Q: Help! I made my first foray into making jelly last night, didn't realize I was using low-sugar pectin and added the amount of sugar the recipe called for. The result is a blackberry jelly that is far too sweet for my taste, but not inedible. I canned 8 half pints (yay!) which I'll give to people over the holidays, but I still have 3 cups of this stuff left uncanned.
Any suggestions on what to make with it? I'm going to try to use a cup and make jam bread (while reducing the sugar input in the dough, of course), but I don't know what to do with the remaining two cups.
Sent by Christina
Editor: Christina, wow, that jam sounds wonderful. We would use it in anything that needed a little sweetness as well as blackberry flavor. Plain yogurt, for instance, would make a lovely breakfast with the sweet jelly swirled in. Or fold it into whipped cream and layer with more berries for an easy dessert.
Readers, how would you use the too-sweet jelly?
Related: Recipe: Blackberry Buttermilk Ice Cream
(Image: Martha Stewart)
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Another stir in: stir it into oatmeal or other breakfast grains.
Or heat it up and pour it over vanilla ice cream.
Or mix it with other fruits/ice/dairy/etc in a smoothie.
I also LOVE to make salad dressings with jams and jellies in them. Just take a basic 3-to-1, oil-to-vinegar dressing and mix in a bit of preserves (with or without mustard as well). With a super sweet jelly, I'd add a touch more salt, and NOT use cider or sherry vinegar.
Be great on scones or whole wheat pancakes.
But frankly, I'd start skipping the pectin. I'm not sure why so many people use pectin. Sub about 1/4 cup of lemon juice per about every 5 cups of fruit and voila, you've got jam that sets every time. After trying to use pectin twice, because that's what the recipe called for, and failing at it (it turned into a brick of jam), I'm never using pectin again. I've made strawberry, plum, grape and blueberry jam this summer, all sans pectin and they are all amazing and set perfectly.
Mix it with some barbeque sauce! I think that would go well with grilled chicken, pork, salmon or shrimp.
Thanks for all the ideas! I made this bread with a cup (and only used 3/4 a cup of sugar), which turned out very well. I'm looking forward to giving the rest a try. I never thought of salad dressing!
My grandma makes a really sweet raspberry jelly and I swirl that into plain yogurt and freeze it in popsicle molds for my son. It is simple and tastes really good.
Or muffins (maybe take out some of the sugar in recipe) and hide a dallop of jam in the center of the batter.
lay it on top of warm brie and serve it on crackers.
Use it to top plain Greek yogurt, but don't stir. Sooooo good. :)
i would use it over oatmeal, mixed with cream cheese on a bagel, thinned & heated over waffles or pancakes, in between layers in a cake or as the base for a salad dressing.
when it's frozen it will likely taste less sweet, so maybe swirl it into to homemade ice cream, or if you don't have an ice cream maker, try yogurt popsicles, or add it to a granita recipe.
also, try it in drinks to sweeten & add flavor: stirred into tea, added to smoothies, or you could add it to seltzer for homemade soda (never tried this but don't see why it wouldn't work!)
how about just balancing it out with a splash of lemon juice?
I would thin it out a bit with water, reduce it down with some balsamic, and serve it with something like grilled lamb...
A super sweet jam also works nicely in thumbprint cookies and thinned down with a little vinegar as a glaze for roasted chicken.
Blackberry yogurt popsicles would be fantastic, I did that with strawberries a couple weeks ago, recipe here:
http://www.paintedpeach.blogspot.com
Add it to apples for a blackberry applesauce and omit adding more sugar. I agree with swirling it into yogurt for a lovely treat.
Cut it with Cottage Cheese. All jelly and jam is too sweet for me, so that's what I do!
trifle! yum with fresh blackberry jam
On top of cream cheese on crackers?