Bourbon Makes Everything Better, Part 2

I don’t know about you, but we are already counting the days until our summer break, well, at least, I am.  This can be a trying time of year.  The weather is getting warmer, but the allergies keep us inside.  We’ve completed all of our “requirements” schoolwise for the year, but I still have 6 weeks of instruction left in at least one subject.  There are finally good looking strawberries and asparagus at the store, but not much else.  I have gone to the store several times in the last few weeks, hoping/searching for some good veggies and fruit to bring home, but have been disappointed every time.  The apples and oranges are past their prime.  The berries have not fully come in yet and forget stone fruits.

Then I remembered some jars of peaches that I put up last summer.

Last August, after we went peach picking, we had an overabundance of peaches and I decided to can some.

It was an ordeal.  Lots of boiling water.  Slippery peaches.  Sticky syrup.  I only managed to make four jars before I called it quits.  Then, I stuck them in the back of the cabinet and just let them sit.  Every time I looked at them I was a little afraid.  I’m not really sure why.  I guess I had visions of rotting fruit or mold or something.  It’s not that I haven’t canned stuff before, but I dunno, I just had a bad feeling about it.

Well, after yet another disappointing trip to the grocery store last week, I decided to get out a jar and have a try.  Actually, to be honest, I made the husband try it.  Ever since that time over a dozen years ago when I ate some bad cheese that I couldn’t tell was bad (and then got really sick), the husband has become the official taster.  I fished out a piece of peach and gave it to him.  When his eyes lit up, I knew they were good.  Then I tried them and Wow!  They were good.  They were better than your run of the mill canned peaches and not just because we picked them and canned them ourselves.  Do you want to know why they were so good?

I’ll tell you why.

Bourbon.  Yes.

I followed this recipes from the New York Times for brandied peaches, only I didn’t have any brandy, so I subbed in bourbon.  And boy, does that really take these peaches to another level of yummy goodness.  They are not overtly boozy, but they had just enough kick to make you want to eat the whole jar.  And the boys loved them.

We had them with some plain greek yogurt and granola and it was delicious.  They would be really good with ice cream or, if you really want to accentuate the bourbon, with some bourbon whipped cream.  I will most certainly be making more of these when we go peach picking this year and I won’t be making four measly jars, either, even if I get steam burns.  It will be worth the pain to have these peaches in the dead of winter or in the spring when we are longing for summer.

Overnight Oven Dried Apples

As you know, we had a plethora of apples this year.  I am always looking for some new way to process them or use them up before they start to go bad.   This year, I decided to try drying them and it was a lot easier than I thought it would be–so easy that I thought I would share with you what I did.

Firstly, let’s talk equipment.  It is important to have the right pans and racks for this, both to make it easier on you and for faster drying.  I used three rimmed, half sheet pans, lined with foil, with a fitted rack inside each one.  The foil catches all the drips, the racks allow air to flow more freely around the apples and the rimmed pans help hold it all together so nothing is sliding around.  Here’s the setup:

Next, you’ll need to prepare your dipping syrup.  The dipping syrup helps to keep the apples from browning.

In a large bowl, dissolve 1/2 cup of sugar and 1/2 cup of honey in 1.5 cups of hot water.  Add the juice of one lemon and stir.  Wait for this to cool before you proceed.

You’ll need to preheat your oven to 170 degrees.  Most sources I checked suggested 140 degrees, but my oven wouldn’t go that low (so annoying!  Why would the oven manufacturers even bother to program a lowest temp for an oven?).  You can try 140 if you like, but it will probably take longer.

Now, prepare your apples.  If you want to peel them, do this first.  Then, core and slice them into 1/4 inch slices.  This whole process is made easier if you have an apple peeler corer slicer, like the one I show here.  If you use this tool, you’ll have to cross cut the apples on one side to separate the slices, since they come off as one big spiral apple.  For the first three batches we did, I pulled back the peeler attachment to leave the skins on the apple (more fiber for us later).  Then we did a couple of skinless batches.

Take one apple’s slices and toss them gently in the dipping syrup and let stand for about a minute. 

Then, lift them out of the syrup, one at a time, letting the excess syrup drip back into the bowl.

Place the slices on the racks.  It’s ok if they touch.  In fact, we crammed as many as we could on each rack without creating any overlapping layers.

Put all your racks in the oven.  We could fit 2-3 apples per rack.  I wouldn’t recommend more than three racks at a time in your oven unless you have a convection oven that will let you turn on the fan at such a low temperature.  If you do want to use the convection feature, I would do it at the lower temperature of 140 degrees instead of 170.  We have a convection oven, but again, the way the manufacturers programmed the thing, we could not use it at this low a temperature.   Also, if you convect, you’ll have to monitor them more closely since they will dry faster.  You may want to do it during the day the first time, so you will have an idea of how your oven behaves and how long it takes.

Also, a note about rack placement:  The first time I did this, I spaced all my oven racks on consecutive levels.  The middle pan took a couple of hours longer.  The next time, I placed one pan on the lowest level, the next pan on the next level and then I skipped a level to put the last pan on the topmost level of the oven.  You may have more settings for your oven racks than I do.  I would just suggest that if you are doing a third pan, make sure there is more space above the middle pan than the other two.  The middle pan was done at about the same time when I started doing this.

The apples take about 12-14 hours to dry.  I suggest putting them in the oven about 12 hours before you get up in the morning.  We prepped right before the boys’ bedtime at 8pm and I checked on them once before I went to bed a few hours later.  Then, when I got up in the morning at around 7:30, I checked on them again.  Most of the time, at least two of the racks were dry and I took them out.  Then, I left the remaining one in the oven for another hour or two.  If there are some apples that are dry and others are not, then you may want to remove the ones that are dry and leave the rest in the oven.  To test whether they are dry enough, wait until a slice is cool, and then squeeze it in your hand.  If you do not feel any moisture, it is dry.  It should still be flexible, but not damp at all.  Here’s what they look like coming out of the oven.  They were touching before, so they do shrink quite a lot.

If you keep your leftover syrup in the fridge, you should be able to use it for a total of 4 batches.  Also, I did not wash the racks and pans in between batches since I used them on consecutive nights and set them aside in a low traffic area of the kitchen during the day.  I am very lazy that way, but by all means, wash away, if you prefer.

Lastly, after they have cooled for half an hour, cram as many apples as you can in a quart sized jar.  I really squished them in and only had a few slices leftover from each batch that I could not get in the jar.  Or you could put them in a freezer bag with the air squeezed out.  I do like the look of the jar, though.  Any apples that don’t fit can be eaten right away-Yum!

Whew!  That’s it, I think.  If you try it, I’d love to hear how it goes for you.  Have fun!

A Video is All You Need

For today’s Thankful Thursday, I bring you my first video blog.

Can you core, peel, and slice an apple in 20 seconds? If you have one of these you can. Actually, you can do it faster. That is our youngest in the video. The older one can do it in five seconds. With over 100 apples still in the house, we are very thankful for this tool. Apple pie filling for the freezer is on today’s agenda.

Score: Me – 2, Apples – 4

It has been over a week since we went apple picking. If you’ll remember, we had 8 half bushels. Well, we gave away 2, so we had 6 left. After a week, we still have 4. We have probably eaten the equivalent of a half bushel or maybe a little less. In any case, here’s what you can get from approximately one half bushel of apples:

1 apple cake–This was the first thing I made using the apples and the first time I used this recipe. It was good and I loved the fact that the apples did not have to be peeled, BUT the cake took about 30 minutes longer to bake than the recipe suggested. Either my apples were too big or the recipe was wrong. In any case, if you want to make this, just know it will bake longer, or you could try a 9 inch pan instead.

2 apple breads–The dough looks like a crazy mess when you put it in the pan, but turns out to be nicely rustic-looking after it is baked. I imagine this would make really good french toast.

3 quarts of apple sauce-these were made from the leftover pulpy apples that I got from making jelly-easy and so economical too! These are destined for the freezer.

4 batches of dried apples – each jar contains 7-8 apples and each batch takes 12 hours in the oven to dry. I put them in when the boys go to bed and take them out when I get up in the morning. I may write up a little post on how to do this–would anyone be interested?

5 well, there isn’t a 5 of anything, though I did briefly think about making 5 caramel apples just so I could have something to list under the number 5–I clearly did not get around to it.

6 jars of apple jelly-I am proudest of these stained-glass beauties. Making jelly is more magical than making jam. Plus, it takes me back to my childhood. Did anyone else grow up on apple jelly? We always had it in the house. Most people I know grew up on grape jelly or strawberry jam. I am the only one I know who grew up on apple jelly.

Well, there you have it–all from one overflowing half bushel of apples. I have four more. I don’t know whether to laugh or cry! Does anyone have a favorite apple recipe you would recommend? The more apples a recipe uses, the more likely I will be to try it!

Wacky Wednesday

Things around here are a little wacky today.  Actually, I guess it started yesterday with the unexpected 5.8-6.0 earthquake that startled everyone.  The phones went wacky.  The husband was sent home from work–that Never happens.  It was strange.

Then, this morning, I got up before the boys-this also almost Never happens.  We had a series of odd mishaps.  I poured my milk in the wrong bowl and had to eat E’s bowl of cereal.  I tried sending the boys outside to play after we were done with school, but E’s scooter was broken and his bike tires were flat.  Then, they came inside because they were being attacked by mosquitoes.  I sewed a piece of fabric on my quilt backwards.  Then, when I sewed it again, one piece was too short.  I made some pie dough and it came out all pasty.

If you’ll notice, most of these mishaps revolve around my brain not quite doing its job today.  Perhaps I’ve done too much lately?

Monday–a full day of school plus

4 jars tomato basil sauce, 4 jars ginger peach jam, 5 jars fig jam with candied citrus peel

Tuesday–another full day of school plus

20 jam buns plus 12 peach buns

2 loaves oatmeal honey bread

Plus a pot of braised short ribs.

I think I’ll take this afternoon off.  What do you think?