Peanut Butter and Nutella ‘Thumbprint’ Cookies

If you’ve been following the blog for a while now you’ll know that both Mel and myself are big fans of Nutella, you’ll also be aware we both have a soft spot for peanut butter so these were always going to be winners. If you aren’t a Nutella fan you could swap it out for jam, the classic PB&J combo always works well.

Ingredients:
1⅓ cups flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons smooth peanut butter
225 grams butter. softened
⅓ cup packed brown sugar
⅓ cup white sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
¼ cup Nutella or Jam

Method:
Pre-heat oven to 180°C and line an oven tray with wax paper or a silicon mat.
Beat butter and peanut butter with a mixer on a medium to high speed until smooth.
Add sugars and beat until pale and fluffy.
Add egg and vanilla and beat until they are combined.
Stop mixer and sift in flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
Fold with a spatula before turning your mixer on and mixing on a low speed.
Use a tablespoon to remove dough from your mixing bowl, form it into balls and place on your lined tray 4-5cm apart.
Bake until cookies puff up, about 10 minutes, remove from the oven and use the bottom your round teaspoon measure (or similar) to make indentations in the centre of each cookie.
Return to the oven and bake until the edges are golden , 5-7 minutes.
Remove and let cool completely on wire racks before piping Nutella into the centre or spooning jam in.

Ladies, a Plate: Jams and Preserves

Ladies, a Plate: Jams and Preserves is the newest title out by writer and independent art curator,  Alexa Johnston.  You may have heard of the ‘Ladies a Plate’ books before; Alexa has already published two books under similar names and branding.  There’s Ladies, a Plate: Traditional Home Baking which was followed by A Second Helping: More from Ladies, a Plate.  Both books were combined and rereleased last year in Ladies, a Plate: The Collection.  Alexa takes her classic baking recipes from friends, family, their mothers and grandmothers, and second-hand books, so everything is ‘just like grandma used to make’.  Ladies, a Plate: Jams and Preserves is the perfect new addition to her book family.  Here you will find recipes for making the perfect jams and preserves to accompany your baking (or to simply enjoy on a piece of toast!).

The book includes over 100 recipes and they’re not all just for jams and preserves as the title suggests.  There’s chutneys, pickles, curds as well as fruit cordial and liqueurs.  I’m very intrigued by the ‘Apple Lemon Curd’ and I know Simon would love it if I made him some  ‘Beetroot Relish’.  Also, scattered throughout the book are interesting little stories and notes to accompany the recipes, along with Alexa’s ideas for serving the preserves.

One thing that I find amazing about Alexa’s books is that along with making and testing all the recipes, she also takes all the photographs used in the kitchen of her Auckland home. Which, from running this blog and putting together our baking basics eBook, I can really appreciate the amount of work she has put into the production!

Once you’ve decided on a recipe, have made it and poured it into jars, you’ll find a bunch of sticker labels included in the book to add the perfect finishing touch to your creation.  Brilliant.

We’ve been lucky enough to be able to share the Plum Jam recipe from Ladies, a Plate: Jams and Preserves with you, which is written below.  Plum Jam is simple to make; check out my attempt at it from a few years back in this recipe post.   Details about the book follow after the recipe. 

Plum Jam
I think most people would consider Plum Jam as a standard, satisfactory jam and fairly unexciting, but you can nudge it into the distinguished and varied category by adding a few fresh or frozen berries. Particular favourites of mine are Plum and Blackcurrant, or Plum and Raspberry – and Plum and hazelnut is also a delightful and unusual jam. The method is the same for each, and since sour or slightly under ripe plums are high in both pectin and acid your jam will always set well. (Use ripe, sweet plums in a cake or tart and save the sour ones for jam making.)

Ingredients:
900g dark-skinned plums
250ml water
900g sugar

Preparing the fruit:
Halve the plums by cutting around the natural crease and twisting the halves apart. Remove the plum pit with a knife or a pitting spoon. If the plums are very large cut each half in two.

Getting ready:
Wash jam jars and their lids in hot water, rinse them and put them in the oven set to 250°F/120°C for about 30 minutes to drain and dry. Put a couple of small saucers into the freezer – you’ll use them to test the jam for setting.

Making the Jam:
1. Put the plums into a preserving pan with the water and bring to  the boil, stirring. Cook for 10–15 minutes until reduced to a pulp.
2. Add the sugar, stir until the sugar dissolves and bring the jam to a fast boil, stirring often.  Once the surface is covered with small bubbles begin timing.
3. After 10 minutes test the jam for a set. to do this, remove the pan from the heat, put a small spoonful of jam onto one of your chilled saucers, wait about 30 seconds, then push a finger gently through it. If the surface wrinkles slightly in front of your finger the jam is ready. Turn off the heat, remove the hot jars from the oven and put them on a board.
4. If the top of the jam is frothy, drop in 1 tsp butter, which will, as it melts, make the froth disappear. After 5 minutes, ladle the jam into a heatproof jug and pour it into the jars using a wide-mouthed funnel.
5. Seal the jars immediately and try not to move them until the jam is cold and set. Label and store in a cool, dark place. Makes about 4 cups/1 litre jam.

Plum & Blackcurrant Jam:
This darkly delicious confection and the raspberry variant below both appear in a number of Aunt Daisy cookbooks from the 1940s and 1950s. Aunt Daisy’s books were compendia of recipes sent in by home cooks – listeners to her popular radio programmes. Follow the main recipe, replacing about 8 oz/225 g of the plums with fresh or frozen blackcurrants.  Start testing after 5 minutes.

Reproduced with permission from Ladies, A Plate : Jams & Preserves by Alexa Johnston. Published by Penguin Group (NZ), RRP $47.00. Copyright© text of the recipe and photographs Alexa Johnston, 2013

Plum Jam

For the past year, Simon and I have been unsure about a couple of the trees that are in our garden; we couldn’t figure out what variety of fruit tree they were.  Turns out they were a couple of different types of plums.  So, the other day I picked all the ripe fruit and I made jam.
It turns out making Plum Jam is really easy – you don’t need anything fancy because as my research has told me, Plums have a lot of natural Pectin in them.  That’s the stuff that helps the jam to set, which means you don’t need to add anything.


Our lovely trees gave me 2.7 kg of fruit before I cut them up to remove the stones.
You will need:
Equal weight of plums and sugar (at least 1.5kg – just reduce the amount of water if you have less)
A little bit of water (about ⅔ cup)


Chop up the plums, removing the stones and put into a large pot with a heavy base.  Add a little bit of water (I put in about ½ a cup for all my plums).


Bring the pot up to a boil and simmer uncovered for an hour, stirring occasionally.  The liquid should be reduced by ⅔ and the fruit should be soft.
Put a small plate into the freezer to make it cold for testing the jam later.
Add the sugar into the simmering fruit.  I would start with a small amount of sugar and taste the jam before adding more (I used about 1kg of sugar to my 2.7ish kgs of fruit because I found it sweet enough).  Stir until it is completely dissolved.Turn up the heat and bring the mixture to a rapid boil while stirring.  Boil for 10 minutes.


Remove the plate from the freezer and place a blob of the mixture on to it.  Once the mixture has cooled a little, run your finger through it; if the mixture stays separated it is ready to be put into jars.  If the mixture comes back together, boil it for a few more minutes before testing again.  Once the mixture is ready, remove from the heat and pour into sterilised jam jars (I used some from the supermarket that have the lids that pop in when they have sealed.  There’s heaps of info about how to sterilise them on the internet.)

 

I found this You Tube video really helpful and recommend it if you are going to give making Plum Jam a go.
Once opened the jars of jam will last for about 8 weeks.

Blueberry Jam & Cream Cheese Muffins

 
This is an old ‘food in a minute’ recipe (a little TV advertisement segment we get in New Zealand).  You can make these with whatever flavour jam you like – I’ve experimented and haven’t found a bad flavour yet.

Makes 12.

2 ¼ cups self raising flour
½ cup caster sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
¾ cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
100g butter, melted
2 tablespoons golden syrup
6 tablespoons blueberry jam
¼ cup cream cheese

Sift the flour and sugar into a bowl and make a well in the centre.
Mix egg, milk and vanilla essence together.  Stir into the dry ingredients along with the melted butter and golden syrup.
Half fill 12 well greased muffin tins.  Place a heaped teaspoon of jam and a teaspoon of cream cheese into the centre of each muffin.

Carefully cover the jam and cream cheese with the remaining muffin mixture.  Bake at 220˚C for 12 – 15 minutes, or until well risen, golden and firm to touch.
Cool in the tin for 5 minutes.  Serve warm, dusted with icing sugar.

Inspiration: Romantic Breakfast