Today, I am headed to Los Altos Hills, California. It's a 90 minute drive, north, to my cousin's house. I am really excited about this day, for several reasons:I'm on Day #6 of vacation, with 20 more to go.
- My husband is on Day #4 with 4 more days to go (he doesn't work for a school district, like me)
- My cousin (actually she's my second cousin) is a lot of fun-- and she's a great cook and baker.
- She also has swimming pool with a 9' depth, and I love swimming in it-- and doing deep water aerobics.
Today, she is going to show me how she makes her Apricot Pie. I've never had it, but she says it has a sour cream topping. SOLD!
I've already made Ursula's (isn't that a cool German name-- say it, OOR-SOO-LAH) Bavarian Rohr Nudeln (try and say that one...). Everything she makes is really good.
I'm bringing her a jar of my Apricot-Pineapple jam. This is gold, ladies and gentleman. After reading several different recipes, I concocted my own recipe. I got the ratio of apricots and pineapple just right. Darn if my husband hasn't change his favorite morning toast and jam from olallieberry to my apricot-pineapple. I have to make more!
Here's how I made it-- start with fresh pineapple. Please. They aren't that expensive to buy. I let my ripen on my window sill for a day or two.
By the way, get one of these:
It's a pineapple slicer, and it will make your life a lot easier. You can find them on Amazon.com, Williams-Sonoma or Cooking.com. You just cut off the top of the pineapple, screw it in, pull out and you get sliced pineapple-- the core is in the center of the slicer. Just toss it away and you're read. Why buy canned pineapple?I take shortcuts (except for processed foods and boxed mixes). In my food processor, I pulsed the pineapple. I wanted it chopped, but not pureed. Just a few pulses:
For the apricots, I decided I wanted the skins off-- though some recipes left them on. This is easy.- Start a pot of water boiling
- Cut an "X" on the bottom of each apricot.
- Prepare an ice bath.
- Dunk the apricots into the boiling water for 1-2 minutes.
Remove with a slotted spoon into the ice bath for a few minutes.Take your thumbs, and on the "X" slip the skins right off. It's that easy. The pits came right out, too.
Again, in my food processor, I pulsed the apricots. I wanted 5 cups of apricots and one cup of pineapple = 6 cups total fruit. I reserved the juice from both fruits, which equals 3/4 cups.
In a big pot, I added the fruit, fruit juice, one box of fruit pectin (I used MCP low-sugar pectin) and 1 1/2 cups sugar. I allowed that to come to a boil, and then slowly added the 4 1/2 cups sugar.
I won't post pictures of how I cooked the fruit, because it's exactly how I posted how to make strawberry jam. Quickly, the fruit was brought to a rolling boil (212F). I did the plate test, to make sure it had jelled. You can click here, if you'd like to see step-by-step how to make jam.
This jam is amazing, I tell you! One bite gives you the sweet taste of apricot, with just the right amount of pineapple... it compliments the fruit, but does not overpower it. I so wanted to make apricot bars, today, but I want to wait until I have more jam. I only have 5 pints (in half pints) and I can see that these will disappear fast. I definitely plan to make turnovers with puff pastry, with these.
Remember, I'm giving away a jam making kit (worth $50.00) and jars of my homemade jam-- you have to enter here. The deadline is July 9th!
I had a little bit of apricots leftovers, which I cooked into a compote. Later this week, I'll post a delicious sandwich that I made with it. Trust me, it was good.
I'm going to blog about Ursula's Apricot Pie. She's such a good sport, and she laughed when I said I wanted to do this.
She's one of the last of my surving German line of relatives. I don't want anymore heirloom recipes to disappear.
Enjoying Summer,
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