Jam Bars

These jam bars are amazing! Wow! My kids kept cutting off little pieces and eating them when they thought I wasn't looking... which I was but, for the first time, I ignored because I was doing the same thing! We used homemade peach jam and it was delicious! Make two pans of it because one goes too quickly!

 

Jam Bars

crust

1 1/2 c. flour

1/2 c. oats

1/2 c. sugar

3/4 c. butter, softened

1/2 tsp. baking soda

Combine all the above ingredients, beating with an electric mixer for 1-2 minutes or until the mixture is crumbly. Be sure to scrape the bottom and sides as needed. Press the mixture into the bottom of a greased 9x13 pan and bake 20 minutes or until it is golden brown.

filling

1 1/2 c. jam

Use strawberry, apricot, peach, or raspberry jam. When you take the crust out of the oven spread the jam over it immediately going almost all the way to the edges.

topping

3/4 c. flaked coconut

1/4 c. flour

1/4 c. brown sugar

2 Tbsp. butter, softened

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

Combine topping ingredients while the crust is baking. Sprinkle over the jam and return the bars to the oven, baking an additional 20 minutes or until the topping os golden brown. Allow to cool completely before cutting - but good luck waiting that long!

Apple Fritter Bread

It's officially fall so let the fall baking begin! We were sitting in church when the need to bake overcame me. Does that ever happen to you? Baking is my coping skill and I needed to bake. But I hadn't planned on a baking spree and I didn't have the marshmallow creme I needed to make the peanut butter fudge I desperately needed to make and the bag of marshmallows was needed to make rice krispy treats for the boys lunches. My husband came to the rescue! He wanted apple fritters. With glaze. Everything is better with glaze! I didn't want to fry anything so I made apple fritter bread instead. So good! Eat it! It's fall!

 

 

Apple Fritter Bread

1/2 c. butter, softened

2/3 c. sugar

2 eggs

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla

1 1/2 c. flour

1 3/4 tsp. baking powder

1/2 c. milk

2 apples

1/3 c. brown sugar

1 tsp. cinnamon

Mix the butter and sugar together until creamy. Add the eggs and vanilla, mixing well. Add the flour and baking powder, stirring to combine. Gently mix in the milk, stirring until it is smooth. Peel the apples and chop into small chunks. Combine the brown sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl and set aside. In a greased loaf pan, put half the batter in the bottom. Add half the apples. Cover the apples with half the cinnamon sugar mixture. Repeat layers. Bake at 350 degrees for an hour or until the bread is baked through. 

Make a glaze with 1/2 c. powdered sugar and 1-2 Tbsp. milk. Pour over bread while still warm. Slice and enjoy!

*** I used homemade apple pie filling for my apples. I used about half the apples, chopping them into chunks before adding them to the bread. For the glaze I used some of the liquid from the pie filling instead of milk. So good!

Raspberry White Chocolate Muffins

And... more Saturday morning muffins. I like to pretend these are healthy since they have fruit and Greek yogurt. That counts, right?

 

Raspberry White Chocolate Muffins

1/2 c. butter, softened

1/2 c. sugar

1/4 c. brown sugar

2 eggs

1/2 c. plain Greek yogurt

2 Tbsp. milk

1 Tbsp. vanilla

1 1/2 c. flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. cinnamon

 1 c. white chocolate chips

1 1/2 c. raspberries - fresh or frozen 

In a large bowl, combine the butter and sugars. Add in the eggs, stirring well, then the yogurt, milk, and vanilla. Add the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and cinnamon stirring just until combined. Gently fold in the white chocolate chips and raspberries. Divide into paper lined muffin tins. I always double my muffin recipes and this doubled made 36 muffins so it makes quite a few. Bake at 350 degrees about 15 minutes or until the top springs back when lightly touched.

Cinnamon Scones

  I used to make scones every Sunday for breakfast. That doesn't happen very often anymore, which is too bad because they are delicious and we all like them, but I work every third Sunday and when I don't work I like to sleep a little bit. Scones are a little time consuming, but they are worth the effort! Scones are the British version of biscuits but they are flavored and yummy! They are frequently served with jam or clotted cream, but we eat them plain.

 

Cinnamon Scones

2 c. flour

3 tsp. baking soda

2 Tbsp. sugar

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 c. butter, cold

3/4 c. milk

1 bag cinnamon chips

Mix the dry ingredients together. Cut in the butter until the mixture resembles course crumbs. Add the milk slowly until a soft dough forms. Stir in the cinnamon chips. On a floured surface, form the dough into a thick circle that is about 7 inches across. Cut into wedges (I do 12 wedges, but you can do less if you want) using a pizza cutter or a sharp knife. Bake at 400 degrees for 12-15 minutes or until the edges turn golden brown.

Honey Spice Peaches

This is one of our favorite recipes for peaches. The honey really is amazing and then the spices... so good! I got the boys all helping me skin the peaches after blanching them so they ended up a little more mangled than if I had done them myself, but, hey, they eat them, too!

 

Honey Spice Peaches

8 lbs. freestone peaches

4 c. water

1 c. sugar

2 c. honey

whole cloves

cinnamon sticks

OK, before you start anything else, blanch the peaches. This entails a large pot of boiling water. Add the peaches a few at a time - not so many they are not covered with water. Let them sit in the water for one minutes, then remove and place in an ice water bath (a large bowl full of water and ice). This stops the cooking process - you don't want to cook the peaches, just get the skins off. Let them sit for a minute then you should be able to rub the skin a bit and it comes right off.  Once the skin is off, slice each peach in half and remove the pit. Slice into eighths and set aside. Do this for all the peaches. 

In another large pot, add the water, sugar, and honey. Stir and heat. Once it is hot (does not need to boil), add in some of the peaches. Let them heat, but don't wait until they are cooked. They should heat 2-3 minutes. remove from the syrup with a slotted spoon and pack into prepared** jars. Fill them up almost all the way, then add 3-4 whole cloves and a cinnamon stick. Finish packing to the top. Shake the jar a little to get the peaches to settle. The jars will hold a lot of peaches! Fill the jar with some of the syrup to 1/4 inch from the top, cover with a lid and screw band, and process in a water bath canner for 30 minutes. Repeat until all the peaches have been used to fill the jars (we eat any partial jars).

**Prepared jars means they have been washed and heated. I put mine in the dishwasher to wash, use heated dry, and take them out to use while still hot. Everything needs to be hot - jars, lids, fruit, canner. 

Honey Vanilla Peach Butter

My kids love various butters we can make from fruit. We have done apple butter from time to time and peach butter. I'm not always convinced it's worth all the effort, but they love it so I make it sometimes. This one is a favorite!

 

Honey Vanilla Peach Butter

18 peaches, smashed up

2 1/4 c. sugar

3/4 c. honey

1 Tbsp. vanilla

In a large pot cook the peaches, sugar, honey, and vanilla until the peaches are soft. Use a blender to blend in batches until smooth. You can use a hand blender for this if you have one. At this point you can cook the peaches two ways. Option 1: Continue to cook on the stove until the water is boiled out and the peaches mound on a spoon. This will likely take hours. Option 2: As you blend the peaches in batches, pour the blended peaches into a crock pot and cook on low overnight with the lid off. They should be ready to can by morning. Once the peaches are as thick as you want them to be, ladle into canning jars and process 20 minutes in a water bath canner.

Peach Jam

Some more jam we've been working on. The boys had a bit of a disappointment this morning, but trying out all the peach recipes we are canning helped to perk them up again. We love our canning recipes!

 

Peach Jam

4 c. peaches, smashed up or cut into small chunks

2 Tbsp. lemon juice

1 tsp. butter

1 box Sure Jell

5 1/2 c. sugar

Place peaches, lemon juice, butter, and Sure Jell in a large pot and heat to boiling.  Add the sugar all at once and return to a rolling boil. Boil 1 minute. Put in prepared canning jars and process 20 minutes in a water bath canner.