12 Weeks of Christmas Treats: Triple Chocolate Cookie Mix in a Jar

This year I have decided to participate in a 12 weeks of Christmas Treats hosted by the blog Meal Planning Magic. Every Thursday I will be posting a new Christmas treat that would belong on a dessert table or a sweet homemade gift to give someone. If you would like to see more Christmas treats from other bloggers, then check out Meal Planning Magic every Thursday until Christmas.

For my first Christmas treat I decided to make a cookie mix in a jar that you can give a hostess gift at a party with a batch of fresh cookies to put on the dessert table. This simple gift is easy enough for kids to make on their own as a teacher’s gift. Some of my mom’s favorite gifts that she received as a teacher were mixes in a jar because they did not need to be eaten right away.

The mix makes 2 ½ dozen cookies. The cookies are very rich and delicious. The cookies have a nice chewy texture to them. This gift is perfect for the chocolate lover. The brown sugar layer has be compacted down and it can be tricky to get all the chocolate chips in the jar depending upon the size of the chips. I shook my jar around a few times to let the chocolate chips settle so I could fit all the chocolate chips inside the jar. I used a regular mouth 1 quart jar, but a wide mouth 1 quart jar might be a better option for this recipe because you can fit more chocolate chips in the jar and there would be less packing issues.

Ingredients for Triple Chocolate Cookie Mix modified from Taste of Home

• 1 quart canning jar
• 1 ½ c all purpose flour
• ½ tsp baking soda
• ¼ tsp salt
• ½ c cocoa
• ¾ c sugar
• 1/3 c brown sugar
• 1/2 c semi sweet chocolate chips
• ½ c white chocolate chips

Directions

1.       Add the flour, baking soda, and salt to the jar.

2.       Add the cocoa to the jar on top of the flour.

3.       Add the sugar on top of the cocoa.

4.       Add the brown sugar on top of the sugar. You may need to pack this layer down.

5.       In a small bowl, mix the chocolate chips and white chocolate chips together.

6.       Add the chocolate chips to the jar. You may need to shake the jar a few times for all of the chocolate chips to fit inside the jar.

7.       Add a tag with the recipe below.

Ingredients for Tag Recipe makes 2 ½ dozen cookies

• ¾ cup butter, room temperature
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions

1.       Preheat to 350 degrees F.

2.       Grease a cookie sheet or line with parchment paper and set aside.

3.       Beat the butter, egg, and vanilla until well mixed.

4.       Slowly add the jar mixture to the butter mixture and mix well.

5.       Scoop 1 tbsp of dough onto the cookie sheet about 2 inches apart.

6.       Bake for 10-12 minutes.

Canning Plum Juice

This is a sponsored post. Growing up my grandmother had two plum trees. Unfortunately, plums were one of my least favorite fruits. Now that I am older I recognize it was never the flavor of plums that I disliked. Instead I disliked the texture of plums. I did not care for their rubbery skin with a soft inside. I found the skin too tuff for the interior of the plum. This made me avoid plums for years.

In the past few years I have learned to appreciate plums again. I really enjoy deep dark purple plum juice. I get all the flavor of the plum that I enjoy without the unpleasant texture. This plum juice is very concentrated so you can dilute the juice upon serving. I usually dilute the juice by 50%. This makes the juice about the same consistency as store bought juice.

These wonderful plums were provided by The Washington Fruit Commission and Sweet Preservation. Sweet Preservation is a canning website with lots of fun extras like how to plan a canning party and canning labels. They even include information on the health benefits of canning your produce. They also have more plum canning recipes, if you are looking for more ways to can your plums.

Ingredients makes about 3 pints

6 cups purple plums, pits removed and sliced in half

4 cups water

Directions

1.       Add the plums and water to a pot. The plums should be completely submerged in the water. If the plums are not submerged in the water then add more water.

2.       Simmer the plums for 2 hours or until the plums are completely mushy and the water has turned a deep dark purple color.

3.       Filter the juice with a strainer double lined with a cheese cloth.

4.       Add the filtered juice back to a pot and bring to a boil.

5.       Ladle the hot juice into jars leaving ¼ inch head space. If your last jar does not have enough juice in it to fill the jar, then add some hot water.

6.       Adjust the two piece caps.

7.       Process in a boiling water canner for 15 minutes in a boiling water bath.

8.       To serve, dilute with water by 50%.

Posted on Simple Lives Thursday, Full Plate Thursday

Canning Sugar Free Peach Butter

This is a sponsored post. Over the years I have learned that I really enjoy fruit butters because of their intense fruit flavor, but I do not enjoy the large quantities of sugar that usually go into make fruit butters, so I decided this year to make a peach butter with a little honey as a sweetener. I have found that I am a better judge of how much honey I need if I already reduce the peach puree down by 50%. I add just enough honey to take away the harsh tartness of the peach butter. This leaves me with a mildly sweet peach butter with a very intense peach flavor.

I usually do not have peaches this late in the season, but the Washington State Fruit Commission and Sweet Preservation were kind enough to send me a box of fruit that included peaches. The peaches came in blemish free and slightly firm, but I prefer my peaches a little softer and riper. If you buy peaches that are not to your desired level of ripeness, then store the peaches at room temperature. The peaches will ripen within a few days. Once the peaches are to your desired level of ripeness, you need to eat or can them quickly because they can turn into a pile of mold quickly. My peaches took 3 days to ripen to my desired level of ripeness. 

To get your hands on beautiful Washington fruit go to your local grocery store. Washington peaches are becoming more popular in grocery stores especially in areas where peaches are already out of season locally. If your store does not carry Washington peaches, then talk to your store manager about getting Washington peaches on the shelves at your local grocery store.

When buying peaches at the grocery store, there are several things to keep in mind. Look for a store with a well maintained produce department that carries no bruised or over ripe fruit and is equipped with air conditioning. Always buy peaches that are slightly firm so they do not bruise while transporting them to your house. Once they are home you can allow them to ripen to your desired level.

For more peach canning recipes, check out Sweet Preservation. Sweet Preservation also has some really great canning labels that you can print from your computer. My favorite labels are called Hippie Chic. They are beautiful bright orange labels that would be perfect for this sugar free peach butter.

Ingredients (makes about 3 pints)              

20 peaches

4 tbsp honey

Directions

1.       Peel the peaches. You can peel the peaches with a vegetable peeler or you can dip the peaches in hot water for 30 seconds (make sure to turn the peaches in the water so all sides of the peaches get hot) and then dunk them in an ice water bath for 2 minutes. The peels will slip right off.

2.        Puree the peaches in a blender.

3.       Gently simmer the peach puree in a large pot until the puree is reduced 50%, about 3 hours.

4.       Add honey to taste. I used 4 tbsp of honey.

5.       Reduce further until desired thickness, about 30 minutes.

6.       Ladle the hot peach butter into hot sterile jars.

7.       Remove any air bubbles with a plastic utensil such as a spatula.

8.       Leave ¼” headspace.

9.       Adjust two piece lids and process in a boiling water canner for 10 minutes.

Posted on Simple Lives Thursday, Full Plate Thursday

Mediterranean Partida Style Olives

This is a sponsored post. Some of you may have noticed the beautiful olives from Penna Olives on my facebook page and my previous post onPenna Olives. I was really excited when Penna Olives chose me to send a nice box of fresh olives to. I have never cured olives before much less seen an uncured olive, so this was a real treat.

I decided to make Meiterranean Pardita Style Olives because I have never had water cured olives before, and you can not buy water cured olives at the fancy European market in our town. The downside to making MediterraneanPartida Style Olives is that they take about 2 weeks to make from start to finish and they can NOT be boiling water canned or pressure canned. These olives must remain in your refrigerator.  The good news is that the olives can remain in your refrigerator for up to 1 year.

The first day of curing the olives takes the longest because you have to gently crack each olive in order let the bitterness leave the olives during the water curing process. It took me about 4 olives to figure out how hard to smash the olives. I obliterated the first olive that I tried to smash. The second olive was more bruised than smashed, so it does take some time to figure out how to properly crack the olives. To crack my olives I turned my butcher knife on its side and placed the olive under the flat knife and hit my hand on the other flat side. It took me about an hour to smash almost 5 pounds of olives.

After the first day the curing process goes quickly because you are just changing out the water solution. 

During the water curing process if an olive becomes soft and mushy, then the olive needs to be removed and thrown away. During the curing process I lost 4 olives. It is essential that he water gets changed out daily because you do not want the water to become moldy. If an olive becomes moldy, then that olive needs to be removed from the group as well. You can cure your olives from 1 week to 2 weeks. I water cured mine for 12 days. I originally planned to water cure my olives for 10 days like the Penna Olive’s website suggested, but I found my olives to be a bit bitter when I tasted them after 10 days. After two more days of curing the olives tasted better. You will have to taste your olives to determine the level of acceptable bitterness.

Making the finishing brine and choosing flavors took about 15 minutes. I placed my olives in quart size jars and poured the brining solution over the olives. Then, I added my herbs. By storing your olives in quart size jars you can try many different flavor combinations. Once you place the olives in the finishing brine they need to be stored in the refrigerator. The flavors take about 4 days to mature and keep getting more intense as time goes on. After one year the olives are going to be very flavorful!

These beautiful olives have a fresh taste unlike any other olives I have ever had before. I used two different herb combinations in my olives. For the first set I wanted something that tasted like something I could get in Italy, so I used lemon, oregano, and garlic to flavor the olives. The Italian flavored olives were delicious. They would be great on a cheese plate. I could not believe how fresh the olives tasted compared to the jarred olives that I get at the store. These olives were a real treat and worth the effort.

For the second set, I went exotic and used lime basil and lemon thyme from my garden. Lime basil has a very heavy lime scent and tastes like a fresh lime without the bitterness. Lemon thyme is has a wonderful lemon scent with a lemon flavor with undertones of common thyme. Lemon and lime are two flavors that you would never expect together in an olive combined with the earthy undertone of the thyme makes these olives were exciting in a different way. These olives would go great on top of a salad or with a sandwich.  

I love working with Penna Olives! My olives came in the mail in perfect condition. The olives were huge! The olives were at least twice the size of any other green olives that I have bought jarred at the store. All the olives arrived firm and blemish free from California. At $19.00 for 10 pounds the fresh olives are very economical for someone looking to make a large batch for gifts or to enjoy at home. When you order your olives you do need to be ready to begin processing them as soon as they arrive to ensure the highest quality product possible. Olive sales start in early September and begin with green olives. As the season progresses the olives will become darker and eventually fully ripe black olives. To purchase fresh olives or see more olives recipes visit Penna Olives web site. Penna Olives is a husband and wife venture by Maurice and Cindy Penna. They own 100 acres of olive trees in Sacramento Valley, CA, so all Penna Olives are grown in the US. If curing your own olives is not your cup of tea, then I encourage you to check out the Penna Olive’s stuffed olives, olive oil, and dirty martini mix.

Ingredients (makes about 5 quarts of olives) from PennaOlives

5 lbs of fresh green olives from Penna Olives (sales begin in early September)

Water

1 ½ cups white wine vinegar with at least 5% acidity

6.5 cups of water

10 tbsp fine iodine free salt

Quart jars

Herbs

                For Italian style olives: 1/8 of a lemon, 4” sprig of oregano, 2 cloves of garlic per quart jar

                For exotic lemon lime olives: 4” sprig of lime basil, 4” sprig of lemon thyme

Directions

1.       Rinse the olives in cold water.

2.       Crack the olives with a rubber mallet or use a butcher knife turned on its side. Place the olive under the flat knife and hit your hand on the other flat side. It took me about an hour to smash almost 5 pounds of olives.

3.       Submerge the olives in fresh cold water in a glass or plastic container (do not use a metal container.) The olives should be completely coved in water. Let the olives sit at room temperature in the water over night.

4.       Change the cold water daily on the olives.

5.       After 10 days, taste the olives. If the desired level of bitterness is reached then proceed to step 6. If not, then keep repeating step 4 for another 1-4 days until the desired level of bitterness is reached.

6.       Rinse the olives in fresh cold water and pat dry. Place the olives in quart jars.

7.       Mix the vinegar, 6.5 cups of water, and salt. Pour the brine over the olives in the quart jars. The olives should be fully submerged in the finishing brine.

8.       Add herbs to each jar. For Italian style olives, add a slice of lemon, oregano, and garlic. For exotic lemon lime olives, add the lime basil and lemon thyme. You can also be creative and add different herbs to each of your jars.

9.       Place an air tight lid on the quart jars. Store the olives in the refrigerator. The olives are ready to eat after 4 days. The olives can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 1 year.

Posted on Simple Lives Thursday, Full Plate Thursday

Canning Nectarine Pie Filling and Nectarine, Oatmeal, and Almond Crisp

Nectarine Pie Filling

This is a sponsored post from Sweet Preservation. Sweet Preservation is a community of cherry and soft fruit growers located in Washington state that are out to promote home preservation of stone fruit grown in the Northwestern United States. Sweet Preservation’s web site has canning recipes, canning jar labels, and health information on home preserving. As a canner, I was really excited when Sweet Preservation offered to send me a box of stone fruit for canning since stone fruits were very scarce this year. I was elated when I opened up the box and saw nectarines because I did not can any nectarines this year due to price. I really wanted to make some nectarine pie filling, and now I got my opportunity to make one of my favorite pie fillings.

In my opinion nectarine pie filling is best with no extra spices. The beautiful orange summery fruit is best enjoyed without any conflicting flavors. One large nectarine equaled 1 cup of sliced nectarines which made scaling up this pie filling very easy.

Nectarine, Oatmeal, Almond Crisp

I could not wait until winter time to eat my first jar of nectarine pie filling, so I made a nectarine, oatmeal, and almond crisp. This crisp is delicious and comes together very quickly using canned pie filling. The combination of oats and almonds makes for a nice crunchy top paired with sweet nectarine filling makes the perfect dessert at a BBQ.

Ingredients for nectarine pie filling (makes 1 quart jar) modified from Creating Nirvana

1 cup sugar
¼ cup + 1 tbsp Clear Jel (not Sure Jel)
¾ cup water
¼ cup bottled lemon juice

4 cups nectarines, sliced and peeled

Directions

1. Add the Clear Jel, sugar, water, and lemon juice to a large sauce pot. Bring the mixture to a boil while stirring constantly with a wooden spoon

2. Add the nectarines to the boiling mixture. Gently stir constantly. Once the jel comes back to a simmer the nectarine pie filling will thicken. Continue to cook the nectarine pie filling until it is thick and gooey.

3. Ladle the hot pie filling into a quart jar. Leave 1 inch headspace. Process in a boiling water canner for 30 minutes.

Ingredients for Nectarine, Oatmeal, and Almond Crisp

1 quart jar of nectarine pie filling (see recipe above)

½ cup old fashioned oats

¼ cup roasted almonds, chipped

1 tbsp whole wheat flour

1 tbsp brown sugar

1 tbsp coconut oil, melted

Directions
1.    Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. 
2.    Place the pie filling in an ungreased pie pan or 8 in x 8 in glass pan. Set aside. 
3.    Mix oats, almonds, flour, sugar, and oil in a small bowl until all the ingredients are coated with the oil.
4.    Sprinkle the oat mixture on top of the nectarine filling.
5.    Bake the crisp for 30 minutes or until the top is golden brown and the pie filling is bubbly.

Posted on Full Plate Thursday