Kosher-Style Dill Pickles

This weekend I canned Dill pickles and Bread & Butter pickles, and I have enough cucumbers left to start the seven day process for Sweet Pickles! Today, I'm sharing with you my recipe for Kosher-Style Dill Pickles pictured above. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

8 pounds cucumber approximately 3-4 inches in length with ends sliced

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup canning salt (not table salt!)

1 quart vinegar

1 quart water

3 Tablespoons pickling spices (I tie these in cheesecloth)

2-1/4 Tablespoons Alum (keeps 'em crunchy!)

Combine sugar, salt, vinegar and water in a large sauce pot. Tie spices in cheesecloth; add to vinegar mixture; simmer 15 minutes add Alum.

Pack cucumbers into hot jars and add the following to each jar:

1 Bay Leaf

1 Clove of Garlic

1 piece hot red pepper

1/2 teaspoon Mustard Seed

1 Head of Fresh Dill

Bring vinegar and water to a boil. Pour hot liquid over cucumbers, leaving a 1/4-inch head space. Adjust caps. Process pints and quarts for 15 minutes in boiling water bath.

Yield: about 7 pints

Note: I used about a 1/2 bushel, or 2 peck baskets, of cucumbers. I had to make two double batches plus one single batch of liquid and I got 19 quart jars.
Happy Canning~
Kim

Canning Season Begins

Things have been heating up here!  Yesterday I canned 14 pints and 5 quarts of Hot Pepper Rings. I really need to learn not order so much from my Farmer's Market...lol. I honestly had no idea I would get so many jars from a 1/2 bushel (this is why I decided to keep a canning journal!) I also learned that light, flimsy laytex gloves do not work well...my hands still feel a bit of the burn. I highly recommend a good pair of traditional  thick Rubber Gloves when canning hot peppers.This recipe is really quite easy though.

Ingredients:

1/2 Bushel Banana Peppers (or less!)

Wash, deseed, and slice peppers

Canning Liquid:

1/4 cup canning salt

1 quart white vinegar

3 quarts water

(For a 1/2 bushel of peppers, I had to make two batches of liquid, so really one peck basket of peppers would be plenty and still yield about 12 pints)

Pack your sliced pepper rings into hot, sterilized jars. I added a clove of garlic to each jar as well. Wipe your jar rims and seal. Process full jars in a boiling water bath for no more than five minutes (or you'll have mushy peppers)

And when all is done, you'll have beautiful jars of Hot Pepper Rings to enjoy with Chili, Italian Pasta dishes, or on sandwiches!

Weekend Recipe: Lemon Zucchini Bread

This has been a family favorite for years now! This past week, I bought a rather large zucchini at the local farmer's market and baked EIGHT loaves of bread from it.

Fortunately, this recipe also freezes well!

LEMON ZUCCHINI BREAD RECIPE

INGREDIENTS:

3 cups All-purpose Flour

1-1/2 cups Sugar

1 cup chopped Walnuts

4-1/2 teapspoons double-acting Baking Powder

1 teaspoon Salt

4 Eggs

2/3 cup Vegetable Oil

2 cups grated Zucchini

2 teaspoons grated Lemon Peel

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease two 8-12" by 4-1/2" loaf pans. In large bowl with fork, mix flour, sugar, walnuts, baking powder, and salt.

2. In medium bowl with fork, beat eggs slightly; stir in vegetable oil, zucchini, and lemon peel

3. Stir liquid mixture into flour mixture just until flour is moistened; spread evenly in pans.

4. Bake bread 1 hour. Cool in pans on wire racks 10 minutes; remove from pans. Serve warm or cold.

ENJOY!

Weekend Recipe: Raspberry Coffee Cake

It's Raspberry season here and time for Fresh Raspberry Coffee Cake!

Ingredients:

1/4 cup butter or margarine, melted

3/4 cup milk

1 teaspoon Vanilla

1 egg

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup fresh rasberries

Glaze:

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1 Tablespoon butter or margarine, softened

2 to 3 teaspoons water

1/4 teaspoon Almond extract

Directions:

Heat oven to 400 F. Spray 8 or 9 inch square pan with baking spray

In medium bowl, beat 1/2 cup butter, milk. vanilla, and egg with spoon. Stir in flour, granutlated sugar, baking powder and salt until moistened. Fold in rasberries. Spread in pan.

Bake 25-30 minutes or until top is golden brown and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 20 minutes.

In small bowl, mix glaze ingredients until smooth and thin enough to drizzle. Drizzle over warm coffee cake. Enjoy!

I've also made this with fresh blackberries and lemon extract instead of almond...wonderful!
Have a great weekend!