Baking Day

Good, eh, and I'm not done yet. There are still more cooked cherries in the pan which will make a few more batches of cherry choc chunk ice cream as soon as I buy more cream.

And there's good news from the chickens. They hadn't been laying well over the weekend, producing one or no eggs a day. I was waiting for them to get back to normal, and today they produced three egss. Someone is overachieving, but I can't tell who since they both produce identical eggs.

Cherry Jam

Add 6 1/2 lbs pitted home-grown morello cherries to the juice of 3 organic lemons and simmer until the cherries are soft. Add 3 1/2 lbs Whitworth's Jam Sugar and boil until it reaches 106C, or until a small amount poured onto a saucer which has been in the freezer wrinkles when pushed with your finger. Pour into clean sterile jam jars and seal. Wipe and label jars and allow to cool.

Cherry Pie

Add 1lb pitted home-grown morello cherries to the juice of an organic lemon and simmer until the cherries are soft. Add fair trade granulated sugar to taste (probably at least 8oz). Then stir 2 teaspoons arrowroot to 1 tablespoon water and stir until dissolved. pour the arrowroot mixture into the cherries and stir for 30 seconds until thick. Pour the cherry pie filling into a prepared pastry case (I'm not putting pastry instructions here. If you don't already have a favourite sweet short pastry recipe, Google for one), and choose one of the following options:

1. Open cherry tart - that's it. Bake your open tart.
2. Lattice cherry tart - cut strips of leftover pastry and lay them on the tart in a lattice pattern. Brush with beaten egg and bake for about 20 minutes or until golden.
3. Cherry pie - roll out a pie top and place on the pie, crimping the edges with a fork. Cut a hole or two in the top to let steam out during baking. Brush with beaten egg and sprinkle with sugar and bake for about 20 minutes or until golden.