40 Hour Apple-Strawberry Jam
This past Friday I purchased a 4 lb. bag of Granny Smith apples with the intentions of eating some plain, and incorporating some into my fruit smoothies..Well, I had too much other fruit on hand, and the apples sat until this morning untouched..As they were starting to show soft spots where they had ben bruised during picking and transportation, I decided to use the entire 4 lbs. in a batch of 20 Hour Apples..
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/11218/20hour-apples-are-absolutely-fantastic
Being in somewhat of a hurry, I decided to incorporate some of the suggested short cuts that were mentioned by various posters in the above thread that I started back on March 21st..One poster mentioned using a slow cooker (crock pot), and other posters mentioned that Chef Herme's methodology for the ultra thin slicing and layering seemed to be unnecessary, as well as too fussy..
After peeling, coring (was not very meticulous about getting all of the core), and quartering the apples I was left with 2 lb. 4 oz. of yield..I elected to slice each quarter lengthwise into three to four 1/4" thick slices..I had juiced up all of the citrus fruits that I had on hand Friday night so I elected to spice things up a little with additional spices other than cinnamon..
20 Hour Apples--Redux
4 lb. Granny Smith apples--peeled, cored, quartered, sliced lengthwise into 1/4" slices
1lb. 8 oz. whole strawberries, stems pinched off as closely as possible (frozen for smoothies)
8 oz. organic granulated cane juice
1 1/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/8 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
1 whole vanilla bean, split lengthwise in half, scraped out, mixed into the sugar
Instead of using a baking dish wrapped in plastic wrap weighted with a pan on top of the plastic wrap, I elected to use a Farberware Millenium hard anodized alluminum 4 quart stock pot to cook the apples in..First, I placed the scraped out sections of the vanilla bean in the bottom of the pot..Then, I layered the apple slices so as to cover as completely as possible the bottom surface of the pot..Then, I sprinkled a generous amount of the sugar-cinnamon-cardamom-cloves-cayenne pepper-vanilla bean mixture onto the apples..I repeated the apples and sugar mixture two more times..These three layers used up about 50% of the sliced apples, and the stock pot was not quite 1/2 full..Then, I remembered that I had approximately 1.5 pounds of whole strawberries in the freezer to use in smoothies..I pinch off the stems as close to the strawberry as possible when prepping them for freezing (the tiny amount of stem left on the strawberry disappears in the smoothie)..For some reason I wanted the pot to be as full as possible before I started baking the apples..Accordingly, I used the entire 1.5 pounds of frozen whole berries to create a layer of strawberries on top of the first half of the apples..I sprinkled the berries with the sugar mixture, and finished layering the remaining apples in three additional layers..The one cup (8 oz.) of sugar was the perfect amount for the 6 layers of apples, and the single layer of berries..None left over..
The pot, with its relatively tight fitting lid, went into the 175F oven at 12 noon..My intentions are to let the apples and strawberries cook until 6 AM Monday morning..What I am shooting for is an apple-strawberry jam with the apples being cooked completely down..I will post back to let everyone know how this experiment turns out..
Bruce
I bet that little dose of cayenne adds a really nice touch to the finished dish!
--Pamela
I just finished checking the 36 (20) Hour Apple-Strawberry Jam..I am 1/3 of the way along in my estimated cooking process..The apples in the bottom below the strawberries have released their liquid, as have the strawberries..The top 3 layers of apples appear to be floating on top of the liquid..I will check things out at 9 o'clock (the halfway point) and if necessary give everything a good stir..It smells great!!!..
Bruce
In accordance with Chef Herme's original intent, I decided after I finished typing the 6 Hour Check post to go ahead and weight the apples down..This way the upper apples that want to float on top of the released liquids will be sumerged in the liquid so that they can break down..I used two ceramic salad plates that are a near peerfect fit to the Farberware Millenium 4-quart stock pot..
Pamela, I went ahead and tasted the liquid..The 1/8 teaspoon of cayenne is for the present the perfect amount for this amount of apples and strawberries..I will have to make a final determination after the cooking is finished, and the mixture has chilled in the refrigerator for at least 12 hours..
If this works, in the future I will just go ahead and weight the apples down in the beginning before they go into the oven..
Bruce
I removed the salad plates at 2 AM this morning, as they had done their job of keeping the apples submerged in the cooking liquid..Many of the upper slices still had a fair amount of integrity, so I used a potato masher to crush the apples into smaller, jam-sized pieces..
At 8 AM I removed the stock pot from the 175F oven after a total of 20 hours of slow cooking..The liquid in the mixture had reduced substantially from the percentage that existed at the time of the salad plate's removal at 2 AM..The final 6 hours of cooking thickened up the jam nicely..
The mix was turned out of the 4-quart stock pot into a larger 8-quart stock pot so as to cool more quickly..I removed the vanilla bean shells at this time..The pot was placed in a sink of cold water resting on a small wire rack from an old toaster oven..This allows cold tap water to surround the bottom of the pot, greatly speeding up the cooling process..
A 1.5 hour rest in the sink full of cold tap water, with a half dozen stirs every 15 minutes, or so, resulted in a 71F mixture that can safely be covered and placed in the refrigerator to chill for the balance of the process..
In accordance with Chef Pierre Herme's original intent, I am electing to chill the apple-strawberry mixture for the same amount of time that I cooked it for, 20 hours..When done I will have 40 Hour Apples instead of 20 Hour Apples..
The taste of the jam is fantastic!!!..I can only imagine how much better this would taste if I had apples that were in good condition to start with instead of bruised up 7 month old apples that have been artificially stored to preserve freshness..
The next time I make this I think I will use at least 2 lb. of strawberries..And, layer the mix apples-apples-strawberries-apples-apples-strawberries-apples-apples..I will also seek out some inexpensive glass plates of the appropriate diameter to use instead of ceramic plates..The stoneware plates picked up some stains from the strawberries..
I think that this apple-strawberry jam is a winner, and probably deserves to be baked with a good danish dough, puff pastry, or phyllo dough..In, or on something that will showcase the flavors..
Bruce
try some bleach to remove the stains
Soak the stoneware in automatic dishwasher powder mixed with hot water over night; that should remove the stains.
--Pamela
I pulled Pamela Z. Asquith's Fruit Tart Cookbook off of the shelf where it has sat unused for over a decade..Tomorrow I am going to whip up a batch of sweet tart dough in the food processor, and make a tart using the 40 Hour Apple-Strawberry filling..I let everybody know how it turns out tomorrow..
Sweet Pastry Tart Shell
1/3 cup unsalted butter (3 oz.)
1/4 cup sugar (2 oz.)
2 large egg yolks
1 cup sifted all-purpose flour (4.5 oz.)
1/2 cup sifted cake flour (2.25 oz.)
1/8 teaspoon salt
Bruce