Concord Grape Jam

 

With my excessive amounts of Concord grapes – I knew I had to make the classic – Concord grape jam.  I am starting to feel like a canning expert – in addition to this corn salsa, I also canned peaches and tomatoes this year!  I’m not going to lie – this was a lot of work – since in addition to skinning and cooking the grapes – you have to cook everything with sugar to make it a ‘jelly’ consistency – which seemed to take longer than I thought it would.  In the midst of this – I also ran out of sugar – and thankfully I have a wonderful husband who ran out to the corner store to get me more at a moments notice.  :)

 

P.S. Grape jam makes the perfect peanut butter and jelly sandwich (if you don’t believe me you have to try it for yourself)!

Ingredients

• 3 1/2 pounds Concord grapes (approx. 8 cups)
• 2 cups water
• 4 1/2 cups sugar

Directions
1. Wash and stem grapes and measure out 8 cups.  Remove skins from half of the grapes.
2. In a large kettle, combine the skinned and unskinned grapes.  Cover and cook for about 10 minutes, until very soft.
3. Press grapes through a sieve and discard seeds and cooked skins. 
4. Return 3 cups of strained pulp to the kettle and add in reserved grape skins and water. Cook, covered for 10 minutes over medium heat.
5. Uncover and mix in sugar. 
6. Bring mixture to a full rolling boil, stirring often. Continue to cook for 18-24 minutes, or until jam sheets off a metal spoon (reaches 220 degrees F).
7. Remove from heat and skim off any foam that may have formed.
8. Immediately ladle into hot, sterilized half-pint jars (this recipe fills 6 half-pint jars), leaving 1/4 inch headspace.  Wipe jar rims and adjust lids. Process in a boiling water canner for 5 minutes.  Remove jars from canner and cool on wire racks.
Source: You Can Can
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Concord Grape Ice Cream

This recipe has been removed - sorry for any inconvenience.

Concord Grape Muffins

My family has a problem – we cannot pass up a deal.  We recently went to a local  “Grape Festival” – which was super lame and there were no grapes for sale!?!  So on our way home we were determined to find some local Concord grapes, which are in season now – and are only found for a short window of time.  So when we asked the man at this roadside farm stand we passed how much it cost for the large bushel of grapes – and he said “$10” – we were SOLD!     This above photo may not look too imitating – but we split this bushel between four people and I still ended up with 28 cups of Concord grapes, when all was said and done!  It didn’t help that I ended up with the basket and everything that was left for the sole reason of “Well, Christine – you like to cook – so you’ll figure out what to do with them”. 

If you’ve never had a Concord grape – you are really missing out.  They are a true grape flavor and are unbelievably delicious.  The problem is that there are little itty bitty seeds inside – so you have to either remove the skins and cook the pulp and strain out the seeds OR slice them in half and pick out the seeds.   Either way, they do require a bit of prep before you can use them.  Luckily I have experience, since I’ve been making grape pies for several years.  So in addition of two batches of grape pie filling (that I have in my freezer for Thanksgiving), I made several other goodies – since I was determined not to let a single grape go to waste.  And these muffins were the biggest surprise for me – they were super simple to make – and so delicious.  I cannot wait to make them again.     

Enjoy!

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 Tbsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 6 Tbsp. cold unsalted butter, cut into 12 pieces
• 1 cup whole milk
• 8 ounces halved and seeded concord grapes
• 2 tsp. coarse sugar, for sprinkling tops

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400º F. Line 12 standard size muffin cups with paper liners.

2. Combine flour, granulated sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl. Whisk to combine.

3. Add butter and using a pastry blender, or your fingers, blend until it forms a sandy-looking mixture.

4. Pour in the milk and stir, using a wooden spoon, until just mixed and there are no visible traces of flour.

5. Gently fold in the grapes. Spoon into the prepared muffin tins and sprinkle tops with an even amounts of coarse sugar.

6. Bake 20 minutes, until tops are golden and a skewer inserted comes out clean (it's okay if there's grape jam on it). Remove from oven and let cool 10 minutes in the pan, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before serving.

Source: In Jennie’s Kitchen

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Concord Grape Pie

I love Concord Grapes when they are in season in the fall.   This is something I've been making for the last two years, and since I don't just want my husband and myself to eat the entire pie - I freeze the filling and save it for Thanksgiving.  I couldn't find the recipe that I used last year - so I just tried to use my memory when making the filling.  And it worked out great - luckily I wrote it down (and started this blog) so I'll know what I did for next fall.   For some people this may seem like its too labor intensive - but it really is not that hard and the results are worth it.    At last Thanksgiving we did a taste test with my pie and one from Monica's and everyone enjoyed mine more.

I'll also include my favorite pie crust recipe that I've been making for the last few years - and I got a food processor this year - so it was even easier to make! 

Ingredients:

for the pie filling

• 2 quarts of Concord Grapes
• 3/4 cup of sugar
• juice of 1/2 a lemon
• 3 tbsp. of instant tapioca
  

for the topping

• 1/2 cup oats
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1/4 cup butter
• dash of cinnamon
• dash of vanilla

for the pie crust

• 2 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp. table salt
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 12 tbsp (1 1/2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/4-inch slices
• 1/2 cup cold vegetable shortening, cut into 4 pieces
• 1/4 cup cold vodka
• 1/4 cup cold water

Directions:

for the pie filling:

1. Wash the Concord grapes.  Get three bowls ready (I do this while watching TV) - one for the skins, one for the seeds/pulp and one for the waste.   Squeeze the grapes into one bowl and place the empty skins in another.  (I use a third to put the stems or any grapes that have shriveled).

2. Once you have separated all of the skins from the seeds/pulp.  You place them in a saucepan over medium heat and cook for about 10 minutes - until the pulp and seeds start to separate. 

3.  Place this mixture in a strainer and push all of the pulp/juices into another bowl and discard the seeds.

4.  Place the pulp/juices back in the saucepan and add the skins.  Then add the sugar, lemon juice and tapioca.    Boil this mixture until thick - about 10 - 15 minutes.  Either use immediately or freeze for later use (I freeze for a month with no issues at all to the final product)

To make the pie crust:

1. Process 1 1/2 cups flour, salt, and sugar in food processor until combined, about 2 one-second pulses.

2. Add butter and shortening and process until homogeneous dough just starts to collect in uneven clumps, about 15 seconds (dough will resemble cottage cheese curds and there should be no uncoated flour).

3. Scrape bowl with rubber spatula and redistribute dough evenly around processor blade.

4. Add remaining cup flour and pulse until mixture is evenly distributed around bowl and mass of dough has been broken up, 4 to 6 quick pulses. Empty mixture into medium bowl.

5. Sprinkle vodka and water over mixture. With rubber spatula, use folding motion to mix, pressing down on dough until dough is slightly tacky and sticks together.

6. Divide dough into two even balls and flatten each into 4-inch disk. Wrap each in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 45 minutes or up to 2 days.

to make the crumb topping and bake the pie:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2. Roll out and refrigerate pie crust.  

3. Combine all of the topping ingredients in a small bowl

4.  Pour grape filling (defrosted) into an unbaked pie crust and sprinkle crumb topping on top.

5.  Cover the pie crust with foil or pie shield. 

6.  Bake for 40 to 45 minutes until the topping is crisp and the filling has set.

Enjoy!

Pie crust from Cooks Illustrated (Foolproof pie dough)