This week I went with John (my husband) to Lawson Brothers Farm in Vinland, Kansas, to pick red raspberries. What a fun trip! The weather cooperated, meaning it was still less than 90 degrees when we arrived around 10:30 in the morning, and the berries were plentiful. We picked 4 pints in about 15 minutes and more than a couple berries jumped into our mouths, which the young man working at the farm assured us happens all the time. Divine berries, the perfect balance of sweet and tart!
So what to do with those berries…I asked my friend Deanne if she had any raspberry recipes to share. She is a virtual compendium of yummy recipes and often has a recommendation that she has tried, sometimes even without gluten. She came through again, sharing a recipe for a Norwegian Apple Cake that she had made before with raspberries. I had never baked anything with raspberries, only heating them for preserves, so was unsure I would like them in anything that had been baked. The same goes for strawberries with me, I am not fond of them baked, but I was willing to give it a try. Knowing that sharing a coffee cake baked in an 8 x 8 pan would be tricky, I decide to pull out the cute little canning jars again for this recipe.
SUCCESS! While I’m not quite at the halfway point in this year’s 52 journey, I feel confident this one will be very high on the list for the entire year. Delicious! It baked easily in jars, both the top and bottom crusts had a nice brown color and the raspberries were quite tasty baked. I’m glad this recipe only made 8 servings, any more servings would have resulted in the need for a new larger Summer wardrobe!
Raspberry Coffee Cake in a Jar
1 cup plus 2 T. gluten-free flour blend (if you are not eating gluten-free use regular flour)
1 t. xanthan gum (eliminate if you use a gluten flour)
1/2 t. salt
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter
1 egg
Blend first 5 ingredients together with a pastry cutter until crumbly. Gently mix in egg. It should still be a bit crumbly.
2 cups fresh raspberries
1/4 cup sugar
Mix raspberries and sugar in a separate bowl.
Using small canning jars, pat a bit of dough into the bottom of each jar (total of 8 jars).
Next, spoon a bit of the raspberry filling into each jar.
Use the remaining dough on top of the raspberry filling.
Bake at 375 for 25 minutes. I ate one of these warm and it was amazing. Then I ate one at room temperature and it was also good. I think they would be best a little warm with a small scoop of vanilla bean ice cream. I hope to try this with peaches and think vanilla bean ice cream might be even better with peaches.
This week’s sweet friend is Laurie. I met Laurie through a car club. She doesn’t have the fancy Black Eye Purple car anymore, but we still hang out. Turns out we had more in common than tempermental British cars…this is becoming a trend amongst my friends! I’m holding out, y’all go on and get your grown up 4-door cars!
Laurie may be the most avid movie-goer I know. She goes to lots of sneak previews. I am impressed with the wide variety of movie genres she goes to see, although she isn’t particularly fond of my favorite genre, documentaries. She did go with me to see the White Stripes documentary, but that was probably because she also has great taste in music. We sometimes represent as the slightly-older folks at concerts. The last time we went to a concert, I was slightly relieved to see people who appeared to be our age, only to realize they were there chaperoning their children. Or their children were chaperoning them, not sure. Regardless, it’s great to have friends like Laurie who are also approaching mid-life crisis age that share in my musical taste, stay out late on school nights and don’t mind closing down a bar on occasion.
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