Hello to you out there! This is my 1st official post and 3rd unofficial post. The first two I wrote up, I deleted. I felt like I didn’t have a real direction with them. I now have a direction, whether it will stay in this direction, we will see, but I hope so!
So, I have decided to pick an ingredient and write about it. Like what its benefits are and a recipe that uses that ingredient. I hope to use this to learn more and maybe you will find out something new too!
My first subject is raspberries! Not the most popular berry for some, but one of my favorites.
I have picked raspberries in the summer, a couple of times at a local berry farm with family, and I was suprised at how they grew on the plant. They are so delicate.
Raspberries are:
-from the rose family
-perennial
-largely supplied from Russia with 21% of the world’s production and with the US coming in at 11%
-made up of about 100 druplets
-able to use the leaves in herbal teas and traditional medicine
-strong in antioxidants such as Vitamin C, Vitamin E, Vitamin B, quercetin, and gallic acid that fight against cancer, heart and circulatory disease
-full of fiber-1 cup has 8 grams of fiber, double that found in strawberries
-derived from the word raspise meaning “sweet rose-colored wine”
-not able to ripen after they are picked
-known to have over 200 species
-usually eaten fresh, with cream or ice cream, as a dessert fruit and also popular for jams and jellies
-originally from Turkey
So, the recipe that I decided to share with you is a quick bread that has raspberries and dried apricots in it with a grapefruit zest glaze. It turned out quite colorful and tasty.
First, you cream your butter and sugar together.
I would like to say that I already had the butter out to soften, but I didn’t, so I did this step by hand, which also works quite well!
Add the eggs and vanilla. Then, add your dry ingredients and buttermilk.
Next, you fold in your chopped apricots and washed raspberries very carefully as not to crush the berries.
Then, into the bread pan it goes. I have this fun retro one that I found on Amazon. Bake for about an hour or until toothpick comes out clean.
Raspberry Apricot Bread with Grapefruit Glaze
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup buttermilk
1 cup raspberries
1/4 cup chopped dried apricots
Glaze:
1/2 cup powdered sugar
Splash of milk
1 Tbsp grapefruit zest
Cream together butter and sugar. Mix in eggs and vanilla until smooth. Mix dry ingredients together and then add to the first mixture. It will be thick. Mix in buttermilk and gently fold in apricot pieces and raspberries. Bake in a loaf pan at 350 degrees for about an hour or until a toothpick comes out clean. While it is baking, combine glaze ingredients and brush over the top of the cooled bread.
Even though there is still snow on the ground our amaryllis is in full bloom. I had gotten this flower from my mother-in-law a few years ago and it just keeps blooming with more blooms every year. 12 blooms in all! It’s a great reminder that spring will come even though we are having a long winter!
While the earth remained, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease. Genesis 8:22