So we started with 400g of blackcurrants, a couple of punnets of mixed raspberries and loganberries and a couple of handful of blueberries. Oh and at home our lemon tree.
The end results?
1 tub of sorbet made following this recipe:
http://lecremedelacrumb.com/2014/06/raspberry-sorbet.html
Useful tip, be careful how much vanilla you add as the flavour can over power the berries. We served ours with either vanilla ice-cream or mango sorbet. We don't have an ice cream machine, but it might be going on the list for the jolly fat man ready for next summer.;)
1 and a half jars of jam.
My favourite recipe uses equal quantities of sugar to fruit. So easy to make and tastes fantastic!
Ingredients:
400g of blackcurrants
300ml water
400g granulated sugar
juice of 1 lemon
Method:
Wash and remove stalks from currants. Put a small plate in the fridge or freezer. Add to a large heavy base pan (I don't have a jam pan) with the water and bring to the boil until the skins are soft and the liquid has reduced.
Add the sugar and lemon juice....
Bring to a rolling boil and carefully stir occasionally.
After 10 minutes remove plate from fridge or freezer and drop a small amount of jam onto it. If it has a 'skin' and crinkles when pushed, remove jam from the heat. If not? boil for couple more minutes and check again.
Ready? Leave to cool before getting your sterilised jars and using a ladle carefully spoon the jam into the jars.
Note to self, next time choose smaller jars. The half jar we will eat in the coming weeks. The full jar will be kept as a reminder of summer when the weather takes a nose dive around October.
Cakes:
Getting practise in for the Great British Bake Off, I made vegan raspberry, loganberry and white chocolate muffins. Ok they were technically not fully vegan as I used normal white chocolate but the rest of the recipe is certain vegan. You can easily substitute for vegan white chocolate.
http://uktv.co.uk/food/recipe/aid/653714
I made a double batch. I used 250g of raspberries and loganberries and 50g of white chocolate. Next time I will swap that for 200g fruit and 100g chocolate. I also reduced the amount of baking powder, instead of 6 tsp I used 5.
As it is the start of the Great British Bake off I can't resist a quick double entendre. These did have the dreaded 'soggy bottom!' Lower oven temperature and cooking for longer next time. Using our cooker is a lot of trial of error as the markings on the dials have mostly rubbed away. Besides the double chocolate ones came out perfectly.
Topped with dairy free butter icing, they were enjoyed by all at my Gran's 90th birthday celebrations, and nobody realised they were egg free until my mum decided to point it out.
I really do need to 'big up' my Gran. She got me interested in growing fruit and vegetables at a young age. One of my fondest memories is picking raspberries with her and eating her home made raspberry sorbet.
Finally I made wheat free, vegan blueberry pancakes.
I can't give you the exact recipe for these as I judge by eye. I always run a batch without blueberries first to make sure I am happy with the consistency of the batter and the temperature of the pan.
Ingredients:
Wheat free flour
Apple juice about a cup
Soya milk
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract.
Preheat crepe pan on a medium heat.
Pour flour into a large mixing bowl. Add apple juice, soya milk and vanilla extract. Whisk and add more soya milk as necessary until the batter is the right consistency.
Carefully slice the blueberries
Ladle into prepped preheated pan. (I use a tiny amount of dairy free butter to grease the pan first)
Add blueberries straight away to pancakes.
Flip the pancakes when start to bubble. (tip make sure the pan is not too hot otherwise you are going to burn the blueberries.)
Delicious served with a drop of maple syrup or CP's favourite hazelnut chocolate spread.
Not so much of an allotment blog this time, more of a making good use of your produce blog, but that's my cooking adventures over the past week and a half. I hope you've enjoyed reading as much as I enjoyed cooking with the Little P's. Thanks KP, JJ, CP and Bob for taking it in turns to be my right hand.
And thanks to you for reading. Have a good week. :)
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