dough. (You can make anywhere from 3-6 pizzas, I usually make 4.) Roll the pieces into balls (This is a good video to see how to form the balls: Peter Reinhart visits a LaBrea bakery which is using huge portions and is somewhat mechanized, but you can see how the dough is shaped by hand. This is how I "rolled" dough when I worked at a bakery.)

Place shaped balls on a lightly floured baking sheet that has first been lined with a silpat or parchment paper. Enclose the whole pan inside a plastic bag, and transfer to the fridge. Let it rise at least one hour, and up to 48 hours. You can also freeze the dough after this second rise, it will retain it's lift for up to 3 weeks. (I freeze the balls on the baking sheet until hard, then transfer to a zip top plastic bag with a date on it.)

To bake in oven, heat to 475 (Reinhart says 550, I've done 500 - depends on my mood) with a baking stone in the lower third of the oven. Press dough to deflate, and stretch using hands, knuckles, rolling pin if you like, to desired thickness. Leave a thicker amount of dough around the outside edge. Transfer dough to a peel that has been sprinkled well with cornmeal, top and bake until the top is golden.

I decided, since I'm newly addicted to baking on my grill, to grill pizza tonight. Having never done it before, I'd say I have some learning to do. I had the heat pretty high, and the bottom was "nicely caramelized" (a.k.a. kinda burnt). It didn't stop us from eating the whole thing, but next time, I have to remember to throw some unglazed quarry tiles down to temper the heat. The top didn't brown, but everything was cooked through, and even though the bottom was a bit blackened and extra crisp, it wasn't really unpleasant. There was still a good amount of chew to the outside edge, and I have to put yet another mention out there for the candied jalapeno, which is the crown jewel of my homemade pantry. Every bite tastes better with a candied pepper.

grilled pizza.


oven pizza. so far, I'd say the oven version is better - but I'll still try grilling one again.

I think I need something hot on every pizza I've ever eaten because of my Mom. As long as I can remember she eats pizza with peppers alongside, either her own pickled jalapenos in oil and vinegar, or as a last resort purchased pepperoncinis. She orders them on the side if we happen to eat pizza out, but also like my Mom, we tend to make our pizzas at home rather than do that. We may not have the ovens of the professionals, but we do our best - and this crust makes me feel one little step closer to the unattainable Perfection of Pizza.

This post has been Yeastspotted.

Baklava: Daring Baker Challenge June 2011

Erica of Erica’s Edibles was our host for the Daring Baker’s June challenge. Erica challenged us to be truly DARING by making homemade phyllo dough and then to use that homemade dough to make Baklava.

I kind of cheated this month. As you may have noticed, I sat last month out: the marquise dessert was just too rich for a personal dessert, and I had no excuse to make it to share with others. When I read this month's challenge was to make phyllo dough, I felt a little crushed. I had recently tried making it for the April Daring Baker Challenge, and determined that to even try to make it well I would need another pair of hands to help me stretch it. Not being overly organized in planning such a helping party, I decided not to try it at this time.

But I have never made baklava at home, so I figured I would do so using the organic phyllo dough that I recently spotted at my co-op. Cheating? Maybe. But so delicious was this version of baklava that I'm glad I didn't sit out another month just because I didn't want to try my hand at making the dough again.

Baklava is one of my most favorite sweets. When I worked second shift, I'd occasionally stop by a 24-hour Greek restaurant on my way home to sit at the counter and get a coffee and a thick syrupy square that I'd eat painstakingly slow while reading on the side and watching the Greek boys cooking through the pass thru window. The combination of flaky, crisp dough and dense sugar soaked nuts still makes me excited, even though it very nearly makes my teeth hurt to eat it. Why I've never made it before, I have no idea. Oh wait - I do know why. It's because I would have a hard time rationing myself of it's overwhelming allure to my palate.

I do not watch a whole lot of cooking t.v., in fact never unless I DVR it first. But for some reason, not too long ago I watched an old episode of Alton Brown's Good Eats in which he made baklava. I was so impressed with his approach. Had I decided to make this dessert before the 25th (for the 27th posting deadline), I would have also made my own rose water as he did.

I made the nut combination of almond, pistachio and walnut from his recipe for the April challenge and it was so great that I couldn't wait to try it layered between phyllo and saturated with thick honey syrup. But this time, I did not use the "crispy nuts" technique, and used raw nuts blended with Jamaican allspice and cassia cinnamon. I like this particular combination of nuts so well, I think it would be a good substitute in lots of nutty things.

The result was a perfect combination of sweet spice and flowers - heavy, heady and tasting of far away. I almost thought I'd liked to have added some black pepper to the filling, playing up the bitterness of the allspice a bit more. Maybe next time... I also used regular melted butter instead of clarified, being short of time. (I know that is not a good excuse. There is also no good excuse I didn't grind my own spices either, but I only had powdered allspice on hand. It was fresh from the Spice House as was the Cassia cinnamon, so I'll stand by my conversion. I tasted the nut mixture on a fingertip until I was satisfied of the flavor, you could do the same.

I realized after that I also forgot the sugar in the filling, and to be honest I didn't even miss it. The honey syrup makes the finished dessert plenty sweet. I used half of the amounts of Alton's original recipe, it fit well in a 8x8 square glass baking dish.

Baklava (slightly altered from Alton Brown)

Filling:

• 2 t. ground cinnamon
  
• 1/2 t. (plus) ground allspice
• 3 oz. blanched almonds
• 3 oz. raw walnuts
• 3 oz. raw pistachios
• 1/8 cup water
• 1/2 t. rose water
• 8 oz. phyllo dough, thawed
• 4 oz. melted butter

For the syrup:

• 1/2 + 1/8 c. honey
  
• 1/2 + 1/8 c. water
• 1/2 + 1/8 c. sugar
• 1 small cinnamon stick
• 1 (2-inch) piece fresh orange peel

Heat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Place the almonds, walnuts, pistachios, and spices into the bowl of a food pro and pulse until finely chopped, but not pasty or powdery, approximately 15 quick pulses. Set aside.
Combine the water and rose water in a small spray bottle bottle and set aside.
Trim the sheets of phyllo to fit the bottom of the pan (mine was 8x8, glass). Brush the bottom and sides of the pan with butter; lay down a sheet of phyllo and brush with butter. Repeat this step 9 more times for a total of 10 sheets of phyllo. Top with 1/3 of the nut mixture and spread thinly. Spritz thoroughly with the rose water. Layer 6 more sheets of phyllo with butter in between each of them, followed by another third of the nuts and spritz with rose water. Repeat with another 6 sheets of phyllo, butter, remaining nuts, and rose water. Top with 8 sheets of phyllo brushing with butter in between each sheet. Brush the top generously with butter. Place in the oven and bake for 30 minutes. Remove pan from the oven and cut into 28 squares. Return pan to the oven and continue to bake for another 30 minutes. Remove pan from the oven to a cooling rack and cool for 2 hours before adding the syrup.
Make the syrup during the last 30 minutes of cooling. Combine the honey, water, sugar, cinnamon stick and orange peel in a small saucepan and set over high heat. Stir occasionally until the sugar has dissolved. Once boiling, boil for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from the heat and discard the peel and cinnamon stick.
After the baklava has cooled for 2 hours, re-cut the entire pan following the same lines as before. Pour the hot syrup evenly over the top of the baklava, allowing it to run into the cuts and around the edges of the pan. Allow the pan to sit, uncovered until completely cool. Alton says to cover and store at room temperature for at least 8 hours and up to overnight before serving and to store, covered at room temperature for up to 5 days, but I like my baklava cold, straight from the fridge, just like they serve it at Greek restaurants.

This was a great dessert, that's really all I can say. If you like baklava anyway, this version is likely to become a fast favorite. And as for homemade phyllo dough: I'm all for homemade everything, but some things are just meant to be purchased I think. Machine made phyllo is consistent and thinner than I could ever hope my own to be... I hope one day I can unravel the mystery of Homemade Phyllo Dough, but for now, I'm content with my accomplishments.

Thanks to Erica for choosing a great dessert this month!

Pectin-Free Blackberry (Punk) Jam.

This year, it appears I've accidentally fallen into making pectin-free jams. I didn't really intend to, I just never purchased any boxes of liquid or powder and then discovered upon reading that it's really not necessary anyway. Sure, packaged pectin makes a batch of jam go a little more quickly, but if it is one thing I am rich in it's time.

My first pectin-free batch was Tigress's rhubarb-lavender jam, which if you need a super delicious jam and happen to love rhubarb is certainly worth your time. I LOVE it: in yogurt, on toast, plain on a spoon. I'm so glad I have 10 half pints sitting on the shelf, since it will likely be gifted to many people and devoured personally. That batch was also my first canning experience this season, which tends to open the floodgates of food preservation via the hot water bath for me. "What else can I can?" all of a sudden becomes my mantra, inspiration coming from unlikely sources.

not bad for iPhone photography in my opinion...

The same day that Punk Domestics announced a Punkberry theme for the summer, my Mother-in-Law asked me to go shopping with her. Although I didn't need anything (except we were also going to a garden center) I perused. I found 18 oz. packages of giant California blackberries at a good price, and they were organic. For about 10$, I got 2 lbs. 5 oz. when I weighed them at home, the perfect amount for a small batch of blackberry jam. I have never concocted my own canning recipe before, and I really wanted to come up with something punky for Punk Domestics. I'm a little early for the July submission date, but this jam can't wait. I am so excited that it worked well and tastes great!

Small batches of jam, as it turns out, are actually better for pectin-free jams, especially ones containing fruit that doesn't have a whole lot of natural pectin. Blackberries, according to one chart I found, are kind of in the middle of the road for pectin containing, whereas the rhubarb jam I started with ranks higher. I still have a lot to learn about pectin-free jam, I almost feel like my jam got too "jammed" by the time it cooled - even though it looked and reacted perfectly to the "plates-in-the-freezer" test. I like the texture, even though it got a little more solid than I was expecting.

What is more Punk than booze? Not much, I'd say. After considering some kind of herby blackberry jam, I settled on a tamer, slightly more ordinary orange version. I figured it would be a good excuse to use a little of my homemade orange liqueur from earlier this year, and I think I was right. The result was tart-sweet jam with a slight booze kick from my not-quite-mellowed liqueur. My ratio was based on methods from Linda Ziedrich (via Julia) and a photocopied recipe for Strawberry Grand Marnier jam that I found in a book from the library. I used weight measurement on the sugar since I used raw, a good conversion table is here.

Pectin-Free Blackberry Punk Jam
yield 3 half pints

• 2 lbs., 5 oz. blackberries, washed and lightly dried
• zest of one (organic) orange, grated
  
• 540 g. sugar
• 2 T. lemon juice
• 1/4 c. orange liqueur (homemade or purchased)

You may use whatever jam-making method you prefer. Since I am new to pectin-free jams this is what I did:

Put several small plates into the freezer for use as jam testers. Ready jars, hot water bath and other canning accoutrements. (Sterilize jars for 10 minutes in boiling water and keep warm. A good canning primer can be found here.)

Mash the berries, orange zest and sugar in a large non-reactive bowl and let macerate for several hours at room temperature. At this point, you can decide if you want super seedy jam, half seedy jam or seedless jam. I opted for half seedy and pushed the macerated fruit mixture through a china cap. Then, I added half of the fruit pulp back to the mixture.

In a large, non-reactive pot, heat the blackberry mixture with the lemon juice until boiling. Skim off the foam (reserve in a bowl, see below...) carefully, and continue to stir pretty regularly until the jam starts to thicken.

Test for the "jam" by dropping a teaspoon or so of jam onto a frozen plate and returning the plate to the freezer for one minute. If you can draw a line with your finger on the plate and no jam runs back into it, you should be at the jamming stage. When sure of your set, remove from heat and stir in the booze. Then fill the sterilized jars, wipe rims, add lids and ring them and process in hot water for 10 minutes. Remove from water bath and let sit for 24 hours before checking for seal.

I was so happy to be reuinited with the flavor of blackberry. I was equally excited to have some fruit pulp and reserved "foam" that I skimmed off the top... Our weather has been so chilly that my kombucha has been taking longer to brew, but this next bottling is certainly going to be blackberry and I can hardly wait. Even though the fruit pulp is super seedy, it hasn't stopped me from eating it. So what if I have to floss a little more often during the day. It's worth it in the flavor department. I have enough leftover that I may try this coffee cake too. In fact, I may do that right now. I am out of dessert after all.  (Here's a pic.)

waste not, want not: blackberry foam.

Also fortunately for me, I planned bread to be out of the oven yesterday afternoon. I shaped my new favorite Peter Reinhart bread into one large pound and a half sized loaf, and had enough dough leftover for about 5 smallish dinner rolls. I never formed sourdough bread into rolls before (except the multi-grain variation) and I liked them a lot. I happen to be a "crust person", and these babies are like all crust. They also were a grand vehicle for newly minted jam surplus.

I have not had blackberry jam in what seems like forever. Growing up in the northwoods, we had a brambly patch of blackberries, one that even though we were semi-rural my Parents had to chase tourists from every so often. We actually called the Summer people "Berry Pickers", and my Mom tells me that in the '60's (when her family ran a drive-in restaurant), come Labor Day, the business owners of the community would line state highway 51 and shout "Goodbye, Pickers!" as they all drove south back to their city homes.

The wild blueberries we picked and our cultivated maze of thorny blackberries are still some of my favorite flavors, my Mom canned both into jams. When our family moved south, to the Driftless Region closer to the Mississippi, our farm came with established raspberries. At first we were all extremely happy with this change, but forever-after it seems I have been craving the deep purple blackberry. I finally have my fix, and though it's a tiny batch that I'll hoard (excepting one jar to my Parents), it's one that I will thoroughly enjoy.

I'm going to try and go the whole Summer pectin-free. I'd like to make my own pectin as well, which doesn't seem difficult just a little uncertain due to the strength of the finished product. So far, however, I do know that it feels good not to rely on that little box of Sure-Jell, knowing that if I don't happen to have one on hand I can still preserve something handsomely. If anyone has any good pectin-related information, send the links my way!