Jam in the Spotlight

[Lindacakes]

Does anyone have a superior recipe for spotlighting jam?  I found a really nice jar of mince at Christmas and made little mince pies by using regular pie crust in a small muffin tin.  This worked okay but I am thinking there has to be something much better out there.

 

I am thinking of a pecan tassie shell, maybe.  My mother had a recipe for something called a jam poppet, which is two circles of sour cream/butter/flour dough with jam in the middle.

 

Something small and bite-sized and perfect, perfect buttery foil for jam?  

[heidih]

The people I bake for adore amd clamor/beg for Linzer bars. Butter, sugar, flour, coursly ground walnuts and more cinnamon than one would think. Pressed into pan, spread with raspberry jam lightened wth just a touch of lemon juice. Topped wih same mixture of dough but sort of crumbled on top.  It gets sort of candyish in some parts and just soft/jammy in others - 350F until it smells and looks right. (Kill me now Kenji/Stella)  Yeast raised fried doughnuts with jam filling squirted in are pretty addictive too, We are coming up on Lent - so Fastnacht style.

Edited February 8, 2022 by heidih (log)

[blue_dolphin]

14 hours ago, Lindacakes said:

Something small and bite-sized and perfect, perfect buttery foil for jam?  

A basic buttery spritz cookie piped into a shape that can accommodate a dollop of jam seems like a solution that would work with many types of jam. 

 

Not exactly buttery, and this may be too similar to the small tarts you made but little phyllo cups filled with some sort of soft cheese and a dollop of jam are always popular when I make them.  Here's a fig & goat cheese version.  I've used goat cheese, cream cheese, brie, anything soft and all sorts of jam. 

 

Depending on the jam you want to use, a variation on the Hot Apple Jelly Thumbprints from Vivian Howard's Deep Run Roots might be something to try.  The cookie part is a riff on cheese straws so they're as nice with cocktails as dessert.  Vivian calls for smoked Gouda or sharp aged Cheddar.  Both are good.  You can use any sort of jam.  The recipe is available online here. 

 

Another thumbprint cookie riff is the Devil's Thumbprints from Baking with Dorie.  They are tiny, fudgy cookies filled with jam.  I used raspberry and black raspberry and both were delicious.  I need to make some orange or tangerine marmalade as I think that would be perfect with the dark chocolate.  One thing that Dorie does in this recipe that makes them look a little special is to first roll the balls in turbinado or sanding sugar, then press with a cork to make a deeper well than you get in the average thumbprint.  I had to hunt around to find a cork small enough to work with these little cookies but it worked nicely.  The recipe is online here.

Here they are before baking:

And baked and filled:

 

The Jammy Winter Fruit and Browned Butter Bars from Shauna Sever's Midwest Made might be a bit more homespun than you have in mind but they're a great way to use jam.  I use about double the amount of jam as the recipe calls for and have made them with all sorts of jam.  The browned butter really does highlight the fall fruit flavors. The recipe is online here. 

 

 

 

Edited February 8, 2022 by blue_dolphin
typo (log)

[Lindacakes]

Really nice ideas, thank you both.

 

I recently found a place that makes potato doughnuts to order (read: hot) and puts at least a quarter cup of raspberry jam in them.  Soooooooo good.

 

Smells right works for me.