I'm a little late posting this week's Sweet Melissa Sundays recipe pick. The funny thing is I made these preserves and cookies about 4 months ago, yet I still managed to post late. The best laid plans...We had a busy weekend involving a midnight trip to the vet (our kitty, Kit Kat, is doing just fine now), driving to LA to have breakfast with my family and hosting my 7 year old niece for a weekend sleep over and lots of kid friendly activities. We had an action packed and fun weekend. I am now just getting back to my computer and catching up on email and blogging.
Back in April I was on a preserves kick and made and canned Melissa's strawberry rhubarb preserves, (a double batch of) strawberry preserves and these white nectarine cinnamon preserves over the course of two weekends. Between the three batches, I ended up with nearly 20 jars of preserves! Several were earmarked as gifts for Mother's Day, sharing with friends and I still have 5 or so on hand.
The white nectarines actually came from last August when they were ripe at the season's peak. I saw a flat of them at Costco and knew that we would eventually be making peach and cinnamon preserves for Sweet Melissa Sundays. I figured that nectarines could easily be swapped out for the peaches. I chopped them up and spread them in a single over a foil lined baking sheet and put them in the freezer. Once frozen, I removed them from the baking sheet and loaded them into a ziploc bag for future use. Freezing your own fruit is a great way to enjoy fruit at it's peak, even when it's not in sesaon.
These preserves reminded me of apple butter. The coloring, consistency and warm cinnamon flavor was very similar to apple butter. I decided to take the little bit of preserves that wouldn't fill up a whole jar, and made jam thumbprints. I did a quick internet search and found a recipe on All Recipes. The cookie itself wasn't especially noteworthy so I haven't posted the recipe, but the preserves were tasty. I am in search of another thumbprint cookie recipe so I can use up a little more of the preserves I still have on hand. If you have a good one please let me know in the comments section!
Melissa's base preserves recipe is easy to make and is one of my favorite in the book. Thanks to Tessa of the Cookin Chemist for hosting our second to last recipe for Sweet Melissa Sundays. Pop over to her site for the recipe. To see how other SMS bakers fare this week click here. In two weeks Karen of Karen's Cookies Cakes & More will host our final SMS recipe, Hot Pepper Gingerbread Muffins with Orange Maple Butter. I can't believe the final recipe is just around the corner. It's been a great ride baking with all the talented SMS bakers! I will be posting my top 10 favorite SMS recipes later this month. There have been some really fantastic recipes that I will continue to use again and again.
What a great idea to think ahead and freeze those beautifully ripe nectarines. I love the color and consistency of your preserves. This is possibly my favorite recipe from the SMS book (but I'd have to go back and check my other SMS entries to be sure). If you find a good thumb print recipe, please let me know. I haven't one "the one" either.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great idea to freeze the fruit first. That would work well if you had a lot of fruit, especially if you didn't want to make it all in one shot.
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting despite your busy week - P.S. Glad your cat is okay!
Wow, you're a canning machine Gloria! I've still never tried it but might get brave later this winter and give it a go. You're absolutely right about these preserves being similar to apple butter - with the cinnamon mine reminded me of making applesauce in the fall too :)
ReplyDeleteGlad you kitty is ok! Also, I read your blog last week about your cancer experience and let me just say wow. I was blown away by your strength and humor through it all! I'm so glad it's behind you now.
Snap, I totally forgot about SMS last week! I'm impressed you froze that fruit and then were able to turn it into something delicious; I always forget about things I freeze.
ReplyDeleteGlad kitty is healthy!