Can Jam June: Cherry Spice Jelly

I'm too late for the Can Jam round-up, but I wanted to share my creation for the Can Jam challenge. It was inspired by my recent trip to the Spice Market in Seattle.

Cherry Spice Jelly

64 oz cherry juice

4 Tbs "Market Spice" loose tea

tea bag

1 pkg no sugar needed pectin

1 cup sugar

In a large saucepan bring cherry juice and tea to a boil. Remove tea bag, add pectin and return to a boil. Add sugar and return to a hard boil that can not be stirred down. Pour into prepared jars and process for 10 mins. in a boiling water bath canner.

What do you do when you have a 5 gallon bucket of frozen cherries?

Pit them.....

...................... and make jam!

In the pic above you can see a couple of my souvenirs from our trip to Washington. I like to buy milk in glass bottles while I'm on vacation and then bring the glass bottle home as a souvenir. They come in handy, holding homemade juices, broths and iced tea.

You can also see the tea I bought at the Public Market in Seattle at the Spice Market. It has cinnamon oil in it, which adds a sweet, but not sugary flavor to the jelly.

Putting the tea in a tea bag.

Cherry juice and tea bag.

Finished jelly.

It is very tart, but has a sweet cinnamon aftertaste. It tastes like the perfect essence of cherries.

Pulla - Finnish Cardamom Bread

I have been spelling cardamom wrong for the past month!

Since I love it so much, I should probably spell it correctly.

Cardamom is a rich and decadent spice.

It adds flavor depth.

mmmmmmm

Ok Recipe.

This recipe is from The Winter Vegetarian by Darra Goldstein.

It's a great book.

But I think there is something wrong with this recipe.

She says to add between 7 to 8 cups of flour and knead the dough.

I added 8 cups of flour and had batter.

There was no possible way to knead it - I tried.

I added some more flour, but it was still to soft to knead.

Which is fine!

Egg/milk bread shouldn't be kneaded.

But then how much flour is necessary?

Who knows!

Someday I want to work this recipe out, but for now here is the recipe from The Winter Vegetarian

Finnish Cardamom Bread - Pulla

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2 1/2 tsp. yeast

1/4 cup lukewarm water

1 teaspoon plus 3/4 cup sugar

2 cups lukewarm milk

1 tsp. salt

2 tsp. ground cardamom

12 Tbs. butter (1 1/2 sticks), melted

4 eggs

7 to 8 cups flour

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1 egg white, lightly beaten

3 Tbs. pearl or colored sugar

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Dissolve the yeast in the water with 1 tsp. of sugar until bubbly. Stir in the milk, remaining 3/4 cup sugar, salt,cardamom, melted butter, eggs and 4 cups of the flour. Beat well. Gradually add just enough flour to form a soft dough. Turn out onto a floured board and knead until dough is smooth and elastic, about 10 mins. (Good luck with that!)

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Place the dough in a large greased bowl, turning to grease the top. Cover and leave to rise until doubled, 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Punch down the dough and let rise again until nearly doubled, about 1 hour.

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Divide dough into 3 pieces. Divided each piece into 3 balls of equal size. Roll each ball out between your hands into a rope about 12 in. long. Braid 3 ropes together, turning the ends under. Place the loaf on a lightly greased baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining dough. Cover the loaves and leave them to rise until slightly puffy, 20 to 30 mins.

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Preheat the oven to 375 F. Brush the loaves with the beaten egg and sprinkle them with the sugar.

Bake for 25 to 30 mins.

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I obviously didn't braid them.

I made 4 round loaves instead.

Cardamum Sugar Cakes

Cardamom Sugar Cakes

I love cardamom. It is especially wonderful in these light-as-air sugar cookies.

Watch out for the unusual combination of sour cream and baking soda.

1/2 cup sour cream (not nonfat)

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 cup butter (1 stick)

3/4 cup sugar

1 large egg

3/4 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. nutmeg

1 tsp. cardamom

2 tsp. vanilla extract

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

Coarse sugar, colored sugar or sprinkles for decoration.

In a small mixing bowl, whisk together the sour cream and baking soda. Set aside.

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In a large bowl, cream together the butter, sugar,egg, salt, spices, vanilla and baking powder. Add the sour cream mixture and blend well. Add the flour, blending until well combined.

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Pre-heat the oven to 400 F and lightly grease/parchment/silpat 2 baking sheets.

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Drop the dough by 1 Tbs. into the sugar, roll in sugar and place on baking sheet.

Work quickly or the butter will melt.

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Freeze rolled sugar covered cookie dough.

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Bake for 10 mins. - Watch carefully!!

After removing them from the oven, leave the cookies on the baking sheet for 3 mins.