Baking Bouchon - Recipe 53: Raspberry & Cherry Jam

I've been singing more Prince today that I did in December of 1998.  Are we still calling him Prince?  I read enough people.com to know what to call Diddy these days - but they don't talk about the artist formerly known as that symbol often enough for me to know what we're calling him.

Whatever his name is these days, I've been singing "Raspberry Puree" all day.  Yes, I'm well aware that the actual song is about a hat, not a fruit puree but it works so well that I've traded it in.

I've used this raspberry jam recipe before but the cherry jam is new.  I was supposed to use the raspberry jam when I made Palmiers back in March.  It was early in my experience with this cookbook and I had some issues (not with the jam - it was the stinkin' puff pastry).  I did think the jam was too sweet so I changed up my approach this time.

These jam recipes call for commercially packaged fruit puree which I still haven't been able to find.  Last time I used fresh fruit and cooked it with sugar to re-create the packaged puree.  Unfortunately, there were no fresh cherries in the store and the raspberries were really expensive so I opted for frozen fruit this time.  Also, instead of cooking it with sugar, I simply defrosted it and whizzed it around in my blender. 

Not adding the extra sugar solved the problem I had last time with the jam which is that it was too sweet.  The pureed fruit is then cooked with sugar and fruit pectin to gel it all together.

I think both jams turned out really well - even considering that I don't particularly like jelly or jam or fruit outside of its natural state.  I wish they were a little bit thicker (I think I should have cooked them a few minutes longer), but I can deal with that.  Unless there's a big fruit sale going on, I will definitely use frozen fruit again instead of fresh.  I love that they're not so sickly sweet especially considering where they're going to end up.  Unfortunately for you, you have to wait for tomorrow and Thursday to figure out how they get used.  I promise you - it's delicious!

Enjoy!
Julie

PS - I apologize that the song is stuck in your head now too.