Canned Applesauce

I love making applesauce. I grew up canning applesauce with my parents, around 100 quarts per year! I love making it for my family now, and my kids love to help.

This is how I make my applesauce, but you can vary the amounts of sugar and flavoring if you want. I don't add extra flavoring (like kool-aid or red hots) as I try to keep my applesauce as natural as possible and no food dyes. I have made applesauce with golden delicious, gala, rome, jonathon, jonagold, and honeycrisp. All are delicious! For apples that are more tart like jonathons you can add less sugar.

I use a Back to Basics strainer and I love it! There is no need to peel, core or take the seeds out. Saves so much time.

1. Put apples in sink and wash well.

2. Cut apples into quarters, only cutting out the blossom at the bottom. I put the quartered apples into large bowls.

3. Dump the apples into large pots to cook until soft. Make sure you add them heaping to the pots...they cook down quite far. Add water to the apples, but don't add too much or your applesauce will be watery. I cook my apples in my pressure cooker and I add 1 qt to this large pot. It helps make the apples soft and cook down without burning. To the smaller pot I add 1 cup water.

4. Cook on medium and keep stirring until apples are really soft and squishy. This usually takes me about 45 minutes or so.

5. Squish through your strainer. Tip my dad taught me: Put the skins through twice, and it will give you more sauce! It really does and makes the apples go farther.

6. After I have a large bowl full of sauce, I add the correct amount of sugar and cinnamon that we like. I measure my sauce into the large bowl as I go so I know exactly how many quarts I have in my mixing bowl.

For each quart of sauce, I add 2 Tbl. sugar and 1/4 tsp. cinnamon. I usually make sauce with galas and this is the perfect amount of spices for our family. I have it written down with figured measurements so I can mix quickly. So for 8 quarts of sauce, add 1 c. sugar and 1/4 tsp cinnamon.

7. Fill jars, put on hot lids and rings, and process for 25 minutes. (Check your elevation for processing time. This is my elevation time).

ENJOY YOUR APPLESAUCE!

Canned Salsa

Mom just gave me this recipe that she is canning this year. It sounds super easy!

12 cups tomatoes, chopped and skins removed (let the juice drip out by putting them in a strainer)
2 1/4 cups chopped onion
12 garlic cloves minced or chopped
12 stems of cilantro (I think I will add more)
1-2 jalepeno, seeded and chopped (use gloves)
1 T. salt
6 T. lime juice


Mix all ingredients together.  Then pack into pint jars (uncooked) and water bath for 35 minutes.

5 minute Artisan Bread

I found this artisan bread recipe and couldn't resist!  5 minutes....not quite but it is super simple and easy.  It just takes times for dough to rest and rest and rest.

from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day
(makes four 1-pound loaves)

3 cups lukewarm water (110 degrees)
1 1/2 tbsp granulated yeast (2 packets) (instant yeast preferred)
1 1/2 tbsp kosher or other coarse salt
6 1/2 cups (27.6 oz) unsifted, unbleached, all-purpose white flour, measured with the scoop and sweep method
cornmeal for  rimless baking tray (or something without a rim)

Add yeast and salt to the water in a 5 quart bowl, or preferably, in a resealable, lidded (not airtight) plastic container or food grade bucket. Don’t worry about getting all the yeast to dissolve.


When measuring out your flour, scoop out a cup and use a knife to scrape the excess off the top. Because you’re using so many cups of flour, a little error on each cup adds up to big difference in the end, so do take care in this. If you have a kitchen scale, you can just measure out 27.6 ounces of flour.

Mix in the flour all at once with a wooden spoon, a high capacity food processor with dough hook, or a heavy duty stand mixer fitted with the dough hook until the mixture is uniform. Do not knead the bread. You’re finished when everything is uniformly moist without dry patches.


Cover with a lid (not airtight and allow to rise at room temperature until it begins to collapse or at least flattens on top, approximately 2 hours, depending on the room’s temperature and the initial temperature of the water. You can let it rise up to 5 hours without ruining the dough.


You can use the dough at this point, although it’s far easier to work with the dough after it has been refrigerated for a couple of hours. The first time you try making this bread, let it sit in the fridge for at least 3 hours so it can firm up a bit.

On baking day:

Sprinkle an unrimmed baking sheet with cornmeal. Cover the dough with a thin layer of flour and pull and cut off a grapefruit-sized piece of dough using a serrated knife. Hold the mass of dough in your hands and add a little more flour as needed so that it won’t stick to your hands. Shape the dough into a ball as quickly as possible and rest on the cornmeal covered peel. This process should not take more than 30 seconds.

Let the loaf rest on the peel for about 40 minutes.

Twenty minutes BEFORE  baking, preheat the oven to 450 degrees with a baking stone placed on the middle rack. Place an empty broiler tray for holding water on any other shelf that won’t interfere with the rising bread.

Now dust the bread with flour and cut several 1/4-inch-deep slashes on the top with a serrated knife.After a 20 minute preheat, you’re ready to bake, even if  your oven isn't up to temperature. Run the tap water so that it gets hot. Slide the loaf onto the preheated baking stone. Quickly add 1 cup of hot tap water to the broiler tray and close the oven door to trap the steam.

Bake for about 30 minutes or until the crust is nicely browned and firm to the touch. The inside will stay moist even though the outside is browning. Allow to cool completely, preferably on a wire cooling rack. The crust may soften, but it will firm up again when cooled.

Store the remaining dough in the fridge in your lidded (not airtight) container and use over the next 14 days, repeating the “On baking day” steps from above.

Roasted tomato sauce

3-4 pounds ripe tomatoes, ideally plum, stems removed.
1 medium onion, halved and sliced
2-3 cloves ofgarlic, smashed and peeled
 A large pinch of dried herb, crumbled (marjoram, thyme, basil or oregano) or 1 teaspoon chopped fresh (optional)  I just use basil.
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
Freshly ground black pepper

Heat the oven to 375. Slice the tomatoes in half lengthwise, then arrange them cut-side down, in one layer on a large, rimmed baking sheet (mine is 12-by 17-inches), lined with parchment paper, ifyou like, for easier clean-up. Arrange the onions, garlic and herbs over the top, then drizzle the whole thing evenly with olive oil and sprinkle with salt, sugar, and pepper. Bake for an 1 - 1 1/2 hours (or so), until the tomatoes are browning in spots and have ful1y collapsed. Around an hour in, the tomatdes will be sitting in a flood of juice in their pans, and then this juice will reduce as they cook further.

After cooking, put everything in the blender.  Salt and add more salt or sugar as needed.  Allow it to cool and

Homemade yogurt

Homemade Yogurt

Reconstitute powdered milk to make 1 quart. (Do not use the "Morning Moo" brand. It will not turn into yogurt.) Heat milk to 180° F stirring constantly, if heating on the stove. You can also heat the milk in the microwave. It takes me about 7 minutes in my microwave. Remove from heat and let cool until milk reaches 120–125° F. Set a timer for about 20 minutes so you don't forget about it. Use an instant read food thermometer to measure the temperature. Mix in ¼–½ cup of plain yogurt with active cultures. Stir with a wire whisk. Pour into a thermos and screw on the lid. Allow to incubate for 2 ½–12 hours on your counter. I've found that when I use plain yogurt from the store it takes 4+ hours to set up. If I use my homemade yogurt as a start, it is often done in 2 ½–3 hours. The longer you incubate the yogurt, the tangier it will be. You know it is done when you open your thermos and you see a small amount of clear, yellowish liquid (whey) on the top and thick white yogurt below. If you still see milk, it needs to incubate longer. Quickly close the thermos so you don't lose much heat and let it sit another hour or more before checking again. Refrigerate after incubating. It will thicken a little more as it cools.

I got this Making Yogurt with Powdered milk recipe from All Things Provident.  If you haven't checked out her blog yet and you are big into using your food storage, then you are missing out!  She has lots of ideas on how to use your food storage for everyday use.

So why make homemade yogurt?  It is SUPER cheap, is it easy, healthy, can use it in many recipes, did I say easy?  I've made it multiple times and have used it so far for fruit/yogurt popsicles and also for a recipe that called for cream cheese.  See the blog to see how to turn the homemade yogurt into sour cream/cream cheese.

Chocolate Zucchini Bread/Cake

½ cup butter/margarine, melted

¼ cup oil

1 ¾ cup sugar

1 tsp. Vanilla

2 eggs

½ cup sour cream

2 cups shredded zucchini

2 ½ cups flour

2 – 4 TBSP cocoa (I usually sneak in more)

½ tsp. Cinnamon

½ tsp. Cloves or allspice

1 tsp. Baking soda

½ tsp. Salt

½ cup chocolate chips

Frosting

Mix all wet ingredients together in a large bowl. Combine all dry ingredients except chocolate chips. Stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Fold in chocolate chips. Pour into a well greased bundt cake pan or 2 loaf pans. Bake at 350 degrees for:

Bundt pan: 50 minutes

2 loaf pans: 30-40 minutes.

Remove from oven. For the bundt pan place a serving platter over the pan, turn upside down and gently tap to remove the cake. Let cool 10 minutes. While still warm frost with  frosting. It will melt and drizzle down the sides. For the bread pans, remove from pan and drizzle frosting over the top when slightly cool.

Garlic Bread in a pan

1 TBS yeast
2 TBS sugar
1 1/2 warm water

Mix these ingredients and then add:

3 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt

Knead for 3 minutes.  Let the dough rest for 10 minutes in the bowl.  Spread out the dough in a greased sheet pan.  Add the garlic topping which is this all mixed together:

1/2 cup melted butter
1/4 cup mayo
1/4 TBS parsley
1/4 TBS garlic salt.

Spread this on top of the dough and then sprinkle on 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese.    Let the dough then rise for 30 minutes.  Bake for 20 minutes at 350 degrees.  It is super yummy!

**I made this once and the kids LOVED it!  However, next time I think I will try to cut the topping ingredients by half - because that is a ton of butter.

'Just add water' whole wheat blender pancakes

This is my whole wheat blender pancake recipe converted to pantry only ingredients. I multiply it several times and make 3 or 4 gallon ziplock bags for the pantry. It's great for camping and for those mornings that you don't want to wake up the whole world with the blender! Just add water and they still have that awesome blender pancake texture.

4 cups wheat blended
6 tsp butter powder
8 to 9 TB sugar
6 tsp baking powder
2 tsp salt
16 TB powdered milk

mix it together
add water slowly and stir until it looks like pancake batter- batter gets thick so you may need to add water after it sits for awhile for easy pour pancakes.

You can also sneak in some other ingredients as well like ground flax seed and ground quinoa.

April's 'Just add water' whole wheat blender pancakes

This is my whole wheat blender pancake recipe converted to pantry only ingredients. I multiply it several times and make 3 or 4 gallon ziplock bags for the pantry. It's great for camping and for those mornings that you don't want to wake up the whole world with the blender! Just add water and they still have that awesome blender pancake texture.

4 cups wheat blended
6 tsp butter powder
8 to 9 TB sugar
6 tsp baking powder
2 tsp salt
16 TB powdered milk

mix it together
add water slowly and stir until it looks like pancake batter- batter gets thick so you may need to add water after it sits for awhile for easy pour pancakes.

You can also sneak in some other ingredients as well like ground flax seed and ground quinoa.

Peach Pie Filling

I found this on Pinterest, originally posted here with great pictures through the different steps.

For the pie filling I made 7 quarts at a time using 6 quarts of sliced peaches.
In a large deep stock pot mix:
5 1/4 c. cold water
1 3/4 c. bottled lemon juice
7 c. granulated sugar
2 c plus 3 tbsp Clear Jel
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. almond flavoring - I added this at the very end.

While stirring over medium heat bring the mixture up to a boil. You will feel the mix begin to thicken as you stir. It will thicken quickly and while scorch if you don’t work fast. I use a large whisk and keep everything moving while scraping the bottom and the sides of the pot. Boil for 1 minute and remove from heat. The bottom will scorch if you just leave the pot on the eye turned off.

Add in the peaches and mix well. The cloudy look is normal. Don’t worry. After processing the filling will become crystal clear.   Using hot sterilized jars fill the jars leaving 1 1/4 inch of head space. The filling will expand in during processing and will rupture the lids if you don’t leave enough head space. Apply lids and bands.

Process quart jars in a boiling water bath for 30 minutes.

Tiff's notes:  I added the cinnamon and almond flavoring to this recipe, I got the idea from another recipe.  It is wonderful with it.  The first batch I forgot the almond flavoring, the second batch I remembered and it was even better with it!

Peach Pancake Topping

 

I found this recipe on Pinterest (now it's saved on my "In the Kitchen" board.  The recipe came from here.  I am even canning this into pint jars, it's that good!

Peach Pancake Topping
makes about 3 cups
2 1/4 cups frozen peaches (1 16-ounce bag)
1/2 cup white sugar
1 cup orange juice
1 cup water
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 cup cold water
Pinch salt

Put the peaches in a 2 quart saucepan. Stir in the sugar, orange juice, water and spices and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Stir often and make sure that the mixture doesn't boil over. Simmer for about 15 minutes or until the sauce is slightly reduced and the peaches are tender.

In a small bowl, whisk the cornstarch into the cold water until completely dissolved. Add to the peaches, stirring briskly. Stir constantly over medium heat until the sauce is slightly thickened - just a couple minutes.

Serve while warm.

Tiff's Notes:  I processed pints in a water bath for 15 minutes, like you would jam.