As a glaze for pork & chicken, added to a bbq sauce(blueberry lime, hab gold, apricot. etc) , slightly melted for ice cream topping. Some of the hot pepper jams for appetizers, Hab Gold w/ cream cheese and crackers jalepeno w/ monterey on a water table cracker. Hope to see others uses.

I don't put up a lot of jams because my family really only likes freezer jam. But I do use my extra apple butter on ribs or bbq pork. I used up extra pear honey on bbq'd meats and chicken wings as well. I just mix it up with some seasonings, and crushed tomatoes and it makes a good bbq sauce.

I use jam, jelly or fruit butter as a cookie filling, as filling between cake layers, and I put a spoonful into the middle of muffins before baking. My family likes fig or apple/maple in bran muffins and raspberry or strawberry as cake filling.

I eat it on toast or English muffins, and also use it as a topping for pancakes and french toast. It's a filling for cream cheese danish, I use a recipe from Ann T at Cooking that uses a no-knead dough which gets refrigerated overnight so it's fast and easy and yummy. I like sweet cherry, blueberry or peach for that.

Readinglady's pear preserves are all mine and I eat them with a spoon...

Annie

Apple or Peach Jam, thinned for ice cream, pancake or waffle topping, make a glaze for pork or make a BBQ Sauce
Bing Cherry Jam thinned with a bit of Olive Oil, heated for side dip for roasted/grilled chicken.
Red Raspberry or Blueberry Jam for muffin, danish or cake filling. Would work for cheesecake also.
Any jam mixed with plain yogurt
As a kid my mother made a English tradition for leftover pie crust. Make a small tartlet of pie pastry and spread center with jam or jelly, bake at 350 till filling bubbles.
Kids will gobble those up, GTD
Mixed berry jam I heat a bit, then cool to loosen and pour over angel food cake for a topping with whipped cream. Everyone loves that.

Jellies, I use to flavor and sweeten hot tea. Elderberry jelly is a great cough/cold remedy with hot tea, honey and lemon.

Marmalades are a wonderful baked fish or pork glaze, add 1 tsp hot pepper paste and thin 1-8 oz jar with 2 tbsp cider vinegar

Oh yeah, I forgot yogurt, thanks Lizzy. And I use Habanero Gold as a glaze for chicken or as a topping for savory cheesecake.

Annie

We use only about 1/4 of what I put up. The rest make great little gifts for Sunday School teachers, dance teachers and, suprisingly enough, my husbands hunting buddies.

~ Tracy

PB & J sandwiches

Well, at my house it's soynut better, or sunflower butter, etc., since we have nut allergies at this house. But with three kids, it's amazing how fast the jars disappear.

I eat it on my homemade quick breads, zucchini, banana, pumpkin, etc. Makes a great breakfast.

As others have said, a lot of it will be given away as gifts to teachers, family, etc.

Bonnie

I love it stirred into cottage cheese. They sell those expensive Cottage Doubles, and the fruit in them seems be be mostly jamlike. I can't have the sugar, so I use sugar free jams in my cottage cheese.
I thin it down for a dipping sauce for chicken strips. That way I get the flavor, but not all the sugar.
I like it on pancakes or waffles, with Cool whip !! Love the Cool whip with it.
Oh, and some flavors are good on turkey sandwiches, just like you would put cranberry sauce on a turkey sandwich. Add a little cream cheese and you have a very good sandwich !
I have a good cereal bar recipe that you spread jam over and bake. It is similar to a Nutrigrain bar. It has oatmeal in it.

That's not fair Linda - you can't say you have a good recipe without posting it :-) My son loves nutrigrain bars. And I'll bet he'll like it even more with some apple pie jam in the middle.

Bonnie,

Nothin' but two grownups in this household, but we are rediscovering PB&J in a big way! With my homemade jams (the grape was a revelation this year) and good bakery bread, a peanut-butter sandwich is a thing of beauty, perfection on a lunch plate. Served up with some local fruit (fresh or, later, from a home-canned jar), it's hard to believe something so good can be so cheap and so easy.

Z

A blob of jam is nice in oatmeal in the winter.

Like others here, we either buy or make plain yogurt and use jam for flavoring. It's cheaper by the quart and you can control the sugar and steer clear of artificial colors/flavors with your own addition of jam.

I melt some with a bit of brandy to brush a glaze on home made tarts at the holidays.

Some of the darker jellies can add a touch of natural color to home made frosting or icing.

I think it was mentioned, but we enjoy using jams and jellies on plain oatmeal. We use to buy the small packets with different flavors, now we buy the big tub of oatmeal, cook it and everyone gets their own "Homemade" flavor.

Also we like to use the peach jalapeno or habanero gold with ham. YUMMY!

We also sell lots. Every year it seems to be more and more.

Jay

Cover a wheel of brie cheese with your favorite jam or jelly, wrap in puff pastry and bake. YUM!

What a good idea to stir it into icing ! Why didn't I think of that ? Thanks for the suggestion.

I'll add a little to a vinaigrette for a fruity flavor-- raspberry jam + balsamic vinegar + oil for a raspberry balsamic vinaigrette, for example.

If you want to use up a good amount of jam, consider a jam cake. It's an old-fashioned spice cake with jam in the batter. There are lots of recipes online, but my favorite is from Rustic Fruit Desserts by Schreiber and Richardson.

Take a look at the Google books link to see Grandma Freeman's Jam Cake with Brown Sugar Rum Glaze.

The rest of the recipes from this book are equally fabulous.

Carol

Here is a link that might be useful: Grandma Freeman's Jam Cake

I spread apple butter over ham and sprinkle a little brown sugar on for a sweet glaze. We like to use all different types of jams and jellies to fill doughnuts, and when we make a jelly roll.

I had some blueberry jam that turned out a bit mediocre. I pan fried some chicken tenders the other night, then stirred a bit of balsamic vinegar, the homemade blueberry jam, and a little honey. Let it boil down slightly, took it off the heat and added a small amount of half & half.

Voila! Chicken tenders with a blueberry balsamic reduction.

>>"Cover a wheel of brie cheese with your favorite jam or jelly, wrap in puff pastry and bake. YUM!"

Great idea. Will be doing that for Thanksgiving. Thanks!!

I posted a recipe for cereal bars. You put jam in the middle of them.

Grandkids like jam mixed into the pancake batter (rather than just spread on top). Grandma always cooks up extras at breakfast as they make a great quick lunch for the kids topped with peanut butter or afternoon snacks too.

Dave

Here's a couple of recipes to use excess marmalade:

Dreamy Orange Cheesecake Dip
From the Cooking Forum (and I forgot to record who posted it)

1 8 oz. pkg reduced fat cream cheese-softened
1/2 cup orange marmalade
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Combine cheese, marmalade and vanilla in a small bowl. Mix well.
Serve with fruit. We used strawberries, cherries and peach slices, and they all worked well with the dip! You can prepare dip ahead of time. Store/cover/refrigerate up to 2 days.

Orange Marmalade Bread
Again, from the Cooking Forum (and slap me for not recording who posted it)

3 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 jar (16 ounces) orange marmalade (1 1/2 cups)
1 egg, beaten
3/4 cup orange juice
1/4 cup salad oil
1 cup chopped walnuts

Sift together flour, baking powder, salt, and soda. Reserve 1/4 cup of the marmalade. Combine remaining 1 1/4 cups marmalade, the beaten egg, orange juice, and oil; add to flour mixture, stirring just until mixture is moistened. Stir in chopped nuts.

Turn batter into a greased 9x5x3-inch loaf pan. Bake at 350° for about 1 hour, or until a wooden pick or cake tester inserted in center comes out clean.

Transfer from loaf pan to a baking sheet. Spread reserved marmalade over top of loaf and return to oven for a minute or two, until glazed. Cool on cake rack.

My notes: I added some vanilla just because I love vanilla.

Easy Peach Cobbler
I made some sickening sweet peach jam, so I use it in my Peach Cobbler recipe instead of sugar.

1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
1 cup flour
1-8 oz.(1/2 pint) jar of way-too-sweet peach jam - or 1 cup sugar
1 cup milk
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups peeled and sliced fresh peaches, with the juices (about 3 or 4 peaches) or a bag of frozen peaches (I think mine come in a 1 pound bag?)

Put the butter in an ovenproof dish (mine is a 2-1/2 quart oval baker) and put in the oven. Preheat oven to
350°F. While the butter is melting, mix up the batter by combining the flour, jam or sugar, milk, baking powder, and salt.

When the butter is completely melted, remove the pan and pour the batter into the melted butter. Then, carefully spoon the peaches and juice evenly over the batter. Return dish to the oven and bake for 30 minutes.

As the cobbler cooks, the batter will rise up and around the peaches. DH likes coarse sugar sprinkled on top as well. I sprinkle the sugar on when the batter is still gooey, but not browned yet.

I may have missed it, but so far nobody has mentioned the simple Jam Tart! Just fill individual pastry tartlet cases with jam (if unbaked), or jelly (if baked). Nice as a dessert or with morning or afternoon tea.

Then there's the old-fashioned Jam Roly Poly dessert.

Or the Surprise Muffin - half-fill muffin cups, put in a dob of jam, top up more more muffin batter. Yum.

Hi all, I am new to this forum. Was just reading some old post and came across this thread. For Christmas I made up this recipe and it was great. It's a good way to use up your extra jam.

Jean's Spangenberg's Easy Rugelach(c)

1 - Pre-made pie refrigerated pie crust (a package is 12-15 ounces)

1/8 cup melted butter

1 cup preserves of your choice
or 1 cup chocolate chips
or cinnamon and sugar with nuts if desired

1. Preheat oven to 400° F.
   

2. Unfold crust and roll thin to an even thickness.( I rolled just enough to make it more round.)

3. Brush butter evenly over all of the top side of the dough.

4. Spread preserves evenly over the buttered dough, leaving the very center free of preserve pieces but still coated with some of the jelly.
   

5. Cut pie crust into either 8 wedges or 16 depending on how many you want the pie crust to make and how large you want them to be. Note: I did 16 the first few times but like the 8 better as they are almost like
   little fried pies.

6. Roll the wedges up starting with the large end of the crust so the tips of the wedge are on top of the roll.

7. Place pieces about 2 inches apart on a parchment lined pan(or one sprayed really well with cooking spray) as they will expand slightly and are sticky.

8. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until light golden brown.

These are very quick to make and wonderful for dessert or a quick gift.

I hope you enjoy them.
Jean

You can make homemade "Pop Tarts".

Make a pastry/pie crust recipe, roll out, cut into rectangles. Put jam on half the rectangles, then put the other rectangles on top glued down with egg white. Smoosh down the edges with a fork and prick holes in. Bake until mostly done but still a bit pale since you'll toast these later.

Keep in the freezer and take them out and toast them for a quick breakfast that's probably a lot healther than store-bought Pop Tarts.

Thanks for all of the ideas!!! I started doing this because I wanted the kids to eat healthier. Once I realized that you guys were using this as "treats" rather then "health," I realized I needed to re-think. I started making low sugar jams last summer and this summer, I am going to continue with that.

So far, we've only tried using our preserves in yogurt and the kids are eating that. I am sure it helped when I told them that they use cochineal beetles stomachs to make strawberry yogurt.

Keep the ideas coming and as always - thanks for the suggestions!!

One more thing - I've gone to smuckers.com to look for recipes using their jellies. They had a few good ones that incorporate them into meals rather than desserts so that is another good resource.

I loved reading all the ideas! you folks are very creative.

Not exactly jam or jelly, but in that class of foods we make:

Loquat preserves with spices (like a jam but with loquat chunks). No longer have loquat tree so my last two jars are precious. This is great on hot oatmeal or waffles.

Peach nectarine butter - we got no peaches last year, but still have a jar or two. I like that one mixed with plain yogurt. I have not figured out another way to eat it, but with yogurt it is great.

Marmalade, mixed citrus or Meyers lemon. They go well with toast or crackers and goat cheese. One of my favorite sandwiches is a 'grown up' PBJ version: Real peanut butter with marmalade and sliced fresh jalapeno slices. Trust me, it is good. I bring a couple of these to work every week.

The reason I posted is that our most popular item in this category is our 'citrus glaze' which is in effect failed marmalade. Marmalade that did not set and remained liquid. This happened two years ago before we had the hang of making 'solid' marmalade. We gave away our 'good' marmalade, but kept the liquid stuff, since you cannot give away 'failed' stuff, right? We had made a very large batch, something like 15 quarts. In any case, two years later, I am out and I want to make more! This is by far the item that has been used the most. I use it in my zucchini muffins, in my fig bread, in many stir fry dishes, in all sorts of marinades for grilling, all sorts of sauces. The 'regular' marmalade also gets used but much less, so we still have a lot of jars from last year. I already have a huge basket of citrus and it is only January, so my next preservation project will be 'failed' marmalade. Maybe I should call it something else?

Crepe filling!

LOL, Cabrita, we never call it "failed". We call it syrup!

Which reminds me, I want to can some more blueberry syrup for pancakes...

Annie

My nephew told me that last night he put the Carrot Cake Jam I sent him for Christmas on a grilled cheese sandwich! It wouldn't be my first choice for using jam, but he insists it was delicious.

Bonnie

We don't use a ton of jelly/jam in the true form, like on toast or muffins but I have found they come in very handy for glazes or sauces for meats. I loved my apricot jam with some garlic/onion and a splash of hot pepper sauce as a cooking sauce for pork. I mix it in with barbeque sauce as well. Lori

I've also used jam to flavor vanilla protein shakes. They give it a nice fruity flavor and add a small amount of sweetness.

I canned up some mint syrup last summer and have also used that in my shakes.

2 tbsp. jam / syrup, 7/8 c. milk (in other words, put 2 tbsp. into the bottom of the blender and fill with milk to the 1 cup mark). Add the protein powder and blend.

I don't think I saw this one listed above.

Fruit pizza - Pizza sized sugar cookie with sweetened cream cheese spread on top, place whatever kind of fruit you like on top in some kind of pattern, than glaze with your favorite jelly or jam.

Made one today for a potluck, and it disappeared quickly.

Came up with another one-- ice cream!
Take 1 c. milk, 1 c. cream, scald in a saucepan. Stir in 1 c. jam + 1/4 c. sugar. Take off heat, stir in 1 more cup of cream. Let cool, chill overnigt, then churn in an ice cream maker.

I made strawberry ice cream this way using the last of my somewhat runny Ferber-style no-pectin jam from last year. It is to die for. Can't wait to try it with some other jams I've made. (caramel pear, you're next!)