Meyer Lemon Marmalade

I brought some lemons back from CA (and bought more at Costco) with the intention of trying to make lemon marmalade again. Last time was good, but a little overcooked. This time I got lucky and it's pretty close to perfect.

INGREDIENTS

• 1.5 pounds Meyer lemons
• 2.5 cups sugar
• water (3 cups needed for the actual jam recipe, but start with more for boiling)
• Pomona's Pectin (I bought this in CA.  Not sure if it's available locally, but it's really a unique product that allows me to successfully make jam with less sugar.  It's a 2 step process - definitely different than using SureJell, so read the directions carefully.)

PREPARE THE PECTIN 

• Prepare the Calcium Water.  To do this, combine ½ teaspoon calcium powder (in the small packet in your box of Pomona’s pectin) with ½ cup water in a small, clear jar with a lid. Shake well.  Extra calcium water should be stored in the refrigerator for future use.
• For this recipe, mix 4.5 teaspoons of pectin powder with 2.5 cups of sugar. 

SOFTEN THE LEMON PEELS

• 1.5 pounds of washed Meyer lemons (round the weight up if necessary, but don't cut a lemon to keep it at 1.5 pounds. I weighed 1 lb, 12 ounces for this batch.)
• Place in a single layer in a pot, cover with water, bring it to a boil then reduce heat and simmer for 25 minutes. (Cover with a lid to keep your water from evaporating.)
• Cool until you can work with them.
• Save the cooking water.

COMBINE INGREDIENTS 

• Cut each lemon in half and remove the seeds.  The lemon is pretty broken down after all that simmering, so use a cutting surface that will hold the juice that tries to escape.
• Peels and all, put them in the blender with 3 cups of the cooking water. (I divided the lemons and water in half to do this in 2 steps.  Not sure my blender would have held it all and I didn't want to overprocess it.)  
• I processed it on my slow pulse setting so it would roughly chop but not puree.
• Pour it into a pot and bring the water and chopped lemons to a boil.
• add 3 teaspoons of prepared Calcium Water (1 part of the Pomona's process)
• Add pectin-sugar mixture, stirring vigorously for 1 to 2 minutes to dissolve the pectin while the marmalade comes back up to a boil.  Once the marmalade returns to a full boil, remove it from the heat.

PROCESS THE JARS

• Fill hot jars to ¼” of top. Wipe rims clean. Screw on 2-piece lids. Put filled jars in boiling water to cover. Boil 10 minutes (add 1 minute more for every 1,000 ft. above sea level). Remove from water. Let jars cool. Check seals; lids should be sucked down. Eat within 1 year. Lasts 3 weeks once opened.

NOTES (as if I needed more):

Food in Jars has a more traditional marmalade recipe but it's lemon ginger.  That sounds pretty great so I might use my extra lemons along with a tube of Aldi Ginger Paste to try this all over again.

I used bits and pieces of all these recipes.  Take a look if you want to refer to someone who knows what they're talking about.

• https://pomonapectin.com/orange-marmalade/
• https://foodinjars.com/recipe/meyer-lemon-ginger-marmalade/
• https://foodinjars.com/recipe/honey-sweetened-meyer-lemon-jam/

I'm pretty sure this is all firmly in the ranks of rambling, poorly written recipes, but since there are basically 5 readers, I'm not too concerned.  LMK if something is unclear and I'll update.

90 Minute Man Bread (aka My New Favorite White Bread?)

 Taken from Don't Waste the Crumbs.
(My notes at the bottom.)

• 1-1/2 cups of warm water (105-115 degrees)
• 1 Tbsp honey
• 2-1/4 tsp active-dry yeast
• 2 Tbsp coconut oil, melted
• 4 cups all purpose flour
• 1-1/2 tsp salt
• Vital wheat gluten - 1 Tbsp per cup flour (optional)

1) If your kitchen is not warm, turn your oven to low. This is simply to warm your kitchen up a little bit (since it’s cool where we live).

2) In your mixer bowl add warm water, honey, and yeast. Stir a few times until honey dissolves. Once yeast starts foaming (5 minutes or so), add flour, melted coconut oil, and salt. Using dough hook, knead for 10 minutes on low/medium low. Leave your dough ball in the bowl and cover with a towel. Let rise for 30 minutes.

3) After the first rise, lightly flour a surface and scoop your dough ball on it. Knead your lump of dough by hand a few times, until it forms a firm ball. Cover this ball of dough with a towel.

4) Preheat oven to 400 degrees. If you have a pizza stone, make sure this is in the oven to warm up. Alternatively, you can use a cast iron skillet while the oven is preheating – as one reader had great luck with! (Note: We have only tested this recipe with a pizza stone.)

5) Let rise for 30 minutes.

6) After the second rise, place dough ball directly on pizza stone, cut two slits on the top of the dough ball and bake for 25 minutes at 400 degrees. If you are using a loaf or cast iron skillet, the cook time may need to be increased an additional 10-15 minutes. (bread is done when the internal temp is 220 degrees).

7) Let cool and enjoy.

NOTES

*We move this dough from the counter to the pizza stone, but if you don’t feel confident in that transition, flour a piece of parchment paper and shape the dough on that for the second rise. Then move the entire paper with the dough to the oven for baking.

**Vital wheat gluten is optional but helps create a more pliable, softer loaf.

Jenny's Notes:

• This is a very easy recipe and makes a very soft, pleasant bread (probably even good for sandwiches, although we've only had it by itself).
• I used Heritage White Flour and omitted the Vital Gluten.
• I baked it in my dutch oven on parchment paper.
• I baked it a little longer than 25 minutes (probably about 30).  It hadn't reached 220 degrees, but I took it out of the oven 1) because I had somewhere to be and 2) because it seemed done on the outside.  It was cooked all the way through.

Jonah-approved!

Pizza crust - Gerardi method

 5 stars!

I used the Sallys Baking Addiction recipe - https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/homemade-pizza-crust-recipe/#tasty-recipes-66436

• I mixed it at lunch time so it had lots of time for the yeasty taste to develop. (Probably not essential)
• To bake, I preheated the oven to 475 with a baking sheet inside to heat up.
• I rolled out the crust on a silicone mat.
• Brush it with olive oil where the sauce will be to keep it from getting soggy.
• Add sauce and toppings and slid it onto another inverted baking sheet to make it easier to transfer to the hot pan.
• When the oven was hot I pulled out the pan and butted up against my inverted baking sheet so I could easily slide it all onto the hot pan. An extra set of hands would probably make all that unnecessary.
• Bake 10 minutes on the bottom rack and maybe 4 more on the top.

It slid onto a cutting board easily.

NOTES: 

• Holly uses parchment paper at 450.
• Johnny uses a silpat and 500 degrees.
• They both use TJs crust
• Sallys recipe filled the baking sheet with a thicker crust than I usually make. Next time I’ll probably try 2 thinner crusts.
• Fwiw, I added Italian seasoning and garlic powder to the crust. It was good.

Spaetzel

 

• 4 cups all-purpose flour
• ▢ 2 tsp salt
• ▢ 8 large eggs
• ▢ 3/4 cup milk

• In a bowl, whisk together the flour, eggs, milk, and salt. Stir until the batter is well combined and develops bubbles. You can also use a mixer. The batter should neither be too thin nor too thick or it will be difficult to make the spaetzle with your spaetzle maker. Let the batter sit for 5-10 min.
• Put a colander into a bowl to drain the Spaetzle once cooked and bring a large pot of water over high heat to a boil, add about 1 Tbsp of salt to the water, and reduce temperature to a simmer.
• Press batter through a spaetzle maker, a large holed sieve or colander into the simmering water.
• Work in batches, after using about 1/3 of the batter stop adding new spaetzle and let them cook for about 2-3 minutes, or until they float to the top. Stir occasionally. Use a slotted spoon to transfer the spaetzle to the colander so that excess water can drip off.
• Serve the spaetzle immediately or saute them in butter to crisp them up a little. If you don't serve or saute them right away, add 1 or 2 Tbsp of butter to the hot spaetzle to prevent them from sticking together.

NOTES

UPDATE 10/23/19: Recipe has been re-tested because of reader feedback and amount of milk has been increased from 1/3 cup+2 Tbsp to 3/4 cup of milk.

• This makes a big batch of Spaetzle that is perfect for a big family dinner.
• Clean used equipment with cold water, the dough is very sticky and gets stickier when using hot water.
• Leftover Spaetzle can be stored, tossed with some melted butter, in an airtight container in the fridge for 3-4 days. To reheat, saute them in some butter.