Sunday, December 23, 2007

Quick Canning Recipe for Gift-Giving

Tomorrow is Christmas eve and I hope most of you spent the weekend at home, relaxing with family and friends and not out with the crowds at the stores. You couldn't make me go out to the store on the last weekend before Christmas.

If you happen to have corn syrup, maple syrup and walnuts in your pantry, I have a great, easy, quick canning recipe for Walnut syrup which is absolutely yummy on top of ice cream or pancakes or even oatmeal. This makes a lovely gift and so easy to make.

You'll need:

1 1/2 c corn syrup (dark or light, doesn't matter)
1 c maple syrup
1/2 c water
1/2 c sugar
2 c walnuts

This will make about 4 half-pints so I always double the recipe.

Combine all ingredients except for the nuts in a large saucepan. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and let simmer for about 15 minutes until syrup mixture has thickened. Add nuts, cook 5 minutes more. Ladle into hot jars and then process in a hot water canner for 10 minutes. Done!

I grew up on this stuff, always putting it on top of my ice cream if Dad was willing to share! They sold at the store in these little tiny jars and were quite expensive-- the store here sells them for about $4 a jar. Ouch! You can make your own at a fraction of the cost. Needless to say, some of these jars are for gifts and some are for me! I made all these in about an hour and you'll impress whoever you give a jar to with your canning skills. Any ice cream and nut lover would enjoy getting this as a gift and would also make a nice hostess gift if you don't have time to make this before Christmas.

If you don't have all the ingredients on hand, you're in luck, because most stores have this stuff on sale right now for all the holiday baking people do. A quick run to the food store and you'll be able to whip this up just in time for Christmas.

Merry Christmas!!

3 comments:

DJ Kirkby said...

Please be advised of my best wishes for an environmentally-conscious, socially-responsible, low stress, non-addictive, gender-neutral winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most joyous tradition of the religious persuasion of your choice, and with respect for the religious persuasions of others, or for their choice not to practice a religion at all.

Also please have a fiscally successful, personally-fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the generally accepted calendar year 2008, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to our society have helped make our nation great, without regard to the race, creed, colour, religious or sexual orientation of those so distinguished...oh and lots of xoxoxo's from our family to yours!

Krissie said...

Merry Christmas and congrats on the baby on the way!

(I read the baby post when you posted it but blogger wouldn't let me post a comment so I'm a little late...)

Danielle said...

I thought nothing would drag me out to the stores the day before Christmas and was a bit smug about it, too....

...until we ran out of powdered sugar for the royal icing for the gingerbread houses the children built. Off I went at about 4:30, and honestly, it wasn't nearly the zoo I expected. And the grocery store is right across from the mall. I was pleasantly surprised.

Thanks for the comment over on my blog—I look forward to reading more of yours.

Happy Holidays!