Strawberry and Raspberry Jam (without Pectin)

Right now, is the season for strawberries (at least where I live~). But I don't know if it's just me, but they're not that sweet. They have a really nice colour, they smell really strong and fragrant, they have a strong strawberry flavour...but there's just no sweetness. Actually, quite perfect for jam~ and in contrast to a previous post (profiteroles), I made an insanely small amount. And, that might just be due to the fact that I like my jams to be; more fruit, less sugar and good to eat just with a spoon.

Double Chocolate Raspberry Muffins

This is not one of those muffins which are super light and airy. PLEASE DO NOT BE MISTAKEN. These muffins are more like brownie-muffins... In fact, these are almost based on my brownie recipe. But with cocoa powder instead of chocolate because there was no chocolate on hand. There is also quite a bit of butter... Not to mention, it's a one bowl recipe!

If you have a look at the ingredients, you'll see that there is a generous amount of sugar. It's not actually that much, because you need to keep in mind that we're using cocoa powder. Another thing to note, is that I'm using regular cocoa (since I can't seem to find any Dutch-processed cocoa around here...NOOOO!) and this will affect the rising of the muffin. You would need to add baking soda. How much? Unfortunately, I don't know since I've never worked with Dutch-processed. In fact, the final result actually (sort of) looks like it uses dutch-process.

Pie = 3.141592... (Pie crust)

Raspberry and Peach Pie.
Pie crust? Spectacular.
Pie Filling? Eh, not bad. Maybe even a little disappointing...

I've only got photos for the final result, considering I made this a long, long, LONG time ago. Few months ago?

So, even though the pie looks really pretty, this will be a recipe for the pie crust. This pie crust recipe is for sweet fillings and it's buttery, crumbly, flaky AND doesn't get as soggy, especially at the base like other pie crusts I've made. Even though I didn't even blind bake it, the base stayed better than other's that I had blind baked (soggy-wise).

It's advisable to handle the dough as less as possible, since the pulsing of the butter, flours and sugar enables the butter to create little 'pockets' when the butter melts while baking, enable a FLAAAKY pastry. Not only that, but it prevents too much gluten from forming from the flour, so you get a crumbler, flakier pastry. Lots of gluten is good in crusty, artisian bread (coming soon), but not in pastry. Another tip that I have is: Put the pie in the lowest rack in the oven since it enables the base to cook more thoroughly because more heat is concentrated there.

So do you see the flaky-ness? (Bottom, Right)