Summerberry Jam

What do you do when realisation hits that you have too many punnets of summer fruit? Make jam ;0)

Speedy Summerberry Jam

750g mixed summer berries - my mixture included a punnet each of raspberries, strawberries and blueberries and 2 punnets of blackberries

100ml water

400g caster sugar - I used vanilla sugar

Wash and remove any stalks from the fruits. Place in a pan with water and bring to the boil. Leave to simmer for 10-15 mins, stirring frequently. Add the sugar, stir until it has dissolved and boil for a further 15-20 mins.

Transfer to sterilised, airtight jars to cool. Once cooled, cover and chill in the fridge where it will become more jam like. It will keep for up to 2 months.

Makes 750ml

BBC Food Website

I was a bit worried about this jam setting because it only has caster sugar in it instead of preserving sugar but its actually set really well. And the colour looks fantastic too, a rich shade of mulberry - the evidence is splattered all over my now ruined white tee shirt! That will teach me not to wear an apron.

Breakfast Club - Smug Pancakes with Summer Berries

I love summer!  I love the warm weather, the longer days, the bumble bees and most importantly, I love all the summer fruits.  I just can't get enough of them.  This morning I decided that raspberries are my all time favourite summer fruit ... apart from passionfruit!  Strawberries, apricots and peaches all rank pretty highly too, as do nectarines and plums!  Just can't get enough of summer!

Smug Pancakes with (A Few Of My Favourite) Summer Berries!
1 batch of Smug Pancakes
60g caster sugar
1 vanilla bean, halved lengthways (pop the bean into a jar of caster sugar afterwards)
1 punnet raspberries
1 punnet blueberries
1 punnet strawberries, washed, hulled, quartered
 

 
Combine the sugar, 1/4 cup of water and the vanilla bean in a small saucepan. Stir over low heat until the sugar dissolves. Bring to the boil. Simmer for 2 minutes. Add berries and cook for 1 minute until just soft. Remove from heat.
 

 
Serve the berries spooned over the warm pancakes.  I also served this with some sweetened vanilla yogurt, just mix a small amount of icing sugar into low fat natural yogurt and stir through with a dash of vanilla extract.
 
Serves 4
Adapted from the Taste Website
 

 
The vanilla (I love the little spots of vanilla seeds that disperse through the sugar syrup) added a wonderful flavour to the sweetness of the fruit, the perfect way to start the day!  Think we might be having these summer fruits for breakfast next weekend too ;0)

Breakfast Club - Baked Blueberry French Toast

We're treating ourselves with two Breakfast Club's in the one weekend :0)

There is a big day of baking planned so a hearty breakfast is in need! Not only that but its also Grand Prix day and biting your nails while sitting on the edge of your seat really takes it out of you lol. 

Baked Blueberry French Toast
Butter, for greasing (I used frylite)
2 large eggs
380ml milk
80ml maple syrup, plus extra for serving
A pinch of fine sea salt
1 lemon, zested (I didn't have a lemon to hand so used a small orange instead)
3 thick slices (about 130g) day-old challah or sourdough bread, cut into 3cm cubes
250g fresh or frozen, thawed, and drained blueberries
1 1/2 tbsp vanilla sugar

Place an oven rack in the middle of the oven. Preheat the oven to 180C. Butter a large baking dish and set aside.

In a large bowl, beat the eggs until frothy. Add the milk, maple syrup, salt, and zest. Add the bread cubes and mix until coated. Stir in the blueberries. Pour the mixture into the prepared baking dish.

Sprinkle the vanilla sugar over the egg mixture in an even layer. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes until the top is golden and the filling is set.

Spoon onto serving plates and drizzle with maple syrup.

Serves 4
Adapted from a recipe by Giada De Laurentiis on the Food Network UK Website

In an attempt to reduce some of the calories I've tweaked the recipe a little bit, reducing the number of eggs and using semi skimmed instead of whole milk, omitting the butter etc, etc, etc!  I've also omitted the cinnamon (it's alarming just how often that spice makes its way into a recipe!) and replaced it with vanilla (mmmmmmmmmm!) and finally my final 'tweak' was to reduce the quantities by approx half.  By rights, and according to Giada's original recipe, my version should only feed 2!  Indeed the smell of the French Toast baking was so intoxicating I was convincing myself that I could feasibly eat half the contents of the baking dish myself ... but I managed to restrain myself :0)

Next time we have this I'll try raspberries instead of the blueberries, for no other reason than we are raspberry fiends!  I'll also cut back on the maple syrup, it was a touch on the sweet side.  Maybe elderflower cordial instead of maple syrup would have been a nice substitution?

Nigel's Peach and Blueberry Soured Cream Cobbler

My first ever experience of a Cobbler was a recipe by Momma Cherri that I had watched her make on Saturday Kitchen .... or maybe it was even as long ago as Saturday Cooks!  Her version was a peach cobbler using tinned peaches and lots (and lots!) of sugar and butter.  At the time it sounded wonderful to me so I stored the recipe away for a 'rainy' day.  Not long after that I started going out with Hubby and Momma Cherri's Peach Cobbler recipe was pulled out of the file for the auspicious honour of being the first dessert I ever made for him.    It wasn't terrible but it was very rich thanks to all that butter and overly sweet thanks to all that sugar.  Sadly I can't seem to locate the recipe on the net any longer and I probably threw my handwritten copy out after the enamel on my teeth pulled away but I would have loved to share it here for nostalgic reasons alone!

I was a bit disappointed not to have fallen head over heels for cobbler after this first recipe though.  I had grown up reading American novels and back in my more formative years all I wanted to do was up sticks and live in America.  I drove my family demented in my unquentiable thirst for American culture.  A cobbler seemed like such an exotic treat, an all American experience that was right up there with Apple Pie.  I adore Apple Pie ... so why not cobbler?

At this point I would like to highlight that some of my dearest friends in the world are American so I understand that the classics ought not to be messed with.  This next sentence is in no way intended to cause offence to anybody who lives Across The Big Pond!  Honestly!  But if you are likely to take offense at an Australian paying homage to an Englishman then it is best you stop reading now .... OK?

Sir Nigel has done it again!  He has tweaked the original and has developed a recipe that isn't sickly sweet, doesn't harden your arteries and uses the freshest produce available.  No sirree, you'll find no tinned peaches here!  There is a little butter though ... and a little sugar!  This is the kind of cobbler I imagined the taste of when I was a pimply teenager back in Tassie.  The all American exotic treat I had dreamed of!

Peach and Blueberry Soured Cream Cobbler
3 ripe peaches
350g blueberries
Juice of 1 lemon
1 tbsp caster sugar (I used vanilla sugar)
1 tbsp plain flour
For the Cobbler Crust
150g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 heaped tbsp caster sugar, plus extra for sprinkling
80g cold unsalted butter, cubed
140-150ml soured cream

Preheat the oven to 200C/fan 180C.  To make the crust, blitz the flour, a pinch of salt, baking powder, sugar and butter in Betsy a food processor for a few seconds until the mixture resembles soft, fresh breadcrumbs.  Tip into a bowl.

Slice the peaches, removing the stones as you go and dropping the slices into an ovenproof dish.  Toss the peach slices with the blueberries, lemon juice, sugar and flour.  At this point it will look less than inviting, but don't worry.

Add the soured cream to the crumb mixture to create a soft dough.  Break up into walnut size pieces (about 12) and flatten them slightly.  Lay them evenly on top of the fruit.  Dust the rounds of dough with sugar, then bake in the oven for 25 mins until the cobbler is golden and the fruit is bubbling.

Serves 4
Delicious Mag. Aug 2010

I'll stop gushing now but please give this recipe a try!  You won't be dissappointed ;0)

Blueberry and White Chocolate Flapjacks

Today has been a hectic day in the kitchen, all in the name of charity.  A big part of my day job involves Employee Engagement initiatives which includes things like volunteering, charity and fundraising.  This year our charity of choice is SiMBA, a local charity that helps support families who loose a baby during pregnancy or shortly after birth.  Tomorrow we have managed to secure atrium space in our office building to help them raise some funds for the important work that they do, of course one of those ways will be through a cake sale!

First up this morning I made some Orange and White Chocolate Cookies, then some Oreo Cupcakes and then finally these Blueberry and White Chocolate Flapjacks.

Blueberry and White Chocolate Flapjacks
250g butter
100g demerara sugar (as is typical for me I didn't have enough demerara so I ended up topping the rest up with golden caster sugar and hoped for the best!)
200g golden syrup
250g rolled oats
75g plain flour
100g dried blueberries (other dried fruits can also be used like cranberries or apricots etc)
100g white chocolate, chopped (dark or milk chocolate can be used)

Preheat the oven to 170C.   Line a 23cm square tin with baking paper (please do not use greaseproof).

Melt the butter, sugar and golden syrup in a large pan over a low heat (stirring occasionally), until the butter and sugar have completely melted.  Add the rolled oats, flour and cranberries to the pan, and stir together well.

Spread the mixture evenly into the prepared tin. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes until golden brown. Leave to cool for a few minutes, then mark into 12 squares – but don’t cut all the way through. Allow to cool in the tin completely.

Melt the white chocolate and drizzle over each bar.

Makes 12 -15 bars

Sweet and Simple Bakes

These were really easy to put together, which is a good thing considering my stress levels are starting to rise in anticipation of tomorrow's event!  I managed to get 15 very uneven sized bars from this so Hubby and I samples one each for dessert tonight.  Substituting the golden caster sugar seems to have worked well, they are wonderfully chewy.  A word of warning though, these guys are very sweet so next time I would probably cut them into smaller sqaures rather than bars, a little goes a long way!

Breakfast Club - Buttermilk Pancakes with Blueberry Compote

It has been a while since I had made Hubby and I a civilized breakfast.  On Sunday I rectified this by making Buttermilk Pancakes that I had spied over on Jenny's blog (The Red Mangetout) a little while ago.  I'm pretty sure I actually saved the link originally for the very yummy sounding (and looking!) Spiced Apple Compote as well as for the buttermilk pancakes, but with a serious lack of apples in the fruit bowl I was forced to think of an alternative.  Enter the copious amounts of blueberries in the fridge and another saved link to a blog post which this time came from Jane's Sweets and Baking Journal.  With my blog steals in hand breakfast was served ;0)

Buttermilk Pancakes with Blueberry Compote
For the Pancakes
150g plain flour
130ml buttermilk
1/2 tsp baking powder
Pinch of salt
2 large eggs (I reduced this from 3 eggs - I'm guessing they were medium sized originally)
1 tbsp sugar (I added this cause I like sweet pancakes!)
1 tsp vanilla extract (and I added this cause I like ... vanilla in my pancakes?!?!?!)
For the Blueberry Compote
2 punnets fresh blueberries, any stems removed
1/4 cup caster sugar
Juice from 1/2 lemon

To Make The Pancakes
Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt in a large bowl.  Make a well in the centre.


Add 75ml of water to the buttermilk and pour this in to the well. Gently whisk in to the flour.

Add the eggs one by one, whisking until you have a thickish smooth batter.

Heat a large non-stick frying pan on a medium to high heat and pour a small amount of batter into the pan, and cook for around 1 minute on each side. The pancake should puff up and be a nice golden colour.

Serve immediately with blueberry compote.

Makes 12
Adapted from The Red Mangetout

To Make The Blueberry Compote
Put half of the berries in a medium heat-proof bowl and set aside.

Combine the remaining berries, the sugar, and the lemon juice in a medium saucepan. Bring to a simmer over medium-high heat and cook, stirring frequently, until the berries release their juice, 5 minutes or so.

Increase the heat to high, bring the mixture to a boil, and cook, whisking frequently, until the compote has thickened a bit, about 2 minutes or more. Pour it over the uncooked berries, and using a rubber spatula, gently fold together.

This compote will keep in the fridge for up to 3 days.

Serves 4
Adapted from Jane's Sweets and Baking Journal

There was a very successful breakfast, Hubby loved the compote which was a bit of a break through seeing as he normally won't go near a blueberry.  That said, I was a bit disappointed with the pancakes though, and I now understand where the phrase 'flat as a pancake' comes from!  I'm not quite sure what caused this but onwards and upwards, there are plenty more pancake recipes for the trying ;0)

Christmas Day Feast - Part Two - Cocktails and Christmas Lunch

The main event! I've had to put it in a new post as there were starting to be too many labels!

A Passionate Affair

15ml passionfruit liqueur

10ml passionfruit in syrup

120ml chilled brut champagne

Combine passionfruit liqueur and passionfruit in a flute; top with chilled champagne.

Serve in a 150ml glass champagne flute.

Serves 1

The Australian Women's Weekly Cocktails Book

Yum - this was just the tonic to help me get Christmas lunch ready ;0)

Christmas Lunch

We're not ones for a whole roast turkey or a ham joint that lasts for days and days afterwards. And there are more than one or two fussy eaters in this family so trying to find something that suits everyone is pretty much impossible! I settled on pan fried duck breasts (remember the great Duck Hunt?) for all of us apart from Hubby. He won't eat duck so instead he had a barbie with sausages and burgers. I was going to make him the chicken with chorizo and mozzarella that I've blogged about before but the chicken we bought just two days before Christmas was already off!!! He was very happy with his barbie all the same though.

Duck with Madeira and Blueberry Sauce
4 duck breasts (skin left on)

4 garlic cloves, chopped

Grated rind and juice of 1 orange

1 tbsp chopped fresh parsley

Salt and pepper

Madeira and Blueberry Sauce

150g blueberries

250ml Madeira

1 tbsp redcurrant jelly

Use a sharp knife to make several shallow diagonal cuts in each duck breast. Put the duck in a glass bowl with the garlic, orange rind and juice and the parsley. Season to taste with salt and pepper and stir well. Turn the duck in the mixture until thoroughly coated. Cover the bowl with clingfilm and leave in the refrigerator to marinate for at least 1 hour.

Heat a dry, non stick frying pan over a medium heat. Add the duck breasts an d cook for 4 mins, then turn them over and cook for a further 4 mins, or according to taste. Remove from the heat, cover the frying pan and leave to stand for 5 mins.

Halfway through the cooking time, put the blueberries, Madeira and redcurrant jelly into a separate saucepan. Bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 10 mins, then remove from the heat.

Slice the duck breasts and transfer to warmed serving plates. Serve with the sauced poured over and accompanied by new potatoes and a selection of green veg.

Serves 4

Ultimate Christmas Book

This duck was amazing! I think they must have been raised by Arnold Schwarzenegger though, they were massive and ended up taking twice as long to cook them, they were lovely and moist and pink inside still, even if the skin side of the breast was a little darker [ahem: black] than I would have really liked it to be. Oh well!

Of course, being Christmas, I didn't serve it with plain old boiled potatoes and a selection of green veg!

Bill's Mini Potato Gratins

600g potatoes, peeled and very thinly sliced

185ml cream

1 garlic clove

Sea salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 200C. Cut a piece of baking paper into 16 strips 15 x 2cm. Line 6 x 125ml muffin tins with the strips, in a criss cross pattern with strips overlapping on each side. This will create little handles to remove your gratins with.

Place all ingredients in a bowl and toss to combine. Layer the potatoes in the muffin tins and pour over any remaining liquid. Place in the oven and cook for 40 mins.

Serves 6

Bill's Open Kitchen Book

I've had this recipe ear marked to make for a long time but never got the chance to actually make it. Very yummy indeed and went really well with the duck and other veg. I must have smaller muffin pans though as I doubled the recipe and ended up getting 2 whole muffin tins out of it (that's 24 mini gratins!)

Honeyed Winter Salad

1 butternut squash, cut into thin wedges

2 red onions, halved and cut into wedges

4 parsnips, cut into wedges

3 tbsp olive oil (try garlic or basil infused)

1-2 tbsp clear honey

1 small ciabatta,roughly torn into pieces (tomato and olive ciabatta works well)

1 tbsp sunflower seeds, optional

225g bag leaf spinach

2 tbsp white wine vinegar

1 tsp Dijon mustard

Heat oven to 220C / fan 200C. Put the vegetables into a large roasting tin, drizzle with half the olive oil and season to taste. Roast for 20 mins, turning once in a while until softened. Drizzle with the honey. Scatter torn ciabatta and sunflower seeds over the top and return to the oven for a further 5 mins or until toasted.

Put the spinach into a large bowl and tip in the vegetables and ciabatta. Whisk the vinegar, mustard and remaining oil together, season to taste and toss into the salad until the spinach wilts slightly. Serve immediately.

Serves 4

Good Food Vegetarian Christmas - Christmas 09

This salad seemed like such a good idea at the time! Although the veg was cooked it never turned an appetising 'golden' colour and the ciabatta was decidedly soggy. I would probably try this again but not on Christmas day when there a whole host of other dishes timed to be ready at the same time as this needed much longer than the stated time to cook properly. Aside from that it would have been lovely. I also added a bag of chantenay carrots.

Simple Braised Peas

50g butter

2 bunches of spring onions, trimmed and thinly sliced

900g frozen peas

125ml fresh veg stock, hot

1 bunch of fresh chives, optional (I forgot to add this!!!)

Melt the butter in a large pan over a medium - low heat. Add the spring onions and cook gently for 1 min, until soft. Increase the heat and add the peas and stock. Season, cover and cook for 4 mins. Sprinkle with the chives, if using, to serve.

Serves 8 (baby elephants! This recipe makes a lot!)

Can't remember where this one came from but it gets made quite a bit cause its so yummy and lets face it, peas need all the help they can get to be more appealing!

So now it has taken me almost the same amount of time to get these posts done I'm off to have myself another Passionate Affair (oh ah missus!), some leftovers and a leisurely afternoon reading all my new cook books that Santa bought me ;0)

Have a relaxing Boxing Day!

PS - Can't believe I forgot to add dessert to the post!!! We had raspberry and White Chocolate trifles, I blogged about them not long ago so if you would liek to see the recipe please click here.

Lemon Curd and Blueberry Loaf Cake

The picture of this loaf cake on the front cover of the March Good Food Magazine was crying out to be tried out in my own kitchen. I finally got the excuse to make it on Saturday when Hubby's Mum and sister joined us or dinner, this made the perfect after dinner treat.

Lemon Curd and Blueberry Loaf Cake

175g softened butter, plus extra for greasing

500ml tub greek yogurt (you need 100g in the cake, the rest to serve)

300g good quality lemon curd (you need 2 tbsp in the cake, the rest to serve)

3 eggs

Zest and juice 1 lemon, plus extra zest to serve, if you like

200g SR flour

175g golden caster sugar

200g punnet of blueberries (you need 85g in the cake, the rest to serve)

140g icing sugar

Edible flowers, such as purple or yellow primroses, to serve (optional)

Heat the oven to 160C/140C fan. Grease a 2lb loaf tin and line with a long strip of baking parchment. Put 100g yogurt, 2 tbsp lemon curd, the softened butter, eggs, lemon zest, flour and caster sugar into a large mixing bowl. Quickly mix with an electric whisk until the batter just comes together. Scrape half into the prepared tin. Weigh 85g blueberries from the punnet and sprinkle half into the tin, scrape the rest of the batter on top, then scatter the other half of the 85g berries on top. Bake for 1 hour 10 mins - 1 hour 15 mins until golden, and a skewer poked into the centre comes out clean.

Cool in the tin, then carefully lift onto a serving plate to ice. Sift the icing sugar into a bowl and stir in enough lemon juice to make a thick, smooth icing. Spread over the top of the cake, then decorate with lemon zest and edible flowers, if you like. Serve in slices with extra lemon curd, greek yogurt and blueberries.

Cuts into 8-10 slices

Good Food Mag, March 2010

In my usual style, I managed to ice the cake but not decorate it. Oops! But it still tasted pretty good, Hubby even had seconds. Marie over at the English Kitchen also made this recipe not so long ago. She added a twist to her icing though and created a Streusel Topping instead which looked pretty divine if I do say so myself. Click here to check out Marie's version, you won't be sorry ;0)

Blueberry Buckle

The blueberries in this cake were originally intended for the muffins that Clair made a little while ago over at Purely Food. We're a bit muffin-ed out at the moment though, something a little different is required. After surfing around on the net at lunch time today I came across a recipe for Blueberry Buckle at the Joy Of Cooking, with a name like that I just had to try it. After some research I think 'Buckle' is an old term for a single layer fruit cake. If anybody knows for sure though I'd love to hear from you.

Blueberry Buckle

Crumble Topping

50g plain flour

50g light brown sugar

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

55g cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces

Cake Batter

130g plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

Pinch of salt

55g unsalted butter, at room temp

100g vanilla caster sugar

1 large egg, at room temp

1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste

80ml milk

1 punnet fresh blueberries

Preheat the oven to 170C. Butter or spray a 20x20cm (8x8") square pan or a 20cm (8") round cake pan.

For crumble topping; Add all ingredients to a food processor and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Set aside (I popped this in the fridge to ensure it stayed nice and cold while the rest of the cake was being made).

For the cake; Cream the butter then add the sugar and beat until light and fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla and beat until incorporated. Add the flour mixture, alternately with the milk, and beat only until combined. Spread the batter onto the bottom of the prepared pan, smoothing the top with an offset spatula.

Evenly arrange the blueberries on top of the cake batter and then sprinkle with the crumble topping.

Bake for about 40-50 mins or until a toothpick inserted in the centre of the cake comes out clean. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool slightly.

Serve warm or at room temp.

Serves 9

Adapted from The Joy Of Baking

We had this for dessert tonight with a scoop of ice cream. The blueberries can be replaced with any kind of seasonal fruit, think we will try this with some blackberries soon. The cake is also supposed to be really nice cold and served with a cuppa.

Fruit Bread Revisited!

Remember this post from last year?  Oh what a difference a year makes!  I'm actually not minding autumn happening this year, in fact I'm quite liking it .... does this mean I've been living in the UK for too long?!?!?!

So last weekend, that autumnal blast of chilly air and the evenings drawing in made me lust after long for some of this bread, warm from the oven with butter melting in and a nice sedate cuppa to wash it down with (does this mean I'm getting too old?!?!?!?!  Not so sure I'm liking the way this post is heading!) and set about making a loaf. 

Its been a while since we last enjoyed this recipe but I still wanted to do things a little differently this time so instead of finding the usual dried cranberries, dried apricots, sultana's, currants and raisins this time it has dried blueberries, dried apricots, dried mango, sultana's and raisins. 

I have to admit that the first bite was a bit of a hallelujah moment.  Sigh .....

If this is the taste of autumn then I'm pretty sure I can live with it getting a bit colder and a bit darker that little bit earlier .... for a few months anyway ;0)

Summer Fruit Crumble

Summer is putting up one last fight here, lovely blue skies and almost warmish days. Hurrah ;0)

I'd like to think that tonight's dessert is my way of lending support to summer's last stand, but in all honesty I've got to the point where there is loads of fruit in the fridge and fruit bowl that need to be used up. I was going to make muffins, but couldn't decide which kind, could have made a raspberry and white chocolate blondie recipe that I came across the other day but I don't have all the ingredients ... hmmm ... time to get inventive!

Summer Fruit Crumble

1 mango, remove stone, peeled and flesh cubed

2 peaches, remove stones, sliced

A handful of fresh raspberries

A handful of fresh blueberries

25g vanilla sugar

Crumble

150g plain flour

75g butter, chilled and cubed

75g demerara sugar

Preheat the oven to 180C.

Add fruit to a pie dish or ramekins and sprinkle over caster sugar.

Make the crumble; place the flour in a large bowl, add the butter and using your fingertips, rub it in until the mixture resembles very course breadcrumbs. (Don't rub in too much or the crumble will not be crunchy). Add the demerara sugar and mix to combine.

Sprinkle the crumble mixture over the fruit and bake for 15 mins for small crumbles or 30-45 mins for a large one until cooked and golden.

Serve warm with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

Serves 4-6

Adapted from Rachel Allen's 'Bake'

My verdict on this is scrumy - especially the crumble part. Next time I make it though I think I'll leave the mango out and up the amount of raspberries if we have them kicking about.

Strawberry, Grand Marnier and Blueberry Jam

Jam making seems to have developed into a bit of an obsession with me at the moment. I've scoured my book collection, blog sites and the web in general to source as many recipes and variations as I can, we're even running low on glass jars to store the finished product in, something Hubby never thought would happen!

While flicking through my bookshelf yesterday this recipe from the Barefoot Contessa's new book just begged to be made, and as I had all the ingredients already, I set about making it tonight after work. I wasn't quite so sure about the booze, would it over power the over flavours, would the jam set? It seems to have worked quite well, shame on me for ever doubting the Contessa herself!

Strawberry, Grand Marnier and Blueberry Jam

2 punnets fresh strawberries

3 cups caster sugar (you'll be pleased to know I didn't reach for the vanilla sugar on this occasion!)

1 granny smith apple, peeled, cored, and cut into a small dice

1/2 cup fresh blueberries

Place the strawberries in a colander and rinse them under cold running water. Drain and hull the strawberries. Cut the larger berries in half or quarters and leave the small berries whole. Place the strawberries in a deep, heavy bottom pot (I used my Le Creuset) and toss them in the sugar and Grand Marnier.

Bring the berry mixture to a boil over medium heat, stirring often. Add the apple and blueberries and continue to keep the mixture at a rolling boil, stirring occasionally, until the jam reaches 220F, this should take 25-35 mins (I used my chocolate thermometer for this stage and sure to her words, it took me exactly 25 minutes to reach temp). Skim and discard any foam that rises to the top. Allow the mixture to cool to room temp and then store covered in the fridge. It will keep in the fridge for at least 2 weeks. To keep the jam longer, pack and seal in canning jars according to the manufacturer's instructions.

Makes 3 cups (I managed to fill a large jar and a small jar)

Adapted from Barefoot Contessa's 'Back to Basics'

The only changes I made came from necessity really. I'm not 100% sure what 3 pints of strawberries looks like and measuring them in my measuring jug wasn't very successful, so I just used what I had which was 2 punnets. The Granny Smith's are kind of on the small side at the moment so I added a whole one and I'm pretty sure I added more than 1/2 cup of blueberries too, not quite the whole punnet though. The recipe seems to be quite flexible though and is setting up nicely and it tastes pretty good too ;0)