Rhubarb Butter - An Easy Way to Preserve Your Rhubarb

Not too sweet, not too sour, this rhubarb butter is something that you would love on your toast or pancakes in the morning or on a scone with tea in the afternoon.

The weather has been on everyone's mind lately!  Our spring has been rainy and mostly chilly with an occasional seasonal day thrown in to keep us hoping.  My rhubarb plant, on the other hand, is very happy with the chilly weather and is keeping me supplied with plentiful stalks.  I don't always want to make a cake, pie or other sweet dessert every week to use my rhubarb and was delighted when I found this delicious and easy recipe for Rhubarb Butter in our local newspaper.

The scones above I saw in a Instagram post on my friend's Monique's feed.  She found the recipe here and it originally came from here.  The dough is folded over and over to create those lovely, flaky layers you see.  Sooooo good!  And, ever better with a dollop of rhubarb butter.  I'm sharing the recipe I converted below to make it a little easier for my American followers to make.

Other than growing prolific rhubarb, here are a few snippets of what has been keeping me busy the past few weeks.  The Mid June Garden!

Rhubarb Butter

Printable Recipe

Makes 1 pint

1 pound rhubarb stalks, cut into pieces
1 large apple, chopped and cored
½ cup sugar
pinch salt
½ vanilla bean, seeds scraped (I used 1/2 teaspoon cardamom)

In a food processor, blend rhubarb, apple, sugar and salt until as smooth as possible.

In a heavy, not aluminum, saucepan, heat fruit over medium-low heat until simmering. Add scraped vanilla bean seeds and the pod (or cardamom). Stir frequently and cook until thick and spreadable, about 20 minutes.

Store in a glass jar in the fridge for up to a week or freeze indefinitely.

Adapted from this recipe.

Flaky Scones

Printable Recipe

3-1/3 cup all purpose unbleached white flour
2 scant Tablespoons sugar
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1-1/4 teaspoons salt
11 Tablespoons (1 stick, plus 3 Tablespoons) butter, frozen until firm
1-1/8 cup buttermilk
Finely grated zest of one lemon
1 egg, beaten, for glazing

A very sharp knife is necessary to as not to depress the dough when cutting into triangles for baking.  Otherwise, they will not rise properly.

Preheat oven to 400 ° F.

In a small bowl, mix together buttermilk and lemon zest. Refrigerate until needed.

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt and sugar.

Remove the butter from the freezer and, using a box grater, grate the butter quickly and coarsely onto a piece of parchment or waxed paper. Refreeze briefly, if it has become soft again, then add the butter to the flour mixture and blend the butter into the flour with a fork or pastry cutter. 

Add the buttermilk mixture to the flour/butter mixture and mix together until the ingredients are just barely blended together. Do not over-mix.

Flour a work surface and turn out the dough. Using your hands, gently flatten it to form a rectangle.

With a rolling pin, roll out dough to half an inch thick, keeping the rectangular shape. Fold dough in half and rotate 90 degrees and repeat these last two steps twice again.

Roll the dough one last time to obtain a rectangle of 18 "x 9".

Taking the shorter ends, make an 'envelope fold', folding one short end to the center and then the other short end over that fold (into thirds). You now have a 6 "x 9" rectangle.

Using a VERY sharp knife or dough cutter, cut a thin layer of dough on each side of your rectangle. This step will make those nice layers during cooking.

Cut 6 square 3" x 3" scones...then cut each square in half on the diagonal to form triangles.

Place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper spaced three inches apart.  Brush lightly with egg wash.

Bake for 20 to 22 minutes or until light golden brown.

Adapted from this recipe.

Orange and Spice Fig Jam

Last week, one of our local grocery stores chains had a new store grand opening sale with lots of great offers. One of them was a carton of 12 fresh figs for $6.99. Growing up in the Midwest, I don't believe I even ate a fresh fig until I was an adult and the only figs I knew were found in Fig Newtons. More stores here are carry them now when they are in season but they are still quite expensive so this was a great deal. The figs I bought were called Brown Turkey figs and they were quite large compared to other figs I've seen.

I've been seeing lots of fig jam recipes on the internet recently, and knew I had an opportunity to finally try making some with when I saw this sale. The recipe that I decided to try I found on Simply Recipes for Spicy Fig Orange Microwave Jam. I thought - I can do that! The flavors or orange, cinnamon and cloves in the recipe sounded wonderful to me. My figs must have been a lot bigger than those in the recipe so I needed to double all of the ingredients. They did not want to cook down in the microwave and my Pyrex dish was getting so hot I could hardly hold onto it when I stirred the jam. I finished the jam on the stove and next time, I'll skip the microwave altogether!

Even with the recipe not cooperating at first, the jam turned out wonderfully and is so delicious! I've been having some each morning on toasted baguette slices and I know it will be delicious as an appetizer served with brie on crackers too. I'm keeping two jars in the refrigerator and freezing one. While fresh figs are still available, I know I will be making this recipe again soon so I'll have some to enjoy throughout the winter.

Orange and Spice Fig Jam
Inspired by Simply Recipes
Printable Recipe

Note: I doubled these ingredients for my 12 figs and this made 3 jars of jam (1 Mama, 1 Papa, and 1 Baby-sized jar).

1 1/2 cups diced fresh figs
1 1/2 teaspoons grated orange peel
1/2 cup seeded, peeled orange, diced
1 1/2 cups of sugar
3 Tbsp lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon butter

Place all of the ingredients in a large, glass bowl and allow to macerate in the sugar for at least 30 minutes. Turn everything into a heavy saucepan and simmer until reduced and thickened (about 45 minutes on medium low) until everything is reduced by 1/3 to 1/2 original volume, stirring occasionally. Watch carefully that the jam doesn't start to burn on the bottom of the pan. Reduce heat, if necessary.

Pour the jam into jars, leaving 1/4-1/2 inch of headroom from the top of the jars. Refrigerate or freeze.

The Beautiful Fall Colors of Red and Gold ... Habanero Style!

Not the colors on the trees, although that's may have been what inspired me to make this recipe because the reds and golds are glorious in the trees in our yard right now.

I just overcame my fear of canning this weekend (finally!) and the first recipe I decided to try was Habanero Gold Jelly.  Not only had I never canned before but I've never touched or eaten a Habanero pepper!

These babies are HOT! I wished I would have done some research on them before handling because I now know (a little too late) that I should have worn rubber gloves. Fortunately, the burning sensation on my fingers has subsided from scraping the seeds with bare hands! If you like hot and spicy, you'll love this! Along with Habanero peppers, sweet red pepper, red onion and dried apricots make up the red and gold of this delicious jelly. Please don't be alarmed at my red hot experience - the jelly was delightful.  I seeded the Habanero peppers to keep it a little more tame.

The recipe for Habanero Gold Jelly has been on the Cooking Forum website for many years and many of my foodie friends have made it before. I recently discovered that the original recipe is credited to Bob Rouleau of Canada and it can be found on the Bernadin Canada canning website. 

Tonight we had one of our daughters and her boyfriend for dinner and I served this jelly as a relish with brie and sharp cheddar cheeses on baguettte slices.  The creamy brie and the jelly with an 'attitude' was a wonderful pairing. Since many men love the heat of chili peppers, this jelly was very popular tonight! Others have used it in sauces or marinades for grilled meat and poultry or as a condiment. If you want to popular with the spicy men in your life - give it a try!  

Click HERE for a link to some cute 4 oz canning jars similar to the ones you see in my photos.  

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Habanero Gold Jelly

Adapted from a recipe by Bob Rouleau, Canada
Printable Recipe

Makes 4 half-pint jars

1/3 cup finely sliced dried apricots
3/4 cup white vinegar
1/4 up finely diced red onion
1/4 cup finely diced sweet red pepper
1/4 cup finely diced habanero peppers - I removed the seeds but you can leave them in if you want it REALLY hot
OR 1/4 cup diced, combined jalapeno and Scotch Bonnet peppers
3 cups granulated sugar
1 pouch liquid pectin

Instructions:

Cut apricots into 1/8 inch slices. Measure into a large deep stainless steel saucepan with vinegar; let stand 4 hours. Individually, cut onion and seeded peppers into 1/8 inch slices; cut slices into 1/4 inch dice.  Measure each ingredient; add to apricots. Stir in sugar.

Bring to a full rolling boil. Stirring constantly, boil for 1 minute. Remove from heat and add liquid pectin, mixing well.

Pour jelly into hot jars, dividing solids equally among jars and filling each jar to within 1/4 inch of top rim. Wipe rims and apply lids.

Process 10 minutes in a boiling water bath. Cool upright, until lids pop down, about 30 minutes. When lids are concave but the jelly is still hot, carefully grasp jar without disturbing lid and invert, twist, or rotate each jar to distribute solids throughout jelly.

Repeat as necessary during the cooling/setting time, until solids remain suspended in the jelly.