Add your favorite jams and preserves to your baking for some delicious, irresistible, fruity treats!
Baking with Preserves and Jams
At most any time, I have several varieties of jams and preserves in my refrigerator. They’re mostly there for bagels, peanut butter sandwiches, and such, but they’re also one of my favorite baking ingredients.
Fruit spreads are a wonderful addition to baking when you want to add some fruit flavor but don’t want to use fresh fruit or just don’t have fresh fruit on-hand.
This collection of recipes features some of BoB’s best and most popular recipes made with jams and preserves. Keep in mind that while many of these recipes list a specific flavor, you can usually substitute your favorite kind. I encourage you to make good use of your stash of these fruit spreads and bake something delicious!
I hope you’re inspired to go check your stash of jams and preserves so you can try some of these fruity recipes. As you can see, there are plenty of delicious treats just waiting to be made!
Happy baking!
Baking with Jams and Preserves
You can make so many delicious treats with jams and preserves! From cookies to cakes to breakfast treats and a whole lot in between, there is plenty of flavor to be found in these simple recipes.
Let's start with a reader favorite (and one of mine, too!) - Jam-Filled Doughnut Muffins! They're a magical muffin-doughnut hybrid that you're likely to find yourself making again and again.
Any time cream cheese and blueberries are together, I'm completely on board. These Blueberry Jam Cream Cheese Bars are an absolute delight. They're buttery, sweet, and irresistible!
With peach preserves in both the cookies and the glaze, these Peach Shortbread Cookies have wonderful flavor. There's an extra step to getting the preserves added to the cookies, but it's a simple one and well worth the extra time.
Brown Butter Almond Cake with Apricot Whipped Cream features one of my favorite ways to use preserves. Just mix them gently into sweetened whipped cream for a quick and easy frosting! That apricot topping is just the perfect finish for this nutty cake.
If you have some puff pastry in your freezer, then you very likely have what you need to make a batch of these Berry Cream Cheese Pastry Swirls. These little pastries are perfect for a sweet breakfast or brunch treat, or just for a snack.
If you're looking for quick and easy, this Blueberry Croissant Bread Pudding is just the thing. With bakery croissants and blueberry (or another variety) preserves, you can make an incredible dessert that will very likely end up on your go-to recipes list.
When it comes to simple recipes with big results, this No-Bake Cherry Cheesecake Pie is a winner. You'll have this cool, creamy, flavorful pie ready for chilling quickly and without a lot of fuss.
Most of us probably associate Linzer Cookies with holiday time, but there's no reason not to enjoy them whenever you get a craving. And these Linzer Bars make that a lot easier with less rolling and cutting. I like to use a variety of preserves or jams in these, but you can also just pick your favorite.
We can't talk about fruit spreads without involving peanut butter. These Peanut Butter and Jelly Thumbprint Cookies feel like nostalgia in a cookie. It's fun to fill these with different flavors of jellies or preserves for an easy way to offer some variety.
Berry Swirl Pound Cake is an easy way to add a little interest to your usual pound cake game. This is just the kind of cake to enjoy all day long, from a sweet morning treat to a snack to dessert!
Blueberries and lemons are a great flavor pair, and that seems especially so in these Lemon Blueberry Cheesecake Bars. That layer of blueberry preserves between the crust and the filling is the perfect complement to that lemony filling!
Almond Apricot Sandwich Cookies are a great example of doing more with less. These cookies skip more elaborate fillings in favor of apricot preserves, which add a touch of sweetness to the nutty cookies.
Strawberry Magic Bars offer a fruity twist on the classic magic bar formula. I like to add white chocolate and hazelnuts along with the strawberry preserves, but these are perfect for experimenting with other flavors.
Blueberry Jam Cake takes an already good vanilla cake and ups the ante by adding a good dose of blueberry jam to the batter. The result is a lovely cake with fantastic flavor. And that cream cheese glaze doesn't hurt, either.
There is certainly no shortage of bar recipes made with fruit spreads, even on this list. But Raspberry Coconut Oat Bars seem somehow extra good. The crust, the preserves, the coconut... they all come together for a really fantastic treat.
Italian Jam Crostata has a permanent spot on my go-to quick and easy desserts list. Not only can you have this assembled and in the oven in short order, but you very likely have everything you need to make it at any given time. And it's delicious to boot!
This lovely, soft, sweet Black Cherry Sour Cream Coffee Cake features a swirl of black cherry jam that makes it irresistible. Enjoy a slice for brunch, a coffee break, or dessert.
As much as I love homemade whipped cream to top off dessert, swirling a bit of fruit preserves into it makes it even better. That's the case with this Vanilla Bean Cheesecake for Two. Sure, it's great all on its own, but that fruity whipped cream topping makes it extraordinary!
These pretty Cream Cheese Thumbprint Cookies start with a simple sugar cookie and then get all dressed up with your favorite jams or preserves.
