Rhubarb orange jam + hamburger buns

Through the winter, I order large cases of oranges from Azure Standard and recently I noticed a few spoiling in the cold room (our walk-in refrigerated room). My very pregnant daughter has been craving cold pressed orange juice, so my youngest son and I started pressing them. That juice is soooooooo good.

My thoughts jumped to the big bag of rhubarb I still had in a bag, yet to deal with, and I dreamed up a beautiful golden jam of rhubarb and orange with notes of vanilla at the end. My mind can get squirrely in the kitchen and easily jump into 10 projects. Anyone else have a problem (or blessing) with that?

I do love how the jam turned out – it was just sweet enough, with some of the tartness left from the rhubarb, and definitely had depth from the vanilla. I’ve written out the recipe below.

Rhubarb Orange Jam

Makes about 5 half-pint jars

Ingredients

• 4 cups finely chopped rhubarb (about 1¼ pounds)
• ½ cup fresh orange juice
• 1–2 teaspoons finely grated orange zest or 2 drops Young Living’s Orange EO
• 3/4 – 1 cup turbinado sugar (after making this, I’d probably land at 1/2 – 3/4 cup)
• 2 teaspoons Pomona’s Pectin powder
• 2 teaspoons calcium water (prepared according to the Pomona’s package directions)
• Pinch of sea salt
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla

Prepare the Calcium Water

Mix the calcium powder with water according to the directions that came with your Pomona’s Pectin. Store the remaining calcium water in the refrigerator for future batches.

• If your rhubarb is exceptionally tart, increase the sugar to 1 cup. If you are content with a slightly tart jam, ¾ cup should be plenty.

Directions

1. Wash and sterilize your jars if canning.
2. Place the rhubarb, orange juice, orange zest or eo, and salt in a heavy bottomed pot.
3. Stir in 2 teaspoons calcium water.
4. Bring to a gentle simmer and cook about 8–10 minutes, until the rhubarb is soft.
5. Mix the 2 teaspoons Pomona’s Pectin thoroughly into the sugar. (This prevents clumping.)
6. Bring the fruit back to a full boil, stirring well to prevent burning.
7. Stir in the sugar-pectin mixture all at once.
8. Stir constantly and return to a full boil for 1–2 minutes.
9. Remove from the heat and skim any foam if desired. Add vanilla here.
10. Ladle into hot jars, leaving 1/2″ or so, headspace
11. Wipe rims, apply lids, and process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes (adjust for altitude if needed).

Notes

Let the jam rest for 24 hours before judging the set—it continues to firm as it cools. Turbinado sugar gives the jam a slightly warmer color and a subtle molasses note. If you want the brightest pink-red color, use organic evaporated cane sugar instead.

Sourdough Hamburger Buns

My family knows I’ve been chasing perfect buns for years.

That sounds terrible.. let me rephrase.

I have been experimenting with different sourdough and non sourdough hamburger bun recipes for a long time. The benefit is, we always have fresh buns, the downside is sometimes they’re hard, lumpy, soft, dense, you just never know depending on the day and the tweaked recipe.

I turned out a batch the other day that let me feel I had landed. My girls approved, though one would always prefer yeast, to sourdough, and the other, liked the deep sourdough taste but, I could tell, was also dubious that maybe not everyone would appreciate it. I get that. Listen, if you make bread yourself, you are winning! Whether fresh milled, yeast, sourdough, all purpose or ancient grain, good job taking back the ingredients into your own hands! Literally.

I liked these enough that I’m going to briefly drop the recipe for them here, even just so I can reference what I did, because notoriously I never follow the same plan twice.

Who doesn’t want buns like these? Can you picture toasting these for summer blt’s with homemade mayo and garden ready tomatoes? I had one the other day with butter and the rhubarb jam. Heavenly.

If you enjoy making these, or if I make them again, I will come back and turn this into a printable pdf file for both of our convenience.

In short: 250 grams spelt, 250 grams hard white wheat, 350 grams buttermilk (or water), 100 g starter (mine is thick like pancake batter when I initially mix it up), 50 grams honey, 50 grams olive oil or melted butter, 10 grams salt

I mixed my freshly milled flour with the liquid and let it sit for 30 mins (or when I remembered it again). I then added the rest of the ingredients and gave it a slow paddle mix in my kitchen aid until just incorporated. Again I let it sit for 15-30 mins or so. I used my dough hook to mix again for a few minutes just to judge the dough not too wet that it will gather together eventually. It shouldn’t gather into a hard ball, you dont want it dense. It will be somewhat sticky and loose, more so then some breads.

At this point I placed it into a glass bowl with a plate on top and casually came back for some stretch and folds throughout the afternoon. Use wet hands to do this as to keep the dough moist without it sticking to you. Around late afternoon, I popped it into the fridge to sit overnight. I will show you what the dough looked like turning onto the counter after sitting at room temp for around an hour the next day.

I let these sit on the parchment lined pans, on the counter for 30-60 mins and baked at 375F convection for 20+ mins until 200F internal temp. Make sure to completely cool before slicing or they will be gummy.

These are the day that the home gardener and food preserver lives for. These fast paced summer days that are overwhelming and glorious all at once. They slip through our fingers even as we revel in every single sun filled moment.

I hope you are experiencing a beautiful summer season as well!

~ Sherri