Blueberry Lemon Curd

It's July...very close to August.  Are you all aware of that?  I swear I blink and another month passes.  I'm not sure if that's a good thing or bad thing.  But I am excited about this month's Secret Recipe Club post.  I was assigned the lovely blog, Teaspoon of Spice written by Deanna and Serena, both registered dietitians.  Their blog focuses on healthy yet delicious foods.  In fact they teamed up to start a monthly healthy recipe blog challenge called the Recipe Redux.  It's all about taking recipes and making them better for you, but still keeping them tasty.  I know I could use more of those kinds of recipes in my life!  I have a number of tasty things bookmarked already!

As with every Secret Recipe Club assignment, I always have difficulty choosing just one recipe.  Though it wasn't easy, I finally selected blueberry lemon curd.  I have a love for preserves and curds and just happened to be flush with an abundance of blueberries.  Plus I was totally intrigued by the idea of a blueberry based curd.  I've only made lemon curd in the past and I've really only seen citrus curds.

Blueberry lemon curd rocks!  In case you were wondering.

It's has a rich consistency from the egg yolks and butter, standard ingredients that turn a preserve into a curd (along with a little cornstarch).  I've been eating my new favorite curd for breakfast nearly every day this week on half of my English muffin, smearing peanut butter on the other half (these two pair together nicely).  But for you all, I wanted to share a presentation beyond the English muffin. 

This weekend I set out to pair this beautiful blueberry curd with something equally special.  I thought it would be the perfect time to finally try my hand at French macarons.  The curd would be the filling between those delicate sandwich cookies.  Sadly, the macarons were a huge flop.  I'm not sure where it all went wrong, but I couldn't even pry the little shells off the parchment paper after baking.  3 sheet pans full...into the garbage. 

My second attempt to use the curd was in a recipe I recently saw on Pinterest for lemon bar muddy buddies.  Why not make them BLUEBERRY lemon bar muddy buddies?  Perhaps there is a good reason because, again, I'm not sure where it all went wrong.  The muddy buddies were overly sweet and turned to sog city after a few hours and shortly thereafter, joined the fallen macarons in the trash. :(  Strike two!

I half thought about making homemade linzers, but at that point it just wasn't in me to start another recipe.  Instead I found adorable shortbread tart shells in the baking aisle of my local grocery store. A homerun! The tart shells make a perfect vessel for blueberry lemon curd.  Besides, aren't they the cutest little things?  I happened to have some left over cream cheese frosting to pipe a little flower on top of each one.  Let me tell you, simple is often best.  A perfect blueberry pie bite.

Blueberry lemon curd will be joining my list of keeper recipes!

Enjoy! 

Blueberry Lemon Curd
from Teaspoon of Spice

Yields about 2 1/2 cups

3 cups fresh blueberries
1/2 cup plus 3 tablespoons sugar
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 tablespoons cornstarch
2 large egg yolks
1 tablespoon butter
1/8 teaspoon salt

In a medium heavy bottomed sauce pan, heat blueberries, sugar and lemon juice, stirring occasionally over medium/high heat.  Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 6 minutes.  Remove pan from heat and allow to stand and cool about 5-10 minutes.  Using an immersion blender, puree the mixture.  Alternatively you can transfer the blueberry mixture to a blender.  Please be careful though!  It's incredibly hot liquid. 

Return pan to medium/low heat.  Meanwhile, stir together cornstarch and egg yolks until smooth.  Add to the blueberry mixture, whisking constantly.  Allow mixture to come to a boil.  Boil for one minute whisking constantly.  Remove from heat and stir in butter and salt.  Allow to cool for 5 minutes or so, whisking occasionally to continue to release the heat.  Spoon into jars or containers with an airtight seal and continue to cool for another 15 minutes of so.  Seal and refrigerate.

Notes: I used 1 cup of sugar because my blueberries were quite tart.

Meyer Lemon Curd

Lemon sunshine in a jar. 

That's what this is.  And let me tell you, sunshine tastes good!!

I have been hearing the praises of these sunny lemons from the food blogging community for a while now.  This is the first year I've sought them out and worked with this gorgeous cousin of the standard lemon.  If you haven't encountered a meyer lemon yet, it is slightly smaller than a regular lemon, has a brighter deeper yellow tone (almost an orange yellow glow), a thinner skin and a sweeter tang.  Meyer lemons have been described as sunshine, and now that I've had a taste, I completely agree!  This is what sunshine would taste like if sunshine was a food.

I bought a bounty of meyer lemons at Costco and went to town.  Meyer lemon curd was my first project.  I have made lemon curd before but this time I wanted to can my curd.  Wow, that sounds wrong.  Anyway, I found a recipe over at Food In Jars and it's a keeper.  Curd is made with eggs and butter lending to a creamy texture which pairs nicely with the bright lemony tang from the meyers.  Think lemon meringue pie filling.  Though the lemon curd can be preserved, Marisa recommends consuming it within two months of canning because the consistency degrades after that time (the curd is still safe to eat beyond that).  Guess what that means?  I have a second jar in the cupboard that I need to get busy with.  Again, wrong.  Sorry!

This recipe yields a small amount--two half pint jars.  I doubled it and shared a jar with my best friend and a jar with my parents, hoarding the other two jars of sunshine for myself and Hubs.  We devoured the first jar in no time.  And when I say "we" I mean 90% me, 10% Hubby. 

Wondering what you can do with lemon curd?  Spread it on toast, top ice cream with it, slather it on a cookie, fill a mini tart shell, garnish cheesecake, or just eat it straight out of the jar (I may or may not have done that).  So delicious!

I have to take this opportunity to say THANK YOU to my best friend Crystal for providing the inspiration for the styling of these photos.  She treated to me to an awesome tea party inspired birthday gift recently, including those pretty little tea cookies that she made from scratch (cinnamon raisin tea cookies, rose petal shortbread and rosemary cookies) and the beautiful floral table linen pictured above.  And that was just the beginning.  She also bestowed me with two antique bone china tea cups and saucers that I just love, two types of tea, including a French tea called Mariage that is really amazing and is officially my new favorite tea, a really cool vintage tin with a Currier & Ives floral print on the lid and filled with all those yummy cookies and a cookbook called Tea and Crumpets.  I'm all set for a tea party for two!  Who wants to join me?  I might even break out my last jar of meyer lemon curd!

Enjoy!

Meyer Lemon Curd
from Food in Jars originally adapted from The Martha Stewart Cookbook

Yields 2 half pint jars

6 egg yolks
1 cup sugar
3 Meyer lemons, zested and juiced (you should get a generous 1/2 cup of juice)
1 stick of butter (1/2 cup) cut in 1 inch pieces

Whisk egg yolks and sugar in a small heavy bottomed saucepan.  Heat on medium and stir in lemon juice using a wooden spoon (you don't want to aerate the curd).  Stir continuously for 10-15 adjusting heat as necessary so the curd does not boil.  The curd should thicken and coat the back of a wooden spoon (it should still be pourable).  Stir in butter until melted.

Strain the curd using a fine mesh strainer into a glass bowl (to remove any cooked bits of egg).  Stir in lemon zest.  Ladle curd into prepared sterilized jars leaving 1/2 inch head space.  If canning, process the jars for 20 minutes in a boiling water canner.  Start the time when the water comes to a full rolling boil.

Notes: Marisa points out that So Easy to Preserve recommends processing only in half pint jars or smaller to allow for proper heat infiltration.  Recipe can easily be doubled.  If not canning, refrigerate curd.  Consume within 2 months of making (whether canning or refrigerating).

Cranberry Orange Preserves

Thanksgiving went by way too fast....Hubby and I arrived at Grandma's house on Tuesday night, with our cat Oliver in tow, ready to get up first thing on Wednesday morning for a full day of preparation to begin.  My cousin was also there to help so it was all hands on deck.  We...

• made 6 pies--1 apple, 1 pecan and 4 pumpkin
• made 3 salads--blueberry jello salad, 7 layer salad and prepped fruit salad with whipped cream and marshmallows to be put together the next day
• made the base and topping for sweet potato casserole and traditional sweet potatoes with marshmallows, also ready for assembly the next day
• peeled potatoes for mashed potatoes (and vacuum sealed them in a little water so they would be ready to go the next day--I love the idea of vacuum sealing them so you can avoid all that potato prep on Thanksgiving day when you are busy with a 1000 other things)
• made 2 big pans of cinnamon rolls to be baked early Thanksgiving morning (looks like this one might be a new tradition)

Grandma had also done some serious prep before we got there...she made all the pie crusts and froze them (including making crust for turkey pot pies to be made from leftovers) and chopping all the veggies for the stuffing and the relish/veggie tray.  Not to mention all the shopping of course.  Grandma's been hosting Thanksgiving for a while now and has it all down to a science.  She makes it look so easy to pull together all these dishes, along with a traditional turkey (and a ham), for 20 people all by 1pm!  We eat early which means we have room for "second dinner" in the early evening where everyone is already anxious to break out the leftovers.  Yum.   

One of the treats that graced the Thanksgiving table this year were these cranberry orange preserves.  It was my first time working with fresh cranberries and I wasn't sure how the preserves would come out.  I'm happy to say my fears were unfounded and it was a big hit at the Thanksgiving table.  Even my 10 year old nephew couldn't stop talking about how much he liked the preserves.  It was really a nice accompaniment to the turkey and has officially turned me into a cranberry believer.  I gave away 6 of 7 jars to family members (had to keep one for myself so I could share it with you all!).

The inspiration for these preserves was Hima's Can It Up project over at All Four Burners.  Each month Hima announces an ingredient and all who are interested make a recipe featuring that ingredient that can be water bath canned.  Without Hima's pick of cranberries for November, I'm not so sure I would have taken the cranberry plunge.  Cranberries in the raw are extremely tart and somewhat bitter so I've always been hesitant to use them.  But I'm so glad I looked past that.  A little sugar (okay, a lot of sugar) and some other fruit transform these tart rubies into something really special.  So if you have a cranberry phobia, I encourage you to give these little beauties a try.  It would make a nice addition to your Christmas menu. 

I have a sneaking feeling these preserves will become another new Thanksgiving tradition right alongside those cinnamon rolls.

Enjoy!

Cranberry Orange Preserves
from The Ginger Snap Girl

6 cups whole fresh cranberries
4 cups apples, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch pieces (I used honeycrisp, but you could use any combination)
2/3 cup fresh squeezed orange juice
2/3 cup water
4 1/2 cups sugar
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
Zest of 2 oranges (about 1 packed full tablespoon)

Add all ingredients to a large pot and cook on medium, stirring frequently, until the mixture simmers.  Turn the heat to medium low and continue cooking until fruit is very soft and slightly thickened (this took about 20-30 minutes for me).  I like my preserves to have a smooth texture, so I used an immersion blender to puree the mixture prior to canning.  To check if your preserves have reached the right consistency, spoon a dollop onto a small plate and place the plate in the freezer for a couple of minutes.  Remove the plate from the freezer and turn it on its side.  If the preserves slide right down and look runny, you probably want to continue cooking.  If they hold their shape and only slide a little, you're good to go. 

To can your preserves, prepare jars, lids and rings by washing them with hot soapy water and rinse thoroughly.  Once you start cooking your preserves, fill a pot with enough water to fully submerge all the jars and turn heat to high (note I use the same pot for preheating the jars as I do for the actual water bath).  Heating the jars allows you to ladle in the hot preserves without cracking the jars.  In small pan also heat your lids.  Have a clean ladle and tongs ready.  Once your preserves are done cooking, remove a jar from the hot water with your tongs and drain excess water.  Hold the jar with a kitchen towel while you ladle in the preserves.  Fill jars leaving a 1/4 inch of head space.  Use your tongs to carefully lift a lid out of the hot water and place it on top of the jar.  Screw on the outer ring until firmly snug, but not too tight.  Set aside on a clean kitchen towel and repeat the process, filling all your jars.  Bring your canning pot of water up to a boil and submerge each jar in the water using tongs.  Make sure jars are covered by at least 2 inches of water.  Boil for 10 minutes.  Remove jars from water and set on a kitchen towel to rest, undisturbed for 24 hours. 

Makes 7 half pint jars

Caramel Apple Jam

Do you follow Sugar Crafter's blog?  If you don't, you should.  Tracy has all kinds of great recipes, including a number of homemade jams and preserves.  In fact, she has turned her love of canning into a business and sells her unique jams and preserves at local farmer's markets.  That's pretty cool! 

I was browsing Tracy's blog recently and came across these stunning Brandied Apple Preserves.  Apple pie filling anyone?  Yes, please.  When I read through her post, I found her delicious looking preserves were inspired by a new monthly canning project that kicks off this month called Can It Up, founded by Hima at All Four Burners.  I'm totally in! 

I became enamored of canning after my first go at it.  I've said it before, and I'll say it again...It's so completely satisfying to not only make your own homemade jam, but to preserve it to give as gifts or just always have on hand.  I LOVE it. 

The first time I canned preserves I was nervous as heck.  I downloaded the Ball guide to canning from the web and read it through about 10 times.  It seemed like a lot of steps and a bit overwhelming.  The hardest part that first time around was timing everything and juggling multiple pots on my stove top.  But after one go round, it wasn't so intimidating anymore. 

Here's the gist...

1. Clean jars and lids (don't re-use lids...jars and outer bands can be re-used, but buy new lids).
2. Heat jars and lids so the jars don't crack when you ladle in hot jam.
3. Make jam.
4. Fill jars leaving about 1/4 inch space at the top, wipe the tops clean with clean towel or paper towel, put on the lid and screw on the outer band.
5. Repeat step 4 until all jars are filled.
6. Place hot jars in a boiling water bath, fully submerged, and boil for the amount time indicated for the type of product you are canning.  Most fruit jams/preserves take 10 minutes. 
7.  Remove processed jars from water bath and allow to cool on a kitchen towel on your counter for 24 hours, undisturbed.
8. Voila, jam!

I don't own special canning equipment (no canning pot or rack, no wide mouthed funnel, no canning tongs, no magnetic lid lifter).  I use my multi-pot to both heat the jars (step 2) and process the filled jars (step 6).  In my early canning endeavors I used a separate pot for heating the jars and processing the jars, but then figured out it I could do it all in one pot.  I use non stick kitchen tongs to lift the jars out of the hot water and then a doubled up kitchen towel to hold the hot jar while I use a small ladle to fill up the jar with hot jam.  I use my tongs to grab a lid out of the hot water and gently place it on top of the jar and then screw on the outer band.  Once all the jars are filled, I remove the strainer portion of my multi-pot and place the jars in the strainer (using a kitchen towel...since they are hot).  I lower the strainer into the boiling water and process. It really is easy.

October's Can It Up ingredient?  Apples of course! 

Now the big question, what to make?  I made apple butter in my slow cooker last year so I wanted to do something different.  I ran across a few recipes for caramel apple jam and I knew that's the direction I wanted to go.  I saw several recipes that called for a mix of brown sugar and white sugar, reporting that the brown sugar added a caramel taste to the jam.  These recipes also included spices, like cinnamon and nutmeg.  I read some comments that said the caramel flavor was hard to detect and that technically caramel apples don't traditionally have spices in them.  So I continued my search and found this recipe over at Hitchhiking to Heaven (another blogger with a love of canning!).  What drew me in was the recipe called for actually making caramel and then adding in the apple.  It had no spices, unless you count vanilla, and the recipe was pure caramel and apple.

I'm pretty darn happy with the end product.  The one comment/note I will change for next time is to let my caramel become a deeper golden caramel color before removing it from the heat.  I was nervous the caramel would get too dark or burn so I removed it from the heat a touch early.  I feel like the caramel flavor isn't quite as prevalent as I would like, though it's definitely there in the background.  I don't miss the spices and even without them, this jam is reminiscent of apple pie goodness. A wonderful fall treat...to dress up your toast, use in a crumble bar or cookie filling or to give as a gift!  I have 5 jars left to share with friends or family.  So if you'd like to drop by and pick one up, it's all yours!

If you want to get in on the apple canning action, you have until October 31st to link up over at Hima's site.  I'm looking forward to seeing what November's ingredient will be.

Enjoy!

Caramel Apple Jam
from Hitchhiking to Heaven

5 cups unsweetned applesauce (make your own starting with 3 1/2 pounds of apples and about 1/2 cup water) - I used a mix of granny smith, fuji, pink lady and honeycrisp
3 1/2 cups of sugar
1/2 cup water
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/2 vanilla bean, split lengthwise (I didn't have a vanilla bean so I stirred in 1 tablespoon of pure vanilla extract at the end)
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
3 tablespoons dark rum (I omitted)

If you are making your own applesauce, start by peeling and coring apples and cut in to slices (about 1/4 - 1/2 inch).  Place apples in a large sauce pan with water (about 1/2 cup) and bring to a simmer with the lid on for about 20 minutes, until apples are tender.  Use an immersion blender (or a food mill) and puree the apples into applesauce.

Prepare your jars and lids.  Start by placing clean jars submerged in a pot of water, and bring to a near boil or until very hot.  Heat clean lids in a small saucepan of water.

Make the caramel.  Take a large clean pot (at least 7 quarts) and evenly scatter 1 1/2 cups of sugar over the bottom of the pan (you want to add it evenly because you will not be stirring the mixture).  Add 1/2 cup of water and lemon juice and bring to a slow boil, adjusting the heat as necessary.  Do not stir.  Keep a close eye on this as it turns from a clear syrup to caramel when you turn your back (the whole process took about 15-20 min for me).   When the syrup turns a golden caramel color, remove the pan from the heat. 

While the sugar is caramelizing, combine remaining 1 1/2 cups of sugar and sea salt in a medium bowl, stirring to combine.  If using a vanilla bean, split the bean lengthwise with a paring knife and scrape out the seeds.  Place the seeds and the pod into the sugar mixture and set the sugar mixture aside.

When the caramel is the color you want it, add in the applesauce, the sugar/salt/vanilla bean mixture (pod and all) and stir to combine over medium/low heat.  Once the sugar is dissolved, bring the jam to a boil and stir continuously for 8-10 minutes, or until jam thickens. This jam sputters and splatters quite a bit, but the continuous stirring prevents it from getting too violent.  Hot jam hurts!  You can test jam by placing a small dollop on a plate and placing it in the freezer for a couple of minutes.  If the jam easily slides off the plate when you tip on it's side, it's not quite ready. 

Once jam is done, turn off the heat and remove vanilla bean.  Stir in rum.  Remove a hot jar from your water bath (I use non stick tongs) and ladle jam into the jar, leaving 1/4 inch of head space at the top.   Using a clean damp paper towel, wipe away any excess from the edge of the jar.  Place a hot lid on top and screw on outer band. 

Process finished jars (completely submerged) in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes.  Remove from bath and allow jars to cool undisturbed for 24 hours. 

Makes 6 half pint jars.

Fig Balsamic Jam

 

Secret Recipe Club has arrived for September.  A big smile spread across my face when I received my blog assignment for this month.  Authentic Suburban Gourmet is one of my favorite blogs to visit and has been a long standing regular in my Google Reader.  Lisa is the gourmande behind this inspiring blog and hails from the San Fransisco area.  Her recipes are bursting with fresh and simple ingredients.  They are elegant and gourmet, yet really approachable.    Authentic Suburban is one of those blogs you read and you immediately want to invite yourself over to Lisa's house to sample the gorgeous food that grace her posts.  I don't know Lisa personally, but I guarantee you she throws a kick butt dinner party. 

I'm pretty familiar with Lisa's blog, so I knew I would have a hard time choosing a recipe.  There are worse problems to have, right?  Her appetizers are always making me drool.  She does a crostini up like no one's business.  But ultimately I was drawn to her recipe for fig balsamic jam.  Lisa has a number of recipes that incorporate the jam, including a crostini.  Lucky for me I have 2 half pint jars to use up and I will be making her fig jam straws next.

I think you all know I'm a big fan of making jam and preserves.  It is up at the top of my list of favorite things to make. There is something completely satisfying about taking a pile of fresh seasonal fruit, combining it with a little a sugar and citrus and next thing you know you have jars of your fresh made fruit preserves lined up on your kitchen counter. And you if make a big enough batch, the process of canning and preserving isn't as hard as you might think.   Lisa also has a love for making her own jams and chutneys...including making up to 40 jars at once!  How do I get on Lisa's jam gift list???

The funny thing about being drawn to Lisa's fig jam recipe is I've never worked with or eaten figs.  I really don't count the one time I tasted a fig newton as a kid.  I immediately decided they weren't for me.  But now that I'm grown up, I've been wanting to give real figs a try.  I found a flat of beautiful mission figs at Costco and off I went. 

The jam was easy to make and I loved the result.  Figs on their own are fairly mild in flavor.  The balsamic vinegar really punches it up.  The end product was reminiscent of a lush raisin like flavor.  To make the crostini, Hubby and I visited the farmer's market this weekend and picked up a fresh baked baguette and locally made basil goat cheese.  The flavors went perfectly with the sweet and tangy jam.   After the fact, I thought adding a bit of crisp pancetta or bacon would be pretty outstanding.  Because everything is better with bacon.  Next time!

 

This jam is very versatile and I'm looking forward to more adventures with both fresh figs and this awesome jam.

Enjoy!

Fig Balsamic Jam
from Authentic Suburban Gourmet

1 pound of figs, stems removed and coarsely chopped
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
Fresh lemon juice (about a Tablespoon)

Combine figs, sugar and balsamic vinegar in a medium heavy bottomed sauce pan over medium high heat.  Bring to a simmer and reduce to medium low, maintaining a gentle simmer.  Continuing simmering until jam thickens (this took me about 15-20 minutes).  Stir in a tablespoon of lemon juice and taste the jam (be sure to cool your taste first).  Add more lemon juice if desired.  You can leave your jam chunky or use an immersion blender (stick blender) to puree until desired texture is achieved.  I prefer a smoother consistency so I pureed the jam.  

Store in a sealed container or jar in the refrigerator for up to a month.  Or use a canning method to process the jam.  This recipe yielded exactly 2 one half pint jars of jam.  However I did not process them as I plan to eat them asap.

French Toast and the Bread Maker

Hubby has taken a serious interest in bread making.  When he first started on this journey about 6 months ago, I kind of figured it would be short lived, maybe a few weeks.  But it seems his new found forage into the world of bread is turning out to be more of an undiscovered passion.  Hubby is a science guy at heart, which is very much required to get exactly the right combination of flour, yeast, salt and water...the basis of nearly all bread recipes.  Hubby has been doing quite a bit of research on bread.  I use good old fashioned cookbooks and of course food blogs when I want to take on a new food project.  Hubby has a tablet and You Tube.  I don't know how many videos he's watched on bread making, but he's been checking out everything from home bread bakers to master bread makers in France, night after night.  Apparently I've been in the dark about the variety of volume of content on You Tube. 

The first type of bread he tackled was the baguette.  I want to say he made baguettes at least every other day for 2+ weeks, until he got it down.  And he wasn't just making one baguette each time, it more like 4 - 6.  That's a lot of baguettes.  They all got taste tested, but many ultimately ended up in the trash.  It was impossible for us to eat or store the amount of bread he was making.  And unfortunately, it's best eaten the day it's baked, so giving it away to friends, neighbors or passers by was a challenge.  Some of the baguettes turned in to croutons and others got sliced up and placed in the freezer for who knows what?  More croutons.  Maybe bread pudding?  Bread crumbs?  Suggestions are welcome! 

After all those baguettes, he can now make them with ease.   Although I think he longs to have access to the types of ovens used in France that provide the proper steaming capabilities required to get that wonderful crusty exterior that "makes" a baguette.  In the meantime, a pan of water at the bottom of our home oven does just fine.  

My favorite way to enjoy the baguette...warm out of the oven, sliced and dipped in olive oil and balsamic vinaigrette.    

Hubs moved on from baguettes to challah bread.  Challah is a childhood favorite of his.  Again, You Tube was his source of choice.  He made 3 braid challahs, 6 braid challahs, mini single rope challahs looped around to look like a braid.  Again, it was hard to keep up.  Though some did go to waste, much of it is stored in our freezer.  Fresh or frozen, it makes a fantastic french toast (more on that shortly).  And I'm positive it will make a wonderful bread pudding, once I get around to making it! 

From challah, Hubby then went on to sourdough and that's where he's been for the last couple of months.  Sourdough is a whole other animal that requires a "starter".  This is where the whole science of bread making really begins to mystify me.  I'm sure I'm going to butcher this, but a starter is very simply, a combination of flour and water and a lot of patience.  Over time your starter catches yeast in the air.  Did you all know there is yeast in the air?  I had no idea.  When you've captured enough yeast, it starts eating the flour/water mixture and bubbles begin forming, releasing carbon dioxide (and sometimes alcohol). 

Whoa, we're getting a little too sciencey! 

You stir your starter daily and feed it more flour and water over time it starts to develop flavor.  Some bread makers have starters that have been going for decades, even hundreds of years, which totally blows my mind.  Hubby's starters are just beginning their journey.  We have starters in our fridge, on top of our fridge and on our counter top at any given time.  This magic mixture is what apparently gives the "sour" taste to sourdough bread.  Several of Hubby's starters have bit the dust but he's got a great whole wheat starter going for a while now.  For 4th of July he made a white wheat sourdough round that was insanely delicious (the white comes from the bread flour and wheat comes from the wheat starter).  It was even more delicious when we slathered it with homemade rosemary garlic butter.  Sorry, no sourdough pictures.  We were too busy eating it!

Now I'm wondering what type of bread Hubs will take on next...I have a request in for some cinnamon swirl bread. 
In the meantime, I wanted to share one of the ways I found to use some of the soft and lightly sweetened challah bread.   In search of a recipe, I consulted my favorite source, the Cook's Illustrated Cookbook.  I honed in on french toast, even though it's not typically one of my go to breakfast items.  Truth be told, if I'm going to have something sweet, I'll always opt for a piece of cake or pie for breakfast.  Seriously.  But in reality I don't have cakes or pies laying around on most days (thank God!), so I thought our bounty of challah bread would be a great opportunity to give french toast a shot. 

I have to say, I'm a convert.  I think the secret to great french toast is most definitely the type of bread you begin with.  So kudos to Hubby for making a fabulous bread!  I love how pretty challah is.

I've made this french toast twice now and have been completely smitten with the results each time.  The first go round I used fresh challah and the second (pictured below) I used frozen.  Both turning out just perfect.  And the nice thing is the same exact same instructions below can be used whether you are using fresh or frozen.  The french toast is perfumed with cinnamon and vanilla...slightly crunchy on the outside and soft inside.  Top your french toast with warm syrup, fresh preserves, berries or even a sprinkle of powdered sugar.  I am not much of a maple syrup fan so I typically use preserves, slightly warmed.  I topped our last batch with homemade jumbleberry preserves I made recently to use up a surplus of strawberries, blueberries and cherries.  The preserves were a big hit and worked really well with the french toast.  Jumbleberry recipe coming soon!

Treat you and your family to a special breakfast this weekend!

Enjoy!

P.S. I can't promise anything, but I'm working on getting Hubby to do a guest post on one of his bread making adventures.  If you are interested in hearing more about bread, leave a comment to cheer Hubby on!  He's a little shy when it comes to this sort of thing. ;)


French Toast
from Cook's Illustrated Cook Book

8 large slices of hearty white sandwich bread or challah bread
1 1/2 cups whole milk, warmed
3 large egg yolks
3 tablespoons packed light brown sugar
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus 2 tablespoons melted
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.  Place a wire rack on baking sheet and place the bread on the wire rack.  Bake about 16 minutes, or until bread is dry throughout but with a slightly moist center.  Flip bread halfway through baking.  Remove bread and allow to cool for 5 minutes.  Reduce oven temperature to 200 degrees and place wire rack and baking sheet back in the oven.  You will be transferring your cooked french toast to keep warm.

In 9x13 pan add milk, egg yolks, brown sugar, 2 tablespoons melted butter, vanilla, cinnamon and salt and whisk until fully combined.  Place bread in the mixture and allow to soak about 20 seconds per side, until saturated, but not falling apart.  Transfer bread to a plate or baking sheet with a slotted spoon, allowing excess liquid to drain off. 

Heat a 12 inch skillet (I used non stick) over medium low heat and melt 1/2 tablespoon butter.  Add 2 slices of bread and cook until golden brown, about 3-4 minutes per side.  Once done transfer to the wire rack in the warm oven.  Repeat cooking process with remaining slices, cooking 2 slices at a time and adding another 1/2 tablespoon of butter for each batch.

Serve warm and top with your favorite topping such as syrup or preserves (slightly warmed) or fresh berries.

Danish Pastry Braid

I have never made pastry. When I was assigned Gitte's blog, My Danish Kitchen for this month's Secret Recipe Club I saw Danish pastry and there was no turning back.

Danish Pastry, also called Wienerbrød, is one of many Danish recipes on Gitte's blog. Gitte is from Denmark but has made a home in the United States with her husband and son. She writes that she experienced challenges cooking in a foreign country with unfamiliar ingredients over the years. She has tapped into her family back home to help her learn to cook. She has a lovely blog filled with an array of recipes both Danish and American inspired.  I'm totally intrigued by Danish treats and see some others on Gitte's site I need to make, like Danish Træstammer, like a marzipan covered cake truffle or Danish Hindbærsnitter, Danish cookies filled with raspberry preserves.  Yum!  Pop over to My Danish Kitchen and check out the great recipes. 

Making pastry takes planning and patience, two things I could be a lot better at. So I knew I wanted to give this a go.

The first order of business was to purchase cardamom. My local chain grocery store had it....for $11.79 for a 1.25 ounce bottle! I didn't really want to invest that much money for a spice I wasn't sure I would use again. So I went to a nearby Persian grocery store where I knew they would have an array of spices. I was able to get 0.75 ounce for $1.99.  Now that's what I'm talking about!  Cardamom has a spicy fragrence that reminds of spices similar to allspice and cloves.  I was worried it might be overpowering, but the cardamom flavor was extremely mild in the finished product. 

The dough needs resting time so plan  to make it the night before you want to have it for breakfast.  And then get up (really early) to roll and fold the dough (3 times), chill it again for 30 minutes and then roll it one last time, fill it, braid it, glaze and top it, bake it, ice it and finally cut and serve it.  Phew...I'm out of breath!  It's really not that bad.  Each step is pretty straightforward.  I would plan to allow at least 90 minutes of prep and cook time the morning you want to make this.  I didn't get up as early as I wanted to, but the Danish pastry was done technically done in the (late) morning hours.

A few notes.  I accidentally omitted the sugar in the dough.  I didn't even notice until I was typing up Gitte's recipe.  Whoops.  It still turned out great despite this omission.  There is plenty of sweetness from the filling and icing to make up for it.  Speaking of filling I used ollalieberry preserves that I had on hand in place of raspberry preserves.  Use your favorite preserves.  I had a little trouble braiding the pastry.  First off, I rolled it out too long (about 18 inches instead of 12).  I had too many strips to braid so I ended up cutting about 6 of them off.  This error wasn't noticeable in the finished product either. My braid baked for 15 minutes exactly and could have used 2 more minutes in the oven. 

Check out the big pieces of butter in the dough...this was the first of three times rolling and folding the dough

This is after 3 times of rolling and folding the dough...it goes back into the fridge to chill for another 30 minutes

Ready for braiding

The braid gets glazed with egg wash and topped with pearl sugar and sliced almonds

Fresh out of the oven

The result? Despite things not coming together perfectly, it was still a delicious, flaky fruit filled pastry. This beautiful pastry would be great for a special breakfast or for brunch. The recipe makes two 12 inch braids. I made one and froze the dough for the second one. So another Danish pastry is in my future.  I'm already thinking about filling it with apple pie filling.  Mmmmm.

Enjoy!


Danish Pastry Braid {Wiernerbrød)
from My Danish Kitchen

Makes two 12 inch pastry braids

Pastry Ingredients:
3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups cold unsalted butter
2 packages active dry yeast (4 1/2 teaspoons)
1/2 cup warm water (105 - 115 degrees F)
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon cardamom
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs, room temperature
1/4 cup sugar

Filling:
Seedless raspberry preserves

Glaze:
1 egg, lightly beaten
2 tablespoons water
Pearl sugar, for topping
Slice almonds, optional, for topping

Icing:
1 cup powdered sugar
2-3 teaspoons warm milk
1/2 teaspoon almond extract

Directions:

Place flour in the bowl of (an 11 cup) food processor fitted with the steel blade. Cut butter into 1/4 slices and add to flour. Pulse until the butter is the size of kidney beans.

Dissolve yeast and warm water in a large blow. Let stand for 5 minutes and stir yeast until smooth. Add in cream, cardamom, salt, eggs and sugar and stir until combined. Turn the butter flour mixture into the liquid mixture and use a rubber spatula to carefully mix until the dry ingredients are moistened. Dough will have large pieces of butter and may look slightly crumbly. Cover dough and refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight or up to 4 days.

Place dough on a lightly floured surface and dust the dough and your rolling pin with flour. Roll out the dough to make a 16 to 20 inch rectangle. Fold the dough in thirds longwise, rotate dough 1/4 turn and fold into thirds again, make a small rectangle. Turn the dough over. Repeat the rolling and folding 2 more times (making it a total of rolling and folding 3 times). You will end with a small rectangle of dough. Wrap dough and chill for 30 minutes to overnight. (I chilled for an hour)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

Divide the chilled dough into two parts. Roll each half into a 6 x 12 inch rectangle. If you are not making both braids at the same time, wrap the second half of dough and place in the refrigerator until ready to roll. Dough can also be frozen and unthawed in the refrigerator overnight.

Spread the filling down the length of the center 1/3 of each rectangle. Cut slanting (45 degree angle) 3/4 inch strips along both sides such that there are equal number of strips on each side. Carefully transfer the braids to the baking sheets and let dough rise for 15-30 minutes until it appears slightly puffy (it not double in size). Lightly beat the egg and water for the glaze. Once the dough has risen, brush the pastry with the glaze and sprinkle with pearl sugar and/or sliced almonds.

Bake for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown. Make icing by mixing powdered sugar, milk and almond extract until silky smooth. Drizzle icing on the top and let set. Cut crosswise into 2 inch slices.

Slow Cooker Apple Butter

I didn't plan to post 3 apple recipes in a row.  It just sort of happened that way.  I'm going to roll with it and call this apple week. I have to say, I'm loving all things apple right now. I think the culmination will be my Grandma Edna's apple pie recipe around Thanksgiving.   It's one of those non recipe recipes.  You know, a little of this, a little of that?  But it is hands down my all time favorite apple pie. This apple butter is very reminiscent of those beloved apple pie flavors.

Hubby came home when the apple butter had been in the slow cooker for about 4 hours or so and the entire house smelled of apple goodness.  He wondered what I was making....apple butter I told him.  But when he saw the finished product, he said, "that doesn't look like butter".  I tried to explain to him it doesn't actually contain butter, but it takes on a thick spreadable butter like consistency.  He still couldn't seem to get beyond the name and told me I should stop calling it butter, since there is no butter! Oh, honey, you can call it whatever you want.  This non butter butter is like a thick applesauce with an intense apple pie flavor. 

Apple butter is great way to pizazz up your toast or English muffin.  You can put it on graham crackers drizzled with caramel sauce for a snack like I did (I had some left over from the caramel apple cupcakes from earlier in the week begging to be used up).  We also had apple butter for breakfast, stirred into homemade oatmeal.  I'm kind of embarrassed to admit, it was my first time making homemade oatmeal (instead of using one of those Quaker oats packets). Now that I know how easy it is, I will be making it again over the coming winter months.

Apple butter is easy to make.  You start with cut up apples and juice in a large pot and cook it down until the apples are tender.  Then you blend the cooked apples into applesauce.  You can use a blender or an immersion blender to puree your apples into sauce.  What is an immersion blender, you ask?  It's a handheld stick blender that you use right in the pot you are cooking in to puree your food.  This handheld device does all the work a blender would do but you don't have the headache of transferring hot food to a blender in batches.  It's fantastic for making soups, sauces and apple butter of course.  If you are considering new gadgets for your holiday wish list, I highly recommend it.  Ok, now that my PSA on immersion blenders is over...Your pureed applesauce goes into the slow cooker and you stir in sugar and spices and let the slow cooker do its thing for 8 to 10 hours.  Part of the cooking time in the crock pot should be uncovered to allow the excess juices to boil down.  I wasn't so patient and think mine could have used another hour or so uncovered.  You can store the apple butter tightly covered in the fridge for a couple of weeks, or you can preserve it and give apple butter to your friends and family for the holidays.  The recipe yields 7-8 one half pints of apple butter. 

Enjoy!

Slow Cooker Apple Butter
from seriouseats.com

6 pounds of apples, peeled, cored and cut into 1 inch pieces (I used honey crisp)
2/3 cup of apple cider or apple juice or water (I used apple juice)
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

Combine apples and cider (juice or water) in a large heavy bottomed pot.  Bring the mixture to a boil and reduce to simmer and continue cooking for about 30 minutes or apples are tender.  Puree the apple mixture with an immersion blender (or if using a regular blender, remove the center piece of the lid to allow the heat to escape when blending).  At this stage you will have applesauce. 

Transfer the apple sauce to a crock pot and stir in the sugars and spices.  Turn the crock pot to low and cook for 8 - 10 hours, until the mixture thickens and can hold its shape.  You can test the apple butter by placing a dollop on a small plate and put the plate in the freezer for about 5 minutes, or until the plate no longer feels warm on the bottom.  If the apple butter slides down the plate, it's not ready.  Note: I had to cook the applesauce for 10 hours with the last 90 minutes removing the lid from the crock pot to allow the excess juice/liquid to cook off.  The recipe doesn't specify whether to put the lid on the crock pot or not, but it was my assumption that it should be cooked covered. 

Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 3-4 weeks.  Or you can easily preserve your apple butter.  Click here for instructions on preserving.  The butter should be preserved while it's still hot and then processed in your pot or canner for 20 minutes. 

Sweet Melissa Sundays: White Nectarine Cinnamon Preserves

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. 

Sweet Melissa Sundays: Strawberry Rhubarb Preserves and How to Can

Last year I made my first homemade jam (preserves) with the Sweet Melissa Sundays baking group.  I was very impressed at how easy it was to make and how awesome the end product turned out.  Who needs store bought jam when you can make your own?  Some of the girls in the group had canned their jam and I was determined to can my own next time the group made preserves. 

I couldn't be happier with this month's pick by Tracey of Tracey's Culinary Adventures to make Strawberry Rhubarb Preserves.  Both strawberries and rhubarb are in season and I love how these two flavors compliment each other.  Rhubarb is actually quite tart on its own...but pair it with strawberries and bit of sugar and it adds a wonderful zing to the preserves.  This recipe also has orange juice, orange zest and granny smith apples in it.  The juice and zest (I also added lemon zest) add another depth of flavor and the apples serve as a natural pectin, or thickener, and the taste of apple is really undetectable in the end product.

The jam is amazingly delicious and very easy to make.  It just takes a little peeling, chopping, slicing and zesting. 

All the ingredients go into a large pot and come to a boil.  Once the mixtures comes up to 212 degrees on a candy thermometer (mine only took 5-7 minutes to reach temperature) you continue cooking at that temperature for 25-30 minutes, or until the jam is thickened.  To test the thickness of the jam, Melissa Murphy offers an easy tip.  Spoon a small dollop of jam on a small plate and place it in the freezer for about a minute.  Once the jam is just cooled, if it runs down the plate, it's not ready yet.  If it holds it's shape it is good to go.  It's important not to overcook the jam because you can end up with an overly thick texture once the jam chills in the refrigerator.  Since I planned to can the jam I made the full recipe and it took about 25 minutes to get to the right thickness.  Check out that gorgeous ruby red color.  It has a bright lovely flavor and if you are hesitant about trying rhubarb this is a great way to do it.
 

So that's the easy part. If you want to stop there you can store your jam in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.

Or you can preserve your preserves and take on canning.  Have you ever canned anything before?  It is a little more involved than I realized.  Probably didn't help that I don't have any canning tools and I just made do with what I had in the kitchen.  If I had to do it again I would at least invest $6 in jar tongs.  There are many other tools to simplify canning, but if you are only going to do it on rare occasion, you may able to get by without most of them depending on what you have in your kitchen.  Check out  http://www.canningsupply.com/  for every canning accessory you could ever want. 

The key to successful canning is good preparation.  The preserves need to be canned while they are still hot so this means there is some serious coordination involved.  Don't get me wrong, it's not difficult.  But if you are a procrastinator like me, planning ahead might not be your forte.  The whole process took me about 2 hours and 45 minutes from start to final clean up (including time for dishes).  Some of that time was devoted to reading and re-reading the instructions about 42 times because I didn't really know what I was doing.

My stove was was at maximum capacity.  In the photo below the lids were heating in the small pot on the back left burner, the jars were heating in the skillet on the back right burner, the water was simmering in the canning pot on the front right burner and lastly, my preserves were cooking on the front left burner.

If you are thinking of taking canning on, below I've detailed what you need to can, what you need to make the preserves and how to bring it all together.  I didn't fully grasp all that needed to be prepped ahead of time, so I thought it would be helpful for those new to canning to see it all laid out from beginning to end.  For the preserve recipe head over to Tracey's site.  Check out the SMS blogroll to see how everyone else did with their preserves.

Here's what you need for the canning process:

UPDATED 4/19/2011 with some tips I learned from my fellow bloggers and some additional thoughts I had after the original post.

• Jars, lids and rings washed (only the rings need to be dried)...these can be bought in a flat of 12 at your local grocery store for $8.50 - $12.00 depending on what size jars you get.  I used 1/2 pint, or 8 ounce jars.
• Small sauce pan to heat the lids
• Pot or deep skillet to heat jars in (jars don't need to be steralized if the processing time in the water bath is at least 10 minutes according to this site) OR you can wash and heat your jars in your dishwasher, however, this process must be timed with when your preserves will be finished cooking)
• Large (canning) pot with a lid to fully submerse jars in
• Jar rack (I didn't have one so I used my multi pot with a pasta drainer insert which worked just fine...see photo above)
• Tongs (preferably jar tongs...which I didn't have and used standard kitchen tongs that proved difficult to handle and not disturb the seal on the jars)
• Magnetic lid lifter (I didn't have one so I used kitchen tongs to handle the hot lids which worked well)
• Ladle to spoon the preserves into the jars (I used a 1/4 cup ladle)
• Spatula to stir and remove air pockets in the jam
• Wide mouth funnel if you have it (I didn't have one and didn't have much trouble getting my jam into the jars since my ladle was relatively small)
• Several kitchen towels (to place hot jars on and use to hold hot jars while you fill them)

Here's what you need to make the preserves:

• Preserve ingredients
• Cutting board and knife
• Measuring cup
• Zester
• Candy thermometer
• 8 quart pot
• Wooden spoon
• Potato masher

Here's an overview of what I did:

• Washed the jars, lids and rings and dried the rings (the jars and lids go into pots to get heated prior to filling so no need to dry them)
• Washed my strawberries, rhubarb, orange and lemon and set aside on a cutting board
• Filled a small saucepan with water and put in the lids and placed it on the stove on low heat
• Filled a large pot with water and placed it on the stove on medium high heat....I used my "multi-pot" which has an insert for pasta.  This served in place of a canning rack.
• Filled a deep skillet with enough water to go halfway up the sides of the jars and placed it on the stove on medium/low heat.
• Filled 7 jars (only ended up using 5 for this recipe) with an inch or two of water to keep them from falling over and placed them in the skillet of water to heat.  The jars need to be hot so they can accept the hot preserves without cracking
• While all my pots and pans were heating I turned to preparing the preserves and...
• Hulled and sliced strawberries and sliced the rhubarb
• Peeled and sliced granny smith apples
• Zested and orange and lemon and juiced the orange
• Measured out sugar
• Placed my fourth and final (8 quart) pot on the stove using the last available burner on my stove and turned it on high.
• Secured the candy thermometer to the 8 quart pot and added all the ingredients
• Stirred occasionally and let the ingredients reach 212 degrees then cooked for an additional 25 minutes
• Halfway through the cooking time I used a potato masher to mash and break down the fruit to make for a smoother jam.  Note...this is where I tasted the jam.  I decided to add an additional 1/4 cup sugar because it was more tart than I like.
• Tested the thickness by placing a dollop on a plate and putting it in the freezer for about a minute...the jam was not runny and had a nice thickness, meaning it was done!

So here's where the coordination comes in....at this point your lids should be submersed in hot water and ready, your jars should be partially submersed in hot water and ready and your large canning pot should be simmering and ready for the jars of jam.  You should have your spatula and tongs ready and your kitchen towels laid out.  Your ladle should be ready and all the pots and tools should be placed on your stove and workspace where you can easily access everything.  Back to the steps...

• Used tongs to empty the water from the first jar and moved it over to my kitchen towel
• Held onto the hot jar using another kitchen towel and ladled jam into the jar until about 1/4 inch from the top
• Removed air bubbles with a few turns of the spatula in the filled jar
• Cleaned any excess jam from the jar rim and groves with a damp paper towel
• Removed a hot lid from the lid pan using tongs and placed it over the jar allowing the sealing element on the lid to come in contact with the rim of the jar
• Twisted on a ring to close the jar and placed it to the side while I repeated the process with the remaining jars
• Transferred filled and sealed jars to the canning pot for submersion, making sure there was 1 inch of water covering the jars....what I actually did was use my tongs for this....what I should have done was to remove the pasta insert and place the filled sealed jars in the bottom and returned it to the simmering water
• Turned heat up on the canning pot to bring water to a full boil and let the jars "process" for at a full boil for the time specified on the instructions that come with your jars or listed in the recipe you use.  I only processed for 5 minutes, but think it should have been 10.  Once processing time is finished, turn off the heat and let jars stand in the hot water for 5 minutes before removing.
• Lastly, I removed the jars from the pot by pulling out the pasta insert and used a kitchen towel to grab each jar at the base and moved to a kitchen towel to set.  I attempted to use tongs at first, but I realized this may disturb the seal on the jar.
• The jars need to rest undisturbed for 12-24 hours.  I let mine rest for 12 hours and tested the lids to ensure a proper seal.    
• If the lids don't flex when pressed in the center, the seal is good.  You should also try to remove the lid with your fingertips.  If the lid stays in place the seal is good.  If the lid flexes up or down when pressed in the center the seal is not good.  If the lid is not sealed within 24 hours you can reprocess the jar using the instructions in the step by step guide link just below or you can refrigerate it.
• Sealed jars can be stored for up to one year in cool, dark place.

For a step by step guide on how to can preserves click here.  The site also has a link for you to download a PDF to print off, which I highly recommend. 

With a little planning and preparation canning can be easy and very rewarding.  I understand why people can mass quantities...next time I would double the recipe.  Happy canning!