Simple Ideas for Using Fruit Jam

My ongoing ambassadorship for Kauffman's Fruit Farm & Market in Lancaster County, PA has had me doing a lot of thinking about produce and other things you'd find at a farmer's market lately, one of those being homemade jam!

Disclosure: This blogger has partnered with Kauffman’s Fruit Farm to review and post about products that they receive for free. Original post appeared on 'Mending the Piggy Bank.'

Kauffman's themselves has a wide selection of jams, jellies and marmalades and many of them can be purchased through their website. My favorite is their double raspberry, which has both black and red raspberries.

Kauffman's themselves has a wide selection of jams, jellies and marmalades and many of them can be purchased through their website. My favorite is their double raspberry, which has both black and red raspberries.

•  Plain or Greek yogurt with a fruit filling on the side is SO expensive when you're buying it single serve (I've seen one up to be up to $1.75-$2 for one 'specialty' cup!!). Buy a tub of plain or Green yogurt and then add some low-sugar jam to flavor it yourself. You could then add a little granola and/or fresh fruit and have a truly custom breakfast or snack.
• Along the lines of flavoring yogurt, you could also create custom yogurt popsicles. You can get a wide variety of popsicle molds on Amazon, or if you have little ones I highly recommend the ones from Munchkin I referenced in a post previously.
• Blend it into milkshakes.
• Use it as a filling in between layers of a cake. Frost as usual and you'll have a delicious fruit filling for your cake!
• You could also add it to frosting to make a custom frosting. I love doing this because then I'm the one controlling the sweetness and texture.
• Use it as a filling for crepes.
• Use it on pancakes or waffles in lieu of syrup. Strawberry preserves with butter is one of my favorite ways to enjoy pancakes!
•  Put two tablespoons of jam alongside a cheese plate. I'm sure Kauffman Fruit Farm's Double Raspberry Jam would be amazing for this!
• Use it as a sundae topping.
• Mix jam with cream cheese and use as a filling for stuffed french toast
• When I baked professionally, I'd regularly use apricot jelly to give extra shine to pastries such as fresh fruit tarts. It makes them look gorgeous!
• Peanut Butter and Jelly Bars from Bon Appetit
• Homemade Strawberry Pop-Tarts or Strawberry-Nutella Pop Tarts
• I don't think I'd go so far as to qualify this 'simple', but you could dehydrate jam and make it into fruit leather. My kids love fruit leather. Janice Lilly provided us with a whole post on using a dehydrater called 'Beginner's Tips for Using a Dehydrator' and a quick Pinterest search yields lots of ideas for making fruit leather.
• You could mix in some jam into instant oatmeal or even my recipe for baked oatmeal. That'd give things a nice depth of flavor.
• Use it in a cookie recipe. A simple Pinterest research yields some fantastic ideas. If you're not sure where to start, try looking up Jam Thumbprint Cookies or jam crumb bars.

Finally, If you're still not sure what to do, The Hungry Texan has a fantastic post called '50 Ways to Use Preserves, Jams, Jellies, Marmalades & Fruit Butters'

?More from Mending the Piggy Bank

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Kauffman's Fruit Farm in Lancaster County, PA