15 Best Uses For Fruit Preserves

A cheese board is not just about the cheese; it's also about creating a balance of contrasting flavors that excite the palate. While cheese may be the star, providing a variety of salty and savory components, on its own cheese can be too rich and overwhelming. This is where a sweet element, like fruit preserves, comes in handy.

Condiments like fruit preserves are not just gratuitous additions to a cheese board. The sweetness of the preserves can complement the cheese and create unique and interesting pairings. They can also help cleanse the palate and cut the harshness of a particularly strong cheese. Or, despite being preserves, they can add a bite of freshness.

Giada De Laurentiis' quick jam trick to elevate a cheese board is a good example for how to pair cheeses with preserves. She likes to combine Calabrian chili paste — a popular Italian culinary ingredient — with fig jam to create a spicy, sweet flavor for spooning onto slices of crostini and brie.

A cake is a tasty treat when it's moist and tender. However, sometimes our baking efforts may not yield the desired results, and a cake may turn out dry and tasteless. There's no need to worry, though, as this problem has a simple solution. One of the easiest ways to revive a dry cake is by pouring your favorite fruit preserves over it. The liquid from the preserves will seep into the cake, making it moist, while the fruit will add a fresh burst of flavor. No one will ever know the difference.

To make getting the fruit on your cake easier, you can briefly heat up the preserves in the microwave. Then, use a brush to spread it over the top of the cake. Or if your cake has layers, you'll also want to put preserves in the middle. If you poke a few holes throughout the cake, this may help the cake to absorb the liquid.

Of course, you don't have to wait for a dry cake to incorporate fruit preserves. This can be an intentional fruity and versatile topping for many cake recipes.

If you have a nearly empty jar of jam or preserves in the fridge, don't throw it away. Instead, you can turn the remaining spoonfuls into a delicious, fruity vinaigrette. It's a great way to sweeten up salad dressings and add unique flavor to your dishes.

To make a fruit-based vinaigrette, add your desired vinegar or citrus juice to the jam jar. You can add herbs, garlic, shallot, or other flavoring ingredients in addition to oil. Once everything is in the jar, put the lid back on and shake well. This will help to release any jam remnants from the sides of the jar and incorporate them into the dressing. Then, taste and adjust the dressing with salt and more oil or vinegar as needed.

Using jam in your dressings can bring sweetness and a fruity flavor to your salads, but it's also a great way to use up the last bit of jam in your jar and reduce food waste. Even better, any leftover dressing can be stored directly in the jar.

Have you ever thought to add a spoonful of fruit preserves to your homemade cocktails? You might not have considered this before, but it's a great way to add fruity flavors to your drinks. There are many ways to add a fruit component to a cocktail, such as using juice, syrup, liqueur, or fresh fruit. However, preserves are a convenient option, adding flavor while also creating more depth and body in the cocktail.

For instance, you can easily change up whiskey sours with a scoop of marmalade. Orange marmalade, a traditional fruit preserve, complements the lemon and whiskey in the cocktail, and adds a touch of both sweetness and bitterness thanks to the orange rind pieces. A slice of orange is a common garnish for a whiskey sour, and adding marmalade provides another orange element to the drink, creating a more cohesive flavor using a unique approach. 

Fresh fruit is an essential ingredient to a tasty smoothie, so preserves may seem an odd and redundant item to add to the blender. However, it is possible to enhance the flavor of smoothies with a spoonful of fruit jam.

You should consider using preserves like jam in your smoothies when you need just a little more flavor. Sometimes, we only have one or two fruits on hand, but we want a more exciting smoothie. Or maybe our fruit has spent too long in the freezer and is well past its prime. In these situations, jam is a good alternative to boost the level of fruitiness.

Jam makes sense because it is made by cooking down a large quantity of fruit, which creates a more concentrated flavor than you'd expect. Jam and other preserves are also made when fruits are at peak freshness, and smoothies are all about that fresh flavor. Although jam may not seem intuitive to include in a smoothie, it makes sense when you think about it.

For a breakfast that's both decadent and full of flavor, stuffed French toast is the answer. The dish consists of two slices of custardy bread filled with ingredients like fresh fruit and cream cheese. However, making stuffed French toast can seem like a lot of effort if you don't have the right ingredients on hand and need to prepare a special filling. Fortunately, this is another instance where fruit preserves can come to the rescue.

Preserves may be the most convenient filling for a stuffed French toast. There's no need to chop up and cook fruit. All you have to do is spread the preserves across the inside of two slices of your bread, dip the entire sandwich in the egg coating, and cook on each side until browned and crispy.

You could mix the preserves with other ingredients, such as cream cheese or Nutella. Or, consider including it as part of a savory and sweet Monte Cristo sandwich, which is essentially a cross between French toast and grilled cheese.

Adding fruit preserves to breakfast baked goods like muffins and quick breads isn't just an ideal way to incorporate fruit flavors. It is also a smart way to ensure that your baked goods don't end up dry and bland. The preserves help to keep the items moist and tender, which is especially important for recipes that tend to dry out quickly. In addition, the preserves also act as a sweetener, which means you can use less of other ingredients like sugar.

Using different preserves can create various fruit flavors depending on what you're in the mood for. You don't need to bother adding fresh or frozen fruits, as the preserves can take their place. Plus, preserves are available year-round and can be found in many different flavors, from classic strawberry or raspberry to more exotic options like passion fruit, fig, or mango. Try different combinations of preserves, or even a mix of fresh or dried fruits with the preserves.

Fruit-filled tarts and pastries may seem like complicated baking projects, but you can easily create impressive baked goods using your favorite preserves. Preserves easily add sweet fruit flavor, whether spread as a filling, swirled into pastry dough, or brushed over the top to create a glossy finish. Combine preserves with other time-saving strategies, such as pre-made puff pastry or cookie crumb crusts, to make delicious treats with minimal effort.

In this white chocolate cranberry tart recipe, for instance, you cook a cranberry jam that is spread over the bottom of a gingersnap cookie crust. While this still counts as a good use for fruit preserves, you could make it even easier with a store-bought jar of cranberry jam, or by using a jam that you've previously preserved. Either way, you can cut the preparation time for the recipe down significantly. Meanwhile, in this recipe for a cheese Danish with mango and lime, you spoon already prepared mango preserves over cream cheese to create a tropical-inspired breakfast pastry. In both cases, the preserves serve as an essential component.