Bake until a tester inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean, 55 to 60 minutes.
Remove from the oven and set the pan on a wire rack to cool. When the cake is fully cooled, place the rack over the top of the cake pan and flip to remove from the pan. Well wrapped, the cake will keep in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.
Note: If you don’t have a Bundt pan, this cake can also be made in a pair of loaf pans.
RECOMMENDED PRESERVES:
I make this cake with thick, homemade apple butter. If you feel like pears rather than apples, use a combination of thick pear butter and fresh pears in their place.
LAYERED BREAD PUDDING
SERVES 8 TO 10
For the longest time, I was opposed to bread pudding. I thought it was a throwaway dessert, something you make only when you couldn’t manage anything better. Then I tasted really good bread pudding and I changed my tune. Now it’s a dessert I crave and I’m always searching for reasons to make a batch.
6 tablespoons/85 g unsalted butter, melted, divided
12 slices store-bought white sandwich bread, cut into triangles (about 1 pound/ 450 g bread)
¾ cup/180 ml jam
4 large eggs
2 cups/480 ml whole milk, plus more if needed
⅓ cup/65 g granulated sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
Preheat the oven to 375°F/190°C. Brush a 13 × 9-inch/33 × 23 cm baking dish with 1½ tablespoons of the melted butter.
Arrange one third of the bread across the bottom of the prepared baking dish. Using an offset spatula, spread half of the jam evenly over the bread. Drizzle with 1½ tablespoons of the melted butter. Layer in another third of the bread and spread the remaining jam. Drizzle with 1½ tablespoons of the melted butter.
Arrange the remaining third of the bread on top and drizzle with the remaining 1½ tablespoons of melted butter. Place the baking dish on a rimmed baking sheet. In a medium bowl, whisk the eggs, milk, sugar, and vanilla together and slowly pour over the layered bread. If you’re working with fresh bread, it will seem as though the egg mixture won’t fit in the baking dish at first, but the bread will absorb it all when given the chance. If your bread is quite stale and soaks up the custard so hungrily that the top slices of bread aren’t well saturated, drizzle them with an additional ½ cup/120 ml of milk. You can also use a large spoon or spatula to gentle compress the bread to help the top slices get their fair share of the liquid.
Leaving the baking dish on the baking sheet, transfer both to the oven. Bake until the top of the pudding puffs up and is a deep, golden brown, 30 to 35 minutes. It should look like a gloriously burnished grilled cheese sandwich and the custard should be nicely set. If the top is golden but there’s still a lot of liquid in the baking dish, cover the top with a piece of aluminum foil and continue to bake.
Remove the baking dish from the oven and let the pudding cool just a little before serving. It is best eaten within half an hour of leaving the oven, but it does reheat deliciously.
Note: For a dish that is more like a French toast casserole and less like bread pudding, use 6 eggs and 1½ cups/360 ml of milk. It’s also good with a dusting of cinnamon and nutmeg. My mom often sprinkles raisins and nuts between each layer when she makes it to serve at breakfast.
RECOMMENDED PRESERVES:
Strong flavors are best here. I like raspberry, blackberry, or cherry. You could also transform this into a savory dish by omitting the sugar and vanilla and layering the bread with chutney and grated cheese.
CREAMY RICE PUDDING
SERVES 6 TO 8
I have always been an equal-opportunity rice pudding lover. Be it store-bought or made with brown rice left over from dinner (often my mother’s approach), I will happily slurp up a bowlful. However, no rice pudding pleases me more than this one. It’s built on the bones of versions shared by Elizabeth David and Laurie Colwin and is the perfect creamy foil for tangy jams, butters, and curds. When I’m feeling extra indulgent, I finish the pudding by stirring in some heavy cream. However, if you’re reaching for something lighter, the pudding is still very good without it.
¾ cup/150 g uncooked arborio rice
4 cups/960 ml whole or 2% milk
⅓ cup/67 g granulated sugar
1 vanilla bean, split and scraped
¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
½ cup/120 ml heavy whipping cream (optional)
Preheat the oven to 250°F/121°C.
Place the rice, milk, sugar, vanilla bean seeds and pod, and salt in an oven-safe casserole dish. Stir to combine.
Place the dish, uncovered, in the oven and bake, stirring every 30 minutes, for 2 hours.
Remove the pudding from the oven, pluck out the vanilla bean pod, and stir in the cream, if using. The pudding will seem quite soupy at this stage, but as it cools, it will begin to thicken. If you can wait an hour, it will end up being gorgeously creamy and thick.
Serve hot, warm, or cool, topped with a generous dollop of tart preserves.
RECOMMENDED PRESERVES:
Top this pudding with lemon curd, lightly sweetened plum preserves, or my favorite, cranberry sauce leftover from Thanksgiving.
RASPBERRY FOOL
SERVES 6 TO 8
When I was in high school, the Rimsky-Korsakoffee House was one of my favorite places to go with friends. Located on the ground floor of an old Victorian mansion in southeast Portland, it was funky, charming, and welcoming to packs of teenagers, provided we didn’t get too raucous. My favorite thing on the menu was the Chocolate Raspberry Fool. Served in a sundae glass, it was a cloud of raspberry-studded whipped cream, interrupted with layers of chocolate drizzle. This version is a straight-out homage and is particularly delicious when served with the Flourless Chocolate Cake (here).
1½ cups/420 ml heavy whipping cream
3 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar
2 cups/280 g fresh raspberries, plus more for garnish
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
¼ cup/60 ml raspberry jam
2 ounces/55 g dark chocolate, for grating on top
Pour the cream into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment or a large bowl, and sift in the confectioners’ sugar. Turn on the mixer or use a hand mixer to whip until the cream reaches stiff peaks. This is firmer than you typically take whipped cream, so be brave, but cautious. (See note.)
While the mixer runs, combine the raspberries with the sugar and mash them together with a fork. Once the berries look juicy, stir in the jam.
When the cream is stiff, remove the bowl from the mixer and fold in the berry mixture. I like to leave it streaky, rather than try to get a uniform mix.
To serve family style, spoon the finished fool into a pretty glass bowl and use a rasp-style zester to grate the chocolate over the top. It’s also fun to spoon the fool into individual ramekins or dessert cups and sprinkle those with the grated chocolate. It can be made and kept in the fridge up to 24 hours in advance of serving.
Note: Make sure to be attentive to your cream as it whips so that you don’t overwhip it. However, if you get distracted and your cream breaks into butter and buttermilk, don’t get upset. Pour the butter curds into a fine-mesh strainer, rinse with cold water, and squeeze out the buttermilk. Serve the sweetened butter at your next brunch gathering and tell everyone you did it on purpose!
RECOMMENDED PRESERVES:
In my opinion, raspberry jam is the only way to go, but you could also use blackberry, gooseberry, or even cranberry jam.
FRUIT COBBLER
SERVES 8 TO 10
I grew up in a household that preferred nubbly, fruit-centric desserts. I tried to re-create those crisps for this book, but found that preserved fruit didn’t partner well with crumbly toppings. So, I went looking for other techniques that would transform the home canned fruit into easy and satisfying desserts. Surprisingly, I found it in the movie Steel Magnolias. Remember the scene in which Truvy (played by Dolly Parton) describes her cuppa,
cuppa, cuppa cake? This is essentially that, made with added butter for richness, a little less sugar, and a whole lot more fruit.
4 ounces/110 g unsalted butter
1 cup/120 g all-purpose flour
¾ cup/150 g granulated sugar
1½ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon fine sea salt
1 cup/240 ml whole milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups/720 ml drained canned fruit
Preheat the oven to 350°F/177°C. Put the butter in a 13 × 9-inch/33 × 23 cm Pyrex baking dish and pop it into the oven to melt.
Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a blender. Add the milk and vanilla and purée on low speed until the batter is smooth.
Once the butter has melted, carefully remove the baking dish from the oven. Arrange the fruit in a single layer over the butter.
Pour the batter over top of the fruit and butter, using a spatula to even it out, if necessary.
Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, or until the edges turn brown and pull away from the sides of the baking dish. The center should be just set.
Serve hot, warm, or at room temperature. It’s particularly good with some plain yogurt or a dollop of soft whipped cream.
SPICED PEACH COBBLER
Add 2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon and ½ teaspoon of grated nutmeg to the batter. Arrange 3 cups/750 g of drained canned peaches in the bottom of baking dish.
PEAR AND CRANBERRY COBBLER
Arrange 2 cups/500 g drained of canned pear slices and 1 cup/110 g of fresh or drained pickled cranberries in the bottom of the baking dish.
BLUEBERRY AND WALNUT COBBLER
Arrange 3 cups/750 g of drained canned blueberries and ½ cup/60 g of toasted and chopped walnuts in the bottom of the baking dish.
RECOMMENDED PRESERVES:
Any preserved fruit will work here. You can also use your frozen fruit for this recipe, if you prefer.
PIES AND TARTS
One of the best things about being known among my friends and acquaintances as a lover of home preserves is that people report back when they discover particularly interesting jam applications. Several years back, my friend and fellow food writer Deena Prichep sent me an excited chain of texts. She had just interviewed a baker who always added jam to the fruit she tucked into her hand pies. This baker felt that the pectin helped firm up the filling in a way that allowed her to use less thickeners. This revelation sent me down a jam-filled-pie rabbit hole and I spent months filling various piecrusts with jams, compotes, and even pickled fruit. The results of that obsession are recorded in this chapter, along with a savory tart, a fruit-filled tart, and a pie that’s half jam, half berries. May your explorations be equally delicious.
Favorite Piecrust
Sweet Tart Crust
Jam Slab Pie
Hand Pies
Fresh and Jammed Strawberry Pie
Fancy Jam Tart
Goat Cheese and Savory Jam Tart
Lemon Curd and Blueberry Tart
FAVORITE PIECRUST
MAKES ENOUGH FOR A STANDARD DOUBLE-CRUST PIE OR A 13 × 9-INCH/33 X 23 CM SLAB PIE
This is the piecrust I use most often. I’ve been making it since early 2005, when I got my hands on a copy of The Martha Stewart Cookbook. I figured if a crust was good enough for Martha, it was good enough for me. I like that it’s relatively sturdy yet always manages to bake up beautifully. I use this crust for most of my pies, hand pies, and all my savory tarts (it does contain a pinch of sugar, but it’s not so much that it makes the crust sweet).
2½ cups/300 g all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 teaspoon granulated sugar
8 ounces/225 g cold, unsalted butter
3 to 4 tablespoons ice-cold water, or as needed
Place the flour, salt, and sugar in the work bowl of a food processor and pulse to combine. Cut the butter into small pieces and add it to the flour mixture. Pulse 5 or 6 times to help break up the butter. Then, with the motor running, stream in 3 tablespoons of the water. If the dough doesn’t seem to be coming together, add up to the final tablespoon. Stop processing the moment you see the dough beginning to form blueberry-size clumps.
Spread a length of plastic wrap on your countertop and carefully scrape the messy dough into the plastic. Using the edges of the plastic, form the dough into a rough disk. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour before using. The dough will keep in the fridge, tightly wrapped, for several days. The dough can also be frozen for up to 6 months.
SWEET TART CRUST
MAKES ENOUGH FOR TWO 9-INCH/23 CM TARTS
For tarts that I plan on filling with lemon curd, jam whipped with cream cheese, or the Raspberry Fool (here) topped with more fresh raspberries, this is the crust I bake. It is crisp yet tender and always does justice to the filling. Just know that this one is a little fussy to roll out. Often I skip the rolling pin entirely, break off small pieces, and just press it into the pan with damp fingers rather than risk the frustration.
2½ cups/300 g all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
8 ounces/225 g cold, unsalted butter
2 large egg yolks, beaten
3 to 4 tablespoons ice-cold water
Place the flour, sugar, and salt in the work bowl of a food processor and pulse to combine. Cut the butter into small pieces and add it to the flour mixture. Pulse 5 or 6 times to help break up the butter. Then, with the motor running, add the egg yolks and then stream in 3 tablespoons of the water. If the dough doesn’t seem to be coming together, add up to the final tablespoon. Stop processing when you see the dough beginning to form blueberry-size clumps.
Spread a length of plastic wrap on your countertop and carefully pour the dough into the plastic. Using the edges of the plastic, form the dough into a rough disc. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour before using. The dough will keep in the fridge, tightly wrapped, for several days. The dough can also be frozen for up to 6 months.
JAM SLAB PIE
MAKES ONE 13 X 9-INCH/33 X 23 CM PAN
A slab pie is one that is made on a rimmed baking sheet rather than in a traditional pie plate. Because the pan has less height, the ratio of filling to crust is different from that of a conventional pie. For those who prize generous portions of flaky crust, it’s a welcome change. Additionally, much like sheet cakes, slab pies also have the ability to easily delight a hungry crowd of eaters.
1 recipe Favorite Piecrust (here)
All-purpose flour, for dusting
3 cups/720 ml jam
1 cup/240 ml fruit compote or drained canned fruit (roughly chop if pieces are large)
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 large egg, beaten with 1 tablespoon water
Preheat the oven to 400°F/204°C. Position a 13 × 9-inch/33 × 23 cm rimmed baking sheet (also known as a quarter sheet pan) next to your work area.
Divide the pie dough into 2 equal-size portions. Dust your work surface with flour and roll out one half of the dough into a large enough rectangle to line the baking sheet, with a little bit of overhang. Loosely roll the dough around your rolling pin and then unroll it over the baking sheet. Ease the crust into the corners of the pan and patch any tears that appear.
In a medium mixing bowl, stir the jam, compote, and cornstarch together. Scrape it into the prepared piecrust and spread it to the inner edges.
Roll out the remaining portion of the pie dough into a large enough rectangle to cover the pan. Roll the crust loosely around your pin and unfurl it over the pie filling. Tuck the edges in and crimp the crust. Cut a series of vents in the top of the crust. Paint the top of the pie with the egg wash.
Bake for 30 minutes. When that time is up, lower the heat to 350°F/177°C and bake until the filling bubbles up through the vents, the edges of the pie begin to pull away from the corners of the pan, and the top of the crust is a gorgeous brown, an additional 15 to 20 minutes.
Remove the
pie from the oven and let it cool to room temperature before you attempt to slice it.
RECOMMENDED PRESERVES:
I’ve made this slab with peach, sour cherry, or plum jam or conserve and they’ve all been wonderful. If your jam is very chunky, you can skip the compote. I recommend it here simply to give the filling some texture.
HAND PIES
MAKES 8 TO 10 PIES
Hand pies are essentially homemade Pop-Tarts. They can be as simple or fancy as you choose and are a great way to use up leftover pie dough and the ends of a few jars of jam. Despite the fact that they’re actually easier to make than a full-size pie, they manage to feel like an extra-special treat. Next time you need to cheer up a co-worker or your spouse, make them a hand pie. I promise it will lift their mood and make them feel appreciated.
1 recipe Favorite Piecrust (here)
All-purpose flour, for dusting
1¼ cups/300 ml jam
1 large egg, beaten with 1 tablespoon water
1 to 2 tablespoons turbinado sugar, or as needed
The Food in Jars Kitchen Page 15
