I took the children fruit picking and foraging this week and we had a fantastic haul, certainly more than we could eat, so I made beautiful fresh Strawberry and Elderflower jam. In the Thermomix it’s such a simple recipe too – no thermometer required. I love this recipe!
Strawberry Elderflower Jam Recipe
Recipe Type: Jam, Condiments
Cuisine: Foraged
Author: Luschka
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 400ml
If you’re not using jam sugar you need to cut a grannysmith apple in quarters and add it to the mixtures. I use jamming sugar for this recipe. If you don’t use Elderflower, add an extra 10g strawberries
Ingredients
250g jam sugar
440g strawberries
10g Elderflower
2 tbs lemon juice (or 1/2 fresh lemon juice)
Instructions
In the Thermomix
Put the jam sugar in the bowl and turbo two or three times to make it finer.
Add the strawberries and elderflowers, if using, and mix Speed 4/10 Seconds
It was my daughter’s second birthday today, and following on from a month of absolutely no food-mojo, I didn’t prepare anything healthy for this party at all. There were fruit cups, but they were slathered in cream. Yum, but not healthy, really. Anyway, it’s a party, I’m not going to beat myself up about it. Especially when what I did make was as playful and tasty and fun as Stained Glass Rainbow Jelly.
I can’t take credit for this recipe – I originally found it at Food Librarian – and considering that I haven’t had any success at all with make from scratch gelatin recipes in the past, I was dubious, but it looked perfect for a Messy Play Party, so I had to try.
Here are a few tips you don’t have to learn for yourself:
With the coloured jelly, you can cut them into shapes if you’ve made them into thin enough layers. I made some flowers, and it worked well. I threw the ‘unused’ bits of the jelly into the mix anyway, since the shapes are all haphazard, it doesn’t matter.
When you layer them, however, don’t layer the shapes – i.e. the flowers – horizontally, as when you cut it, you cant see the shapes. You need to place the shapes in your dish vertically so you can see them when they are cut.
If you make these two days ahead, and store in a sealed container, they are still good. I was worried making them on Saturday that by Monday they would be rubbery, but they were delicious. It takes pressure off doing them the day before and being worried they won’t set in time.
A fun party food, easy to make, but with great impact. Everyone loves them!
Ingredients
4 packets jelly
1 can condensed milk
2 packets gelatin
Instructions
In four separate shallow containers, make the four jellies. IGNORE THE PACKAGE INSTRUCTIONS. Just mix each packet with one cup of boiling water. Once the jelly is dissolved, pop it in the fridge for at least four hours.
Once the jelly is set, gently remove it from the shallow containers, and cut into squares or shapes.
Next, pour 1/2 cup of cold water into a bowl.
Add the two packets of gelatin and leave it to ‘bloom’ (absorb the water and swell up).
Add 1.5 cups boiling water, mixing till the gelatin is dissolved.
Add the can of condensed milk, mix it all together.
Leave the condensed milk mix to cool a bit. If you pop the jelly in straight away, it my melt.
Once it’s cooled down (about 10 minutes) add the jelly squares and return it all to the freezer.
Leave for 4 – 6 hours, or over night. Loosen the sides with a butter knife, and tip out.
It’s been a beautiful summer, and I’ve focused largely on my children, and very little on anything else, including these pages. I’ve often taken a photo of things, thinking I’d publish them when I have a moment, and that moment has just never come, and here we are, just in time for autumn.
Nature is a beautiful thing though, and knowing full well that the barren months of winter are coming, Autumn blesses us with a bountiful harvest of apples, blackberries, rosehips, damsons and more. My children and I have spent time foraging in our local area, trying to take advantage of the free fruit as much as we can. Over the next few days, I’ll share some of the results of our foraged free food with you.
Today’s recipe is a bit of a cheat: Blackberry Jam. It’s a cheat because I used Jam Sugar with added pectin rather than making my own. We were lucky, I think and got the berries at just the right time, as they were sweet, full of juice and just delicious.
I use a jam strainerto catch all the seeds and skins, leaving me with a beautiful clear jam.
Blackberry Jam
Recipe Type: Condiments
Author: Luschka
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 250ml
The flavour of this jam depends a lot on the blackberries you use. We picked plump, juicy, ripe blackberries to make a sweet, delicious jam for toast, home made doughnuts and more.
Ingredients
250g (9oz)fresh blackberries
250g (9oz) jam sugar
2tbs lemon juice (if from a bottle)/ juice from 1/2 lemon if using fresh lemon
Instructions
(If you’re using a stove to make jam, you’ll need a sugar thermometer to check when your mixture is at 100C/212F. If you’re using a breadmachine with a jam function, follow manufacturer instructions. For a Thermomix, cook at 100 degrees at speed 2. )
Place all ingredients in bowl and cook for 40 minutes at 100C or 212F.
To check whether your jam has set, tilt the bowl slightly, being careful not to spill boiled sugar! Check to see whether a slight gel forms on top. If not, return to heat for five minute intervals. Your external temperature will affect how long your jam has to boil.
It shouldn’t take over 50 minutes, but if it does, turn the heat up as high as possible (watching it doesn’t burn) for 3 minutes.
Pour jam into sterilised jars and leave overnight to cool.
I took the children fruit picking and foraging this week and we had a fantastic haul, certainly more than we could eat, so I made beautiful fresh Strawberry and Elderflower jam. In the Thermomix it’s such a simple recipe too – no thermometer required. I love this recipe!
