Learning About Raspberries
- Raspberries are made up of a cluster of bead-like fruit called drupelets. Each drupelet has a seed inside.
- Raspberries grow in a variety of colours: red, purple, gold and black.
- Raspberry roots are perennial, coming back every year, but the stems are biennial and only produce fruit in the second year.
- Raspberries are very nutritious and are high in fiber, vitamin c, potassium and folate.
Chocolate Chip Raspberries
Here is a simple and yummy way to eat raspberries. Just put a chocolate chip inside each raspberry! Raspberries and chocolate are a great combination! It is kind of a slow process to do it by yourself, but it is a perfect job to do with your kids!
Royal Raspberry Cake
Ingredients:
| Directions: Beat well. Spread into greased 9x13 pan and top with raspberries. Bake at 350 F for 30-35 minutes. Cool 5 minutes. Glaze with:
Spread over cake, leaving berries exposed. |
Raspberry Jam
Ingredients:
| Directions:
|
This summer I finally got up the courage to try again. The first jam I made was the strawberry jam. It turned out just a little bit runny. Next I made rhubarb-strawberry jam, which, as my kids said, was "perfect"! Then I tried making raspberry jam without pectin in it. The first two jams thickened while they were cooking, but the raspberry jam looked very liquidy, so I fiddled with it and called a friend for help. In the end, it was way too thick! I did some research and learned a few important things about making jam.
- Jam needs three things to set: sugar, acidity and pectin.
- You can not cut back on the amount of sugar the recipe calls for. The amount of sugar is important for the thickening process.
- You can not double the recipe. The jam won't set properly if you try to make too big of a batch.
- You will know when your jam is at a hard boil when stirring it does not stop the boiling.
- The amount of time the jam boils is very important to getting it to set right.
- The pectin we use is Certo. All Certo boxes have recipes for different kinds of jam in them.
- If your jam is too runny or too thick, you can fix it and don't have to throw it out! (Click the purple link to find out how.)
More posts from my Home Grown & Home Made series:
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