My Gluten-Free Bread Recipe

Buying gluten-free bread at the supermarket is ridiculously expensive. And some of it tastes like Styrofoam. I have been experimenting with baking my own. I really like the way I've been making it lately. It is a rather short loaf but the flavor and texture are good. I like to watch my carb intake so, to me, smaller slices aren't a bad thing.

Roxi's Gluten-Free Bread

Preheat oven to 100 degrees (or warm).

In a small bowl, soak 1/2 C. of rolled oats in hot water for 10 minutes. Drain. Set aside.

3/4c. warm water in a measuring cup. Add to this:
2 Tbs. Organic sugar
1 Tbs. yeast

Combine these dry ingredients in a big mixing bowl:
1/2 C. white rice flour
1/2 C. brown rice flour
1/2 C. tapioca starch
1/2 C. corn starch
1/4 C. powdered milk
2 1/2 tsp. Xanthum gum
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt

Beat all these together in a small mixing bowl:
1 egg
2 egg whites
2 tsp. cider vinegar
2 Tbs. olive oil
1/4 C. honey

By now your yeast should be trying to crawl out of the measuring cup. Add it, the oats and the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix with a mixer. Once combined stop the mixer and scrape down the sides. Now mix on a medium setting for 4 minutes.

Spoon into a buttered bread pan. Smooth the top as best you can. Place it into the preheated warm oven and let it rise until it is just past the top of the pan. If you let it rise too much it may fall after baking.

Once it is risen, turn the heat up to 300 degrees and bake until it is brown and sounds hollow when tapped. Let it cool completely before slicing. Store it in a plastic bag in the refrigerator. It's especially good toasted.

Enjoy!

GF Blueberry Muffins

I have not found time to mix up my own GF baking mix but I found this Arrowhead Mills All Purpose Baking Mix on my last visit to Fred Meyers (Krogers). Yesterday I decided to fix the husbeast some blueberry muffins using blueberries I picked at our local Blueberry Park in the summer of 2012. I sealed them in one cup batches in vacuum sealed bags and stored them in my freezer. Yes, the berry are still good.

I followed the Blueberry Crumb Muffin recipe on the back of the box, but omitted the crumb topping. Other changes I made were to use regular whole milk and use 1/2 cup of honey in place of the 3/4 cup of sugar. I used salted butter, as that was all I had. The muffins were not too salty. The recipe did not tell you when to add the blueberries, which I found amusing since they are blueberry muffins. I added a Tbs. of the baking mix to the blueberries and coated them thoroughly then folded them into the batter before spooning the batter into the lined muffin tins. The recipe says to pour the batter in, but it is far too thick for that to happen.

The muffins turned out nice and moist and very, VERY buttery. I think I will try decreasing the amount of butter next time. It seemed like overkill. Otherwise I am very happy with them and the husbeast declared them "delicious".

Norwegian Ammonia Cookies

I had promised to bake my husband some of his favorite holiday cookies. Better late than never, right? We'll call these New Year cookies. They are Norwegian Ammonia Cookies. I got the recipe (and the horn salt) from my friend, Gail Brooks. Horn salt is also known as baking ammonia. And yes, your oven will smell like ammonia but it isn't very strong and the smell doesn't linger. The cookies DO NOT taste like ammonia. Each year Gail drives up to Poulsbo, WA, to stock up on horn salt. I have one packet left in my freezer, for next year, and then I guess I'll be trekking to Poulsbo, too. Here is the recipe for these delicious cookies, in case you happen to have horn salt on hand.

NORWEGIAN AMMONIA COOKIES

1 cup butter
1 cup Crisco (or other shortening)
2 1/4 cup sugar
1 cup shredded coconut
3 cups flour
2 tsp. horn salt (baking ammonia)

Cream butter and shortening, add sugar and coconut then stir in flour and horn salt. Roll into balls the size of walnuts and bake on an ungreased cookie sheet at 350 degrees until just slightly brown (about 17 minutes).

The cookies are fragile until cooled so be careful when removing them from the pan. Let cool completely. Can be stored in an airtight container or frozen for future use.

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These cookies are incredibly crispy and highly addictive. We joke that there is "crack" in them. Maybe because of how horn salt looks in the little package.

The cookies freeze very well. In fact you can take them out of the freezer months later and they will taste fresh baked.

The First June Quilt Block

The June blocks are pretty basic. This first one used 2 prints and the background color. The focus is on precise cutting and piecing, and sewing a "scant" 1/4" seam. There isn't any margin for error on this blocks as it finishes out to be just barely over 12.5" square. If your seams are too wide the block will not be large enough. Mine was perfect with very little excess to trim off when squaring up. Because the block is rather boring I chose prints that I thought were especially lovely together.

This quilt block pattern is called a Greek Cross and is a very old and traditional quilt block. It is a variation on what is known as a 9 Patch Block, so named because it is made up of 9 squares. I like it because you can use up smaller amounts of prints. I can see myself creating an entire scrappy quilt using this block. Yard sale season is now fully underway. I had to take numerous detours when I went to the grocery store on Friday. It seemed to take forever to travel less than 30 blocks. One of the treasures(?) I drug home was this little child's recliner for $4. I need to sew a slip cover for it, but I thought it was the perfect thing for Reggie. He has a tough time getting up onto the couch but he can jump right up on this. It didn't take long for Singha to test it out. They share, especially since it is currently covered with Singha's favorite blanket.

Doesn't he look ferocious? Not at all. I caught him mid yawn. I leave you with a gratuitous "fresh baked bread" photo. I had gotten out of the habit of baking bread since my illness. This is how I can tell I am almost back to my old self. Now if I could just catch up on the weeding.

Plum Cake

Another blast from my past. My step-grandma, Gudrun Paetz, used to make a similar cake each fall. I will forever remember her by 2 things. She was mean as a snake, and she made a damn good plum cake. However (sorry grandma) this one is better. If you have access to Italian plums you should give this simple, delicious cake a try.

Plum Cake

12 ripe Italian plums, pitted and halved
1 Tbs. Butter
1/4 cup sugar
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1 cup flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, softened at room temperature
2/3 cup sugar
1 large egg
2/3 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter an 8" by 8" glass baking dish. Cover the bottom with parchment paper (important!).

Melt 1 Tbs. of butter in a skillet over medium heat. Add the plums and 1/4 c. sugar. Toss and stir, gently, for approx. 5 minutes, or until the plums release their juice and make a lovely syrup. Arrange the plums in the bottom of the baking dish, cut side down. Pour the syrup over the plums.

In a bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

With an electric mixer beat 1/2 c. butter and  2/3 c. sugar until fluffy. Beat in the egg, sour cream and vanilla. Add the flour mixture, mixing until just incorporated. Don't over beat.

Spoon the thick batter over the plums and use a spatula to smooth it evenly. Bake for 45 to 50 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for one hour. Use a knife to loosen sides of cake from the baking dish. Place a plate on top of the cake and carefully invert it. The cake will eventually fall to the plate. Remove baking dish. Carefully peel off the parchment paper. Enjoy your delicious creation with a nice cup of coffee.

Chicken Soup & Scones

After one last little spurt of summer we seem to have slipped full on into fall. And that means it's time for some warm, tasty comfort food. When I visit Costco I like to pick up one of their incredibly cheap roast chickens. Once we've eaten most of the meat off the poor thing I then use the carcass to make soup stock.

Chicken Stock

1 cooked chicken carcass (meat removed and reserved)
1 large onion, quartered
2 carrots, peeled and roughly chopped
3 celery ribs, roughly chopped
rosemary, twig
2 bay leaves
2 garlic cloves, chopped roughly
1 teaspoon whole black peppercorn
1 teaspoon salt

Put ingredients in a stockpot or large saucepan and cover with water. Bring to a boil  then reduce heat and simmer uncovered, for two hours. Skim off any foam. Strain the stock through a cloth-lined colander or metal sieve. Discard the solids. Let stock cool, and refrigerate, you will find the stock will turn to a jelly, when cooled in the refrigerator which is the sign of a great stock. Use the stock within a day or 2 or freeze the stock in preferred sized portions. Using an ice cube tray works very well for small portions that can be popped into casseroles, soups or sauces.

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Once you've made your stock you are halfway to having delicious homemade chicken noodle soup. The rest is easy.

Chicken Noodle Soup

1 tablespoon butter

1 cup sliced celery

1 cup chopped carrot

1/2 cup chopped onion

1 small potato, diced

1/2 teaspoon thyme

1 teaspoon poultry seasoning

1/2 tablespoon dried parsley

1 batch homemade chicken broth (see above)

2 to 3 teaspoons salt (to taste)

1/2 teaspoon white pepper

3 to 4 cups dried egg noodles (depending on personal preference)

2 cups chopped cooked chicken (reserved from making stock, above)

Melt butter in large pot. Saute the celery, carrot and onion for 2 minutes. Add potato, thyme, poultry seasoning, parsley. chicken broth, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil. Add noodles and chicken, reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes.

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Around here fall is synonymous with The Puyallup Fair. It has become so ridiculously commercial and expensive that I no longer attend. But I do miss the scones. A scone is simply a triangular biscuit. I actually prefer scones as cutting out circle shapes from biscuit dough seems wasteful. The first step to making my scones was to prepare a baking mix similar to Bisquick. But instead of shortening I wish to use lard in my baking. I am cutting out all hydrogenated oils from my diet. I believe those are bad for our brains. A doctor once explained to me how he thought hydrogenated oils cause Alzheimer's. Our brains are made up of fat. The fats we ingest create brain cells. When fat is hydrogenated it changes the shape on a molecular level (way over my head) and our brains can't use it properly. Like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. Since learning this I have switched exclusively to butter and corn oil. But for baking I need good old fashioned lard. I know that Mexican folks use a lot of lard in their cooking and we just happen to have a large Hispanic community here in Tacoma. I headed for the Hispanic grocery store. I did find lard but it, too, is now hydrogenated. Might as well use shortening. Dang. Where to find "real" lard? On a whim I stopped at the Carniceria (Hispanic meat shop) down the street from us and asked for lard. Once the fellow understood what I was seeking he pointed to a refrigerated case filled with tubs of a brownish substance.

He assured me this was lard. Really? I thought lard was white?  I was again assured, by the lady at the checkout counter, that this was truly lard. I headed home with my prize, still unconvinced. But after some research I discovered that Hispanic lard is indeed brown as they render it with some of the meat remaining. Leaf lard, which is used in baking, is taken from a different area of fat (around the kidneys) and is white. Oh well, this lard is what I have access to and I'm gonna use it.

Homemade Baking Mix

For each cup of mix use:

1 cup flour

1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon lard

If you want to prepare 4 cups at a time:

4 cups flour

2 tablespoons baking powder

2 teaspoons salt

4 tablespoons lard

Put all ingredients into a bowl and use a pastry blender to cut in the lard evenly. Once thoroughly combined you can use it as you would Bisquick. Store it in your refrigerator until needed or use immediately.

 Scones

Makes 8

2 cups baking mix (above)

3/4 cup milk

Mix together in a bowl. Turn out onto lightly floured surface and knead 12 times. Pat and or roll the dough out into a 1/2" thick circle. Cut it into 8 wedges. Place on an ungreased baking sheet and bake at 425 degrees for 15 minutes. Slice and spread with butter and raspberry jam. These are even better than fair scones.

Sourdough Blueberry Muffins

I had reserved a cup of blueberries in order to bake some muffins. Today I tried this recipe:

Sourdough Blueberry Muffins

Makes 16 muffins

1 cup sourdough starter
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup oil
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 cup granulated sugar
3 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
milk (added 1 TBS. at a time)
1 cup blueberries
1 TBS. flour (to coat the blueberries)

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Liberally butter muffin tins if not using liners. Combine starter, flour, oil, baking soda, baking powder, sugar, eggs, and vanilla extract; stir well. You want your batter to be thick but not too thick to be able to stir in the blueberries. Add the milk, a tablespoon at a time, until it is the right consistency.  Toss blueberries with  flour. Add Blueberries to batter and stir well to incorporate. Spoon batter into muffin tins, filling each about 3/4 full. Bake for 25 minutes or until done (when a toothpick comes out clean).

EDITED: Recipe amended 9-21-11

Sourdough Biscuits

I have played with sourdough in the past. I have caught wild yeasts and once a friend shared a bit of her starter that she received from her friend in Alaska. But sourdough takes time, and when I was working I didn't have enough spare time to devote to it. The cool thing about sourdough is, once you master its use, you don't have to buy commercial yeast for your baking. Sourdough is just a live yeast of a particular strain, that is being propagated in your mix of flour and water. You can catch a wild yeast (did you know there is yeast all around you?), but that is a crap shoot. You could catch one that tastes really good, or really bad. It is better to start with a strain that you know tastes good. You can get a bit of starter from a friend, mail order some dried starter, or use commercial yeast and let it revert to its wild state. I chose to do the latter. In the past I have caught wild yeasts, and they were pretty good, but I have too many yeasts in my air. Beer, wine and kombucha yeasts, as well as others. Who knows what I'd end up with?

SOURDOUGH STARTER

2 1/4 tsp. (or one package) yeast

2 cups unbleached white flour

1 1/2 cups warm water

1 TBS. honey

Mix it up in a non-metal container which has plenty of room for the mixture to more than double. Cover it with a cotton cloth secured with a rubber band and leave it in a warm place for a couple of days. It should expand and become filled with bubbles. And it will begin to smell sour. You can then put it in your refrigerator, with a lid that is not screwed down tightly. The yeast needs to breathe. This is now your starter. Use it according to your recipes. 2 cups of starter really isn't much. To expand it, put it into a larger container and add 2 cups of flour and about 1 3/4 cups of water. Stir it well, loosely cover it with the cloth and let it sit out on your counter again until it is sour and bubbly. Then put it back into the fridge. It's that easy.

SOURDOUGH BISCUITS

(these are more like a cross between a biscuit and a roll)

2 cups sourdough starter
1/4 cup corn oil
2 cups unbleached white flour
2 TBS. sugar
1 TBS. Baking powder
1 tsp. salt
12" cast iron skillet

Let your starter sit out, covered, until it is active and bubbly. Don't worry if you don't get to it right away. The starter used for these biscuits (pictured) was on my counter for 2 days before I got a chance to use it. Mix the oil into your starter. Then sift in the remaining dry ingredients. Stir well with a wooden spoon, until you have incorporated all the flour and have a stiff dough. Place the dough on a floured surface and knead it a bit. Doesn't have to be much. About 10 to 15 times. Place the dough back into a bowl, cover it and let it rest for 10 minutes. In the meantime, preheat your oven, just a bit, and turn on the interior light. You want it to be warm enough for the dough to rise, but don't let it get hot. Turn the oven off once the oven is warm, and close the door. Leave the light on. Put about a TBS. of corn oil into your skillet and coat it well. Once your dough has rested, break off egg sized chunks, roll into a ball and place in the skillet, leaving a bit of room for expansion.

Place the skillet into the warmed oven

and let the biscuits rise for 30 minutes.

Leave to skillet in the oven and preheat it to 400 degrees. Now bake the biscuits for 20 minutes or until they are golden brown. You can enjoy them with some butter and jam, or use them as rolls with your evening meal. They are very versatile.

I almost forgot to add an action shot.

These went right into my belly after the photo shoot.

Ant Wars

For the past couple of years I have been fighting a losing battle with these beastly little creatures. I have tried everything. Pellets, sprays....things that I hate using......but to no avail. Still they keep coming. But I think I may be turning the tide. I am making my own ant poison using water, molasses and borax. This photo is from day 2, when there were still quite a few ants clustered around the bait. Each day there are fewer and fewer live ants, and more dead ant carcasses for me to sweep up. I am hoping some of the ants are living long enough to make it back to their nest and share some of this treat with the queen. The borax seems to work well. Once they eat it they wander around aimlessly until they fall over, convulse, and die. I'd almost feel sorry for them if I didn't loathe them so much.


On a more appetizing note, I think I have perfected my bread recipe. This is a loaf from the last batch, which was made using some of the barley flour from the Hairy Porter. This bread is soooo good.

Cookies For My Best Friend

Now that we are venturing into all grain beer brewing we are going to have LOTS of spent grains left over. I hate to waste anything so will be looking for creative ways to use this malted barley. It makes great chicken food, and I've also added it to my bread. But I am looking for still more ways to use it to its best advantage. Today I decided to try out a recipe for dog treats. Reggie LOVES cookies but I'm sure the store bought dog treats contain things I'd rather he not ingest. There used to be a doggy bakery up on South Hill in Puyallup but sadly, it is now out of business. Time for momma to pick up the slack. For those of you who are wondering just what spent grains look like, here they are.


I had over 30 cups of this stuff left from the Harry Porter brewing. The recipe for the dog cookies is as follows:

4 cups spent grains
4 cups unbleached flour
1 cup peanut butter
2 eggs

I mixed this up with the help of Gladys, my Kitchen Aid Mixer. She had a tough time. This batter is DENSE, to say the least. Here is what I ended up with. Looks like something only a dog could love.


I divided it in half. The plan was to make 2 cookie sheets full. Trust me, it was not easy to spread into the cookie sheet. It took both the rolling pin, and my hands, to make it happen.


But we prevailed. Once spread evenly it had to be scored into the cookie shapes. I'm unimaginative, so opted for squares.


This was baked at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Then removed from the pan, broken into pieces, and allowed to cool. While this batch was cooling I baked the second pan full. Once they were both baked and cooled I loaded the cookies into the dehydrator.


The 2 cookie sheets filled all 4 trays. Now they were dried at 160 degrees for 8 hours. You need to remove all the moisture or else they will mold while being stored for the long term.


By the way, Reggie sampled them and he thinks they are DE-licious.

First Bread With Spent Grains

Now that we are brewing our own beer we have lots of spent grains left over after sparging. I want to use them for more than chicken food. A friend mentioned using them to bake bread. Unfortunately the grains are rather woody and chewy, due to the hulls. I don't think I'd want to use too much of it in my bread, unless I dried it out and ran it through the grinder. But a small amount of spent grains would add some nice texture (like nuts) and some fiber. After our last batch of beer making I saved out one cup of the spent grains to add to this week's bread. Here is my regular bread recipe, but I substituted 1 cup of whole wheat flour for the unbleached flour, and added in a cup of the spent grains along with the flour. Now to see if the family eats it.

Everyday Bread Recipe

My husband requested I make some "white" bread. He also asked for thicker slices. I am happy to oblige. I am using a modified version of this recipe for white bread from Food.com. Here is my version:

Willoughby Daily Bread
1 tsp. sugar
6 3/4 tsp (3 packages) yeast
2 cups warm water
Mix together in a bowl, with a whisk, and pour into a large mixing bowl. Add:
1 cup sugar
4 cups of warm water
Mix well and let sit for 10 minutes. I put mine in my KitchenAid mixer.
Add:
3 tsp. salt
1/2 cup (one stick) melted butter
6 cups unbleached flour
Mix on slow speed for 3 minutes. Pour into a very large mixing bowl. Add:
7 cups of unbleached flour (a cup at a time)
Mix with a wooden spoon after every addition.
Turn out onto floured surface and knead for 10 minutes, adding more unbleached flour as needed. Put 1/4 cup of oil in a large bowl. Roll dough around, to coat all sides. Cover with a cotton dish towel and place in a warm, draft free place and allow to rise until doubled. Pour out onto a floured surface and punch down. Cut into 4 pieces, form into loaves and place into 4 large buttered (or oiled) loaf pans.
Melt 2 TBS. Butter and brush tops of loaves.
Again cover and let rise until doubled. Remove cotton towel. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake loaves for 35 minutes or until they are deep brown and sound hollow when tapped. Allow loaves to cool before slicing. This bread freezes well.

Makes 4 large loaves.

HINT: I allow my dough to rise in the oven, with just the oven light on. Then I leave the pans in the oven while it preheats. Be sure to take the towel off, before baking. LOL

Under Pressure

I had been looking for a used pressure canner. They've been hard to come by, over the summer. But I put out a request on the Puyallup Freecycle list and was fortunate to find a lady who had one sitting unused in her garage. Remember when that David Bowie/Queen collaboration, "Under Pressure", came out in 1981? Well this pressure cooker was around before that. Look at the groovy box.



Apparently this lady had not canned in a long, LONG time. When I opened up the box, this was inside. Notice the old-school price labels. No bar codes on these babies.



The only thing it didn't come with were instructions. And those were easy to find online.


I made the mistake of asking the husband if he'd like me to bake some white bread, for a change. Of course he would. I guess it's the least I can do after months of forcing the family to eat my wheat bread. Here are four loaves of white bread, fresh out of the oven.

Pasta Disappointment

My basil is getting to the point where it's "use it or lose it". Now that I've got that huge food processor I can knock out a double batch of pesto in minutes.


The plan for today was to make some homemade pasta to go with the pesto, and have it for dinner. But not all of my Craigslist buys have gone smoothly. I had purchased a pasta maker attachment for the KitchenAid, from a lady up north. Before I sent payment, and had her mail it to me, I asked, "Does it have all the parts?" She assured me it did. Today I took it out to assemble it, and make some pasta, and discovered that it was missing a very crucial piece. The ring that screws onto the front of the grinder and holds the pasta plates in place. If she can't locate it, and send it to me, I'll have to try and order a replacement from the company. So no fresh made pasta today. We had to settle for dried store bought. It was still a nice dinner.


To console myself, I made an apple crisp for dessert. Apple crisp makes everything better.

Simple Beauty

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and I think this rolling pin is gorgeous. It was a gift from a former employee. She was quite a bit older than I, and this rolling pin had belonged to her mother. What possessed her to pass it along to me? I have no idea. But, I have to say, it is one of the most appreciated gifts I've ever received. I use it every week, to roll out my bread.


You can tell it is quite old. The green paint has been rubbed off the handles. And the wooden roller has a lovely patina. Best of all, it works perfectly.

Apple Butter Time

Come along with me as I make a batch of crock pot apple butter. It doesn't get much easier than this. You start by making a big batch of apple sauce. Get your largest saucepan. Fill it 1/4 to 1/5 full of water. I think I filled mine about 1/5 this time, since apple butter needs to be quite a bit thicker than applesauce. Stir in 1 Tbs. lemon juice. Pick a whole lot of apples. I don't count them. I just quit once the pot is full. Wash the apples, cut them into quarters and remove the stems and most of the seeds. Don't worry if you miss some seeds, as they will be removed by the food mill. Add the prepared apples to the pot. Bring the water to a boil then reduce to a simmer. Stir the pot full of apples (and you want it very full) until the apples are cooked and falling apart.


When the apples are ready, place your food mill over a large bowl, ladle in some cooked apples, and crank for all you're worth.


When you've cranked out all the apple sauce, empty the peelings and other yucky stuff remaining in the mill, into another large bowl.


When your bowl of apple sauce gets full, empty it into your largest crock pot (I think mine holds 6 or 7 quarts) and start over. When all the apples have been milled your crock pot should look like this.


At this point all you'd need to do is add a couple cups of sugar, and you'd have applesauce. But we are going a step beyond that. You'll still add the 2 cups of sugar. But you'll also add 2 tablespoons of ground cinnamon, 1 teaspoon of ground cloves and 1/2 teaspoon of ground allspice.


Mix it all together well. Before you cover it to cook you'll want to put a couple of spacers between the pot and the lid, so the moisture can evaporate and the apple butter cooks down and gets thick. I use chopsticks.


Now cover it with the lid, set it on low, and leave it for a long, long time. I started mine early in the morning, and let it cook until late at night.


I took the lid off and stirred it every few hours, but that's not really necessary. You want it to be very dark and thick, not runny. Some recipes say it's done when a wooden spoon stands up in it, by itself....but I can get a wooden spoon to stand up in my applesauce, so I don't think that's a good indicator. You want it to be thick enough to spread on a biscuit or toast, and not run off or soak right in. This is what the finished product should look like.


My apple butter was actually finished last night but I was too tired to can it up. So I set the crock pot on warm, removed the spacers, replaced the lid and let it remain plugged in until this morning. Then I turned the heat up to high to make sure it was hot when I canned it. I then ladled it into hot, sterilized jars, leaving 1/4" head space. I tightened the rings well and inverted the jars for 15 minutes then flipped them back over. They all sealed just fine. I now have 12 half pints of apple butter to add to my pantry.


I also have a partial jar to enjoy now. To celebrate, I baked a couple of loaves of fresh whole wheat bread.


How does some buttered toast with apple butter sound?