driscoll's berries Archives

When my Amazon book order arrived, I immediately started flipping through pages and flagging recipes. One of the recipes I flagged was the blackberry curd tart with lemon crème fraîche from In The Sweet Kitchen. Not only did this recipe sound like a dessert I’d order at one of my favorite fancy restaurants, it also sounded like a challenge trifecta.

And the fact that Driscoll’s Berries had just sent me a stack of coupons for their berries made the timing of making this recipe nothing short of perfect. Side note: a Driscoll’s Berries coupon will make the Whole Foods cashier super jealous (this has happened twice now).

After a good bit of pureeing, straining, and whisking, it came to my attention that this recipe wasn’t going to be as difficult as I initially thought. And then I read the wait times for each component… 2 hours, 4 hours, 24 HOURS! It was then I realized that the biggest challenge of #bakingbootcamp is not going to be skill or technique, rather it will be time and patience. Perhaps I should have asked Santa for more patience for Christmas.

The end result was the most pro dessert I’ve ever made. The pâte sucrée (pastry) that the recipe described as “fussy, difficult to work with and sensitive” came out buttery, crisp and ready for filling. The blackberry curd was light, fresh, and slightly sweet. And the crème fraîche, the darling crème fraîche that I patiently watched for 24 hours, was delicious in an unfair way. Combining these three mini perfections together produced a dessert package worthy of eating after your finest meal.

I’ve had jam on the brain ever since reading Joy the Baker’s quick jam post. And then when I received a slew of coupons from Driscoll’s Berries, I had all the motivation I needed to whoop it up. If only motivation triggered memory, I would have been jamming it up much sooner. As it turns out, coupons don’t do much good sitting on the kitchen counter…

Joy’s recipe seemed easy enough, but I wasn’t completely sold on the fruit sauce description. After all, I wanted to make jam jam. A traveling jam. The kind of jam you put on a PB&J before packing it up and heading to Barton Springs.

FoodFash Very Berry Quick Jam (yields two – 8 ounce jars of jam)

adapted from Joy the Baker

1 pound of fresh strawberries, rinsed, tops removed, and sliced

1/2 pound of fresh raspberries, rinsed

1/2 cup sugar

juice of one lemon

2 tablespoons quick cooking tapioca

In a medium pot, mix berries, sugar, and lemon juice until evenly distributed. Over medium heat, stir occasionally until the mixture comes to a boil. Boil for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, and then add the quick cooking tapioca. Continue boiling for 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and let cool for a few minutes before spooning jam into a mason jar. Refrigerate until cool.

Ordinarily, leaving out one ingredient and adding another wouldn’t warrant re-posting a recipe; however, the addition of quick cooking tapioca modified both the instructions and texture. With that said, this jam is GOOD! It’s sweet, tart, and seedy, and begging to be paired with peanut butter!