White Chocolate Raspberry Jam

Even though it's October, I'm canning away the last of the summer berries. We've still got raspberries coming in from a local farm and I wanted to do something a little different than the standard raspberry jam recipe. When I spice up a jam it usually includes some interesting addition or flavoring and some sort of liqueur or liquor. Most of the alcohol gets burned off and you are left with a very complex flavor profile.

This recipe makes ordinary raspberry jam seem, well, ordinary. Since I've started tinkering around with jam recipes, I really have a hard time going back to the basics. This recipe can also be used as a dessert topping as well if you lower the amount of pectin and keep it a little more liquid.

Ingredients

5 cups raspberries, crushed (use a potato masher or other implement to crush the berries)
6 cups sugar
1 pack pectin
1 cup white chocolate chips (spring for the Guittard or other gourmet chocolate if it's available in your area)
1/4 cup coffee liqueur (Starbucks or Kahlua)

Instructions

Heat raspberries while slowly adding in the pectin. Once the raspberries are at a full boil that you cannot stir down, add in the sugar. Return to a full rolling boil, stirring for one minute. Take the raspberry mixture off the heat and add in the white chocolate. It will take awhile to melt, so be patient (unless you want chunks of white chocolate in your jam).

After the white chocolate has melted, add the coffee liqueur and stir until well blended. Because the raspberry jam is quite hot, the alcohol will burn off, so if you want to have more of the alcohol flavor, add it in at the very end. Pour jam into sterilized canning jars and process in a hot water bath for 10 minutes. That is, assuming you haven't eaten half of it already.

Yields 10 pints.

Triumvirate of peach preserves

These three takes on a standard, easy peach jam recipe will make you crave them fortnightly! (Okay, anyone who can guess that odd media reference gets bonus points).

Since peaches are in season around these parts, what better way to capture the taste of summer than by making peach jam? I wanted to do something a little more interesting than just plain peach jam, so I played around with the original recipe, making my own modifications.

Last Saturday I spent the day blanching and removing peach skins and chopping up 8 cups of peaches. Then, the magic began (and the molten peach-lava-induced-blister on my hand from stirring at full boil -- who said great flavor didn't come at a cost?).

For the first batch, I started with the standard recipe (this makes a little over 6 8-oz jars):

Peach Preserves
4 cups chopped organic peaches, skins and pits removed
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 package pectin
5 cups sugar

Sterilize your jars, lids, etc. I'm not going to go into food safety techniques here - if you want more information, study the instructions that come with your pectin package.

Add the lemon to your peaches in a non-corrosive pot and slowly add the package of pectin. I use a wooden spoon, but you can use any non-reactive implement you like. Bring the mixture to a boil on high heat and then add the sugar. Bring this mess up to a rolling boil, wherein you can't stir down the boiling action and, most likely, are getting bombarded by spattering molten lava peach bits (see above note). Boil for one full minute.

Now comes the fun part: adding flavors to this original recipe to make it much more tasty.

Cognac Vanilla Peach Preserves
[or Confiture de Pêche au Cognac et Vanille - if you wants to be fancy-like]
Peach preserves - 1 batch (see recipe above)
1/4 cup cognac
2 vanilla beans (each one cut into thirds and split down the middle)

Follow the instructions above to produce one batch of undoctored peach preserves. Let cool for 10 minutes.

Stir cognac into the peach preserves and ladle into hot jars. Add one piece of vanilla bean into each of the six jars, pushing the bean down with a spoon. Seal and hot process jars in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes.

Cacao Peach Preserves
[or Confiture de Pêche aux Eclats de Fève de Cacao - ain't this Frenchy stuff fun?]
Peach preserves - 1 batch (see recipe above)
6 tablespoons cacao nibs

Follow the instructions above to produce one batch of undoctored peach preserves. Ladle prepared peach preserves into hot jars, adding about 1 tablespoon of cacao nibs to each jar. Seal and hot process jars in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes.

Ginger Peach Preserves
[or Confiture de Pêche au au Gingembre et Citron - phew!]
Peach Preserves - 1 batch (see recipe above)
3 tablespoons candied ginger, chopped into small pieces

Follow the instructions above to produce one batch of undoctored peach preserves. Ladle prepared peach preserves into hot jars, adding about 1/2 tablespoon of chopped candied ginger to each jar. Seal and hot process jars in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes.

I know you won't be able to resist the temptation to start eating these right away, but your patience will be rewarded when you finally crack open those preserves months away from now when you can enjoy a taste of summer in the dead of winter. Ooh la la!