Apricot Strawberry Blackberry Jam Cookies

Sugar. Butter. Flour.

Just three basic ingredients and umpteen variations to make yummy goodies.

This time, I went with Flax Oil Omega Butter Light, with a combination of Splenda and demerera and granulated white sugar, regular all purpose flour, plus egg yolks, of course. The texture came out more or less like shortbread cookies.

Jam filling is the fun part. Jars of homemade home-canned jams made from fresh u-pick berries were sitting in the pantry.

I don't have a consistent standardized recipe for these jam cookies, but it's hard to go wrong with these basic ingredients as long as we keep an eye on the consistency and proportions. I prefer to chill the dough before shaping and baking.

Ingredients
3/4 cup Smart Balance ™ Omega Butter Light
¼ cup sugar
2 Tbsp demerera sugar
2 Tbsp Splenda
1½ cups all purpose flour, plus or minus to make the dough not too sticky
2 egg yolks

Cream the butter, sugar and egg yolks; then fold in the flour till it comes together and forms a dough. Refrigerate for about half an hour. Bake in a 375°F oven for about 10 minutes till the edges turn brown.

Simple Blueberry Muffins

Muffins are so commonplace these days that I don't think about them much. Some days, depending on my mood and ingredients, I whip up a quick batch for breakfast or for an afternoon snack. Each time, I vary the proportions and ingredients a bit, just to see how it turns out. Sometimes they turn out surprisingly yummy and at other times they get eaten anyway...

These simple blueberry muffins are a favorite with the kids. It is light, not too sugary, and quite tasty, especially when fresh from the oven. The quantity here makes about 12 standard size muffins.

Ingredients
2 cups all purpose flour
½ to 3/4 cup brown sugar
1 Tbsp baking powder
½ tsp each of cinnamon and vanilla (or more if preferred)
2 eggs
½ cup canola oil
½ cup thick plain non-fat yogurt (I like Nancy's™ for this)
½ cup fresh or frozen blueberries

Preparation

1. Pre-heat oven to 400°F
2. Combine the dry ingredients: sift the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and ½ cup brown sugar together in a bowl and make a well (reserve the rest of the brown sugar for topping)
3. Stir in the wet ingredients: add in the eggs, oil, vanilla, and yogurt and stir with a wire whisk till just mixed, do not over-mix; fold in the blueberries
4. Grease a muffin pan or use paper baking cases, drop the batter in - to about 2/3rds full - in each baking case/mold; sprinkle remaining brown sugar on top for a crispy sweet skin
5. Bake in a 400°F oven for about 15-20 minutes, till a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean
6. Cool on a wire rack for a few minutes and enjoy warm

blueberry coffee cake

About 6 weeks ago, we went to pick some blueberries at Sauvie island farms. We go there pretty much every year for the last several years and this year was more fun as we had Ana help us pick berries with full gusto.

As always, we froze about 2 or 3 gallon bags full of blueberries to be used over the coming year, till next blueberry season. And I used up some of the fresh ones to bake some goodies. Plus I had canned several jars of blueberry jam last year and they needed to be used up as well. That's how this coffee cake came about.

As usual, I did not follow any particular recipe strictly or closely - and looks like coffee cakes are hard to mess up, even for me :-)

Note: if blueberry jam is not handy, just simmer some extra fresh blueberries with some sugar, stir in cornstarch to thicken into a spreadable consistency and use it instead.

Ingredients:

dry ingredients: 2/3 cup sugar 1½ cup all purpose flour ½ tsp baking powder ½ tsp baking soda

wet ingredients: ½ cup buttermilk 4 Tbsp butter 1 egg beaten

fruit filling: 2 cups fresh blueberries 2 Tbsp blueberry jam

Preparation

Heat the oven to 350°F. Grease a baking pan, keep handy.

In a mixing bowl, sift together the the dry ingredients: flour, ½ cup sugar, baking soda and baking powder.

Cut in 3 Tbsp butter to the above mixture until the mixture has the texture of fine breadcrumbs.

Combine the liquid ingredients: eggs and buttermilk; stir or beat a little to form a smooth liquid.

Gradually stir in the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients until moistened, not too runny, not too thick either.

Spread half the batter at the bottom; add the fresh blueberries and blueberry jam over the batter layer; then, scoop the remaining batter and drop them in dollops or small mounds on top.

Mix the remaining sugar and butter together and sprinkle on top.

Bake in 350°F oven for about 30-45 minutes or until done - checking half way through.

blueberry waffles

Waffles are a good Sunday morning breakfast. We still have about a gallon bag full of frozen blueberries we picked from a nearby farm last year and I wanted to use them up. Plus, the hyacinth and rhododendron are all blooming in the garden and I wanted to take advantage of the lilacs and purples :)

Any basic waffle recipe would work, but over the years, I've noticed just a few things that make a difference - viz., heat the waffle iron to pretty high temperature before pouring the batter in, not cut back on the butter or oil too much as it compromises the texture, milk or buttermilk work better than plain water, use baking soda if using buttermilk, baking powder if using milk, egg yolks can be left out, just whites alone when well beaten add some nice fluffiness, also, freshness of the baking powder and baking soda matters - if they are a bit stale, I increase the quantity a bit...

My mom being a chemistry teacher taught me about sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) and how it reacts, but until I started meddling with baking recipes I didn't quite understand the role baking soda and baking powder play in these recipes. Baking soda is an alkali and likes to react with acid to produce gas (CO₂) which acts as leavening agent in baking. So, usually, recipes that call for baking soda also use yogurt or buttermilk to provide acidity. Baking powder usually has baking soda, plus an acid, plus some starch; most commercial baking powders are double acting - an acidic agent that reacts at room temperature, and another at a higher temperature during baking, thus providing the rise and fluffiness.

Ingredients
2 cups of flour
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
4 Tbsp applesauce (optional)
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp baking soda
2-4 Tbsp brown sugar or molasses
4 Tbsp of cooking oil or butter
1 cup frozen blueberries

Preparation

heat the waffle iron - even after the light goes off, I let mine heat up some more before pouring the batter

thaw the blueberries in the microwave till just ready, not mushy; reserve some for topping, use the rest in the batter

combine all the ingredients and whisk well; if preferred, beat the egg whites separately till fluffy and fold it into the batter; it is best if batter is made right before cooking

cook per instructions on the waffle iron; sometimes I let it sit longer, even after the light goes out :)

Serve warm with just a touch of maple syrup, or home-made berry syrup (just throw in some berries in a pan with a little water, cover, simmer till mushy, add sugar if preferred, serve warm).