Ricotta Almond Pear Jam Tart

A few days ago I gave you a recipe for a savory ricotta tart.  I figured we needed a sweet one to balance out the universe.  Also, I wanted to show you another of my Things to do with a Jar of Jam.

I have a lot of jars of jam.  It's important to eat them with something other than toast.  Not that I'm knocking toast.  I love toast.   Or better yet, fried bread.  Or better yet, just me, the jar and a spoon.   It's been known to happen.

At any rate, sometimes those homey jars of jam like to go out with someone other than Peanut Butter. They like to get dressed up and taken out for a night on the town. Because there's a little tart in every jar of jam. 

This is just such a recipe. It's fast and easy, especially if you use a store bought crust.  You can do the graham cracker crust thing or the regular pie crust thing.  I made a regular pie crust for this one. 

Ricotta Almond Pear Jam Tart
www.rurification.com

• 1 pie crust - either the regular kind or the graham cracker kind.
• 30 oz container of ricotta cheese [or thereabouts]
• 8 oz. can of almond paste
• 1/4 cup sugar [optional]
• 1 can sliced pears, well drained
• 1 jar of jam, 8 oz.  any flavor that you like.  We used Cherry Orange Jam.

Blend the cheese, almond paste and sugar together well.  You can use a food processor or immersion blender or whatever.   The almond paste is kind of thick, so if you're going at this by hand, then take a minute to break it up before you mix it with the cheese.  

Line a tart dish with your pie crust.   Put in the cheese filling.   Arrange the pears in a circle around the top of the filling.   Loosen the jam with a fork so that it's easy to pour - add a bit of juice or water if you need to thin it out.  You can heat it for a bit  if you have to.  Pour the jam over the top of the tart.  Make it pretty.

Bake at 350 for 60 minutes or until golden. Use a lower rack to get a golden bottom. 

Cool completely for a firm texture. 

This is fantastic served room temperature as dessert or cold for breakfast.  Or a snack.   Or a blogging break. 

I'm thinking you can use just about any type of jam on this and it would be A. Maz. Ing.

Pear Jam Roundup

I love fall canning season.  I especially love pear jams.  I was going back through the blog archives and found some pear jam recipes that you might like. 

Pears are great paired with other fruit, winter spices and even chocolate.  Check these out.



Pear Ginger Jam

Chocolate Ginger Pear Jam

Pear Maple Jam

Pear Vanilla Nutmeg Jam

Apple-Pear Maple Jam

Pear-Plum Vanilla Jam

Pear Brown Sugar Cardamom Jam

All of these recipes plus a whole lot more are in my ebook - A Simple Jar of Jam.   Follow the links on my sidebar for a preview and to purchase and download the book from Rurification's Etsy shop.

Apple Pear Pie Filling

I mentioned a couple of days ago how I process pears.  Feel free to hop back a couple of days to see that post if you haven't yet. 

I got my pie apples the day after we processed the pears. I like pears and apples together in pies and since I'm on a Perma Flo pie filling kick this year,   I decided it would be awesome if I took some of those now soft pears and added some firmer apples to make yet another type of Perma Flo pie filling to can.

Mmm-hmm!   This is what I did for enough pie filling for 8 pies.

Apple Pear Pie Filling
www.rurification.com

• 1 gallon processed pears with the water they were cooked in
• 1 gallon sliced apples - we washed and cored them but didn't bother to peel them.
• 1 1/2 cups Perma Flo
• 4 cups sugar
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 2 tsp nutmeg
• sprinkle of cloves [optional]

Pour off the pear water and mix it well with the Perma Flo.   Combine all ingredients into a very large pot.   Bring to a boil. 

We put it into quart jars and processed them for 30 minutes.   Yield:  8 quarts

This filling is fantastic with waffles or popovers and vanilla yogurt! 

Pear Plum Vanilla Pie Filling

I love pear season.   Pears go brilliantly with lots of other fruit.  

The first thing I do is process them.   I don't wait until they're soft to process them because one year I waited too long and now there is a permanent stain on our wood floor where the box sat and the pears on the bottom rotted before I got to them.  

Eww.   [Although that stain is kind of pretty.]

So now I just process them as soon as I get them. Peel, core and cut them up into a pot. Once they're cut up, I put in enough water just to barely cover and then I boil them.   Once they're boiled, I put them in the fridge, water and all and use them in pie fillings, jams, etc.    You can drain off the water and make terrific pear jelly with it. 

Last year I made the most delicious jam in the world with my cooked pears.   Pear Plum Vanilla Jam. The very best jam in the universe.  

[I know I say that about a lot of stuff...What's your point?]

That jam is so good that this year, the girls and I wondered if we could make that into a pie filling.  

Um.  YUM!

So we did. 

We made enough for 8 pies.   Feel free to cut this recipe down for as few as you need.

Pear Plum Vanilla Pie Filling
www.rurification.com

• 12 cups plums [we used some red plums that we had frozen earlier this fall]
• 1 gallon cooked pears with the water they were cooked in
• 2 cups Perma Flo 
• 2 vanilla beans, cut in half, then sliced open lengthwise
• 4 cups sugar

Cut the plums in half and take out the seeds.  Prepare vanilla beans.    Pour off 2 1/2 - 3 cups of the pear water and combine it with the Perma Flo.  Whisk until well combined.    Combine all ingredients in a very large pot and bring to a boil.   You can leave the vanilla beans in or take them out before you put the finished filling into jars.

We put the cooked filling into quart jars and processed for canning 30 minutes. 

Delicious!!

More Jammy Oatcakes

Remember last week when I showed you the recipe for Jammy Oatcakes?

The ones with orange marmalade and dried cranberries?

Yeah.  Those.  They're wonderful.

I made some more with different jam combinations - because let's face it, it's snowing outside and the gardening that I've had scheduled is just not going to happen for a bit.   And I needed something to do that didn't involve staring wistfully outside at the falling snow.

Even though it's been really pretty.  I'm over the snow.   Over.  It. 

Anyway.   I dug out a jar of my favorite Pear Ginger Jam and some ground ginger and then I added a lot more candied ginger and made these. 

Oatcakes are wonderfully filling and work up quickly for a fast breakfast.   Make them the night before for tomorrow's breakfast on-the-go.  Enjoy!

Pear Ginger Jammy Oatcakes
www.rurification.com

• 3 cups oatmeal
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1 cup finely chopped candied ginger.
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup pear ginger jam
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 tsp vanilla

Heat the oven to 350.

Melt the butter, jam, milk and vanilla in the microwave until soft.   I heated it for 1 minute in our microwave and it worked fine.   The butter was soft, but not completely melted.  That's fine.

Mix the oats, flour, salt, ground ginger and candied ginger in a mixer while the wet stuff is warming.    Then add the wet stuff and mix it all together thoroughly.

Use an ice cream scoop to measure the cakes.   Pack the scoop hard and then pop them out onto a cookie sheet. [You don't have to grease the cookie sheet].   Flatten the cakes a bit with a fork.  Mine were 2 " rounds after I flattened them a bit.

Bake for 15 minutes if you want to eat them hot.  [They hold together better for eating warm and they are fabulous for breakfast!]

Bake for 10 minutes if you want to let them cool and eat them later.  [They'll finish drying as they cool].

Makes 20 cakes, 2" rounds.

Jammy Oat Cakes

I love oatcakes.    Dense, full of whole grains, nicely sweet and packed with nuts or fruit.   They're soft, but chewy.  

What's not to love?

Also, they're blonde.   As in not browned.  Which is my favorite thing of all because I am notorious for not waiting until baked goods get brown before I pull them out of the oven.   Blonde bread, blonde rolls, blonde oatcakes.    Perfect.  

I decided we needed to have our own recipe for these using jam for a sweetener instead of sugar.

You get a lot more flavor, with a lot less sugar. 

It's another awesome recipe to add to my Things To Do With A Jar of Jam collection. 

You know it takes some experimentation to get a new recipe just right, so it's a good thing my family likes oatcakes.   We've been eating a lot of them.

A lot of them.   What we sacrifice for our readers.  We've tried a couple of different combinations and they are all delicious.   [More of those coming up.]

You need to try them. 

Here's the recipe for the Orange Marmalade-Cranberry Oatcakes:

Orange Marmalade -Cranberry Jammy Oatcakes
www.rurification.com

• 3 cups oatmeal
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 cup dried cranberries
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup orange marmalade
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 tsp vanilla

Heat the oven to 350.

Melt the butter, marmalade, milk and vanilla in the microwave until soft.   I heated it for 1 minute in our microwave and it worked fine.   The butter was soft, but not completely melted.  That's fine.

Mix the oats, flour, salt and cranberries in a mixer while the wet stuff is warming.    Then add the wet stuff and mix it all together thoroughly.

Use an ice cream scoop to measure the cakes.   Pack the scoop hard and then pop them out onto a cookie sheet. [You don't have to grease the cookie sheet].   Flatten the cakes a bit with a fork.  Mine were 2 " rounds after I flattened them a bit.

Bake for 15 minutes if you want to eat them hot.  [They hold together better for eating warm and they are fabulous for breakfast!]

Bake for 10 minutes if you want to let them cool and eat them later.  [They'll finish drying as they cool].

Enjoy!

Makes 16-18 cakes, 2" rounds.

Want the recipe for this Marmalade and a whole lot of other terrific jam recipes?   Check out my ebook:  A Simple Jar of Jam  at www.rurification.etsy.com.   You can preview the book by clicking the link on the sidebar.  Every purchase helps support this site.  Thank you!

Chocolate Ginger Pear Jam

The whole point of this jam was the chocolate and ginger pairing.    But the ginger needed a vehicle, so it quickly became a chocolate ginger pearing, if you will.  

Sorry.

And since it's February and fresh pears aren't always easy to find and since most folks have canned pears in the cupboard,  and since canned pears are already cored and peeled and cooked into soft deliciousness, I figured I'd make this jam with canned pears.

Indeed.

So, the cute little seckel pears you see in the pic are not what I actually used to make this jam with, but they were a lot more photogenic than the cans of generic pears that I did actually use.

Sorry.

Here's a pic of the crystallized ginger, which you'll agree is photogenic in and of itself.

Indeed.

I love crystallized ginger.   Check my sidebar for a link to a post on how to make this stuff yourself.

Since this jam is mostly about the chocolate and the ginger, feel free to load up on the ginger.   And the chocolate.    You won't be sorry.

Indeed.

Chocolate Ginger Pear Jam
www.rurification.com

2 cans of pears.  The regular size, not the big ones. 
1 tablespoon pectin
1/3 cup sugar [since there was sugar in the syrup that the pears came in, you don't need much.]
1/2 cup minced crystallized ginger
1/3 cup chocolate chips

Drain off most of the pear syrup.  It's OK to leave some in there to cook stuff in.  Dump them in a pan with the pectin and mash them up with a potato masher or a fork or the force of your personality.   Whatever it takes.   Just mash them to the consistency you want.  Chunky is fine.  Puree is fine.   Bring to a hard rolling boil that you can't stir down.   Boil for a minute.   Add the sugar, the ginger and the chocolate.    Bring to a hard rolling boil again and boil for a minute.    Yield:  Just over a pint.

This stuff is really good on ice cream.   Or with a spoon right out of the jar.   Mmmm


Want the recipe for this Chocolate Jam and a whole lot of other terrific jam recipes?   Check out my ebook:  A Simple Jar of Jam  at www.rurification.etsy.com.   You can preview the book by clicking the link on the sidebar.  Every purchase helps support this site.  Thank you!

Seckel Pear Ginger Jam

 Yeah.   Seckel pears are just cute.    All red and green and tiny and smelling of musky adventures in crowded cafes. 

These are not your everyday pears.   These are something special.

When I found some late harvest boxes of these I had to get one.    They're Washington pears - marketed as Sugar Pears.

The truth is, they weren't very sweet - picked too green, I expect - but once cooked up, they were divine, divine, divine.

I used the whole box to make some Pear-Ginger Jam.

[Note:  This recipe can easily be made with plain old canned pears from the store.   Way easier and faster.]

I peeled and chopped the whole 4 lb box and ended up with about 8 cups of fruit.   Since pears are usually pretty hard when I do them, I boil them in half as much water as fruit.    8 cups of fruit boiled in 4 cups of water.   Cook them until soft.   They'll turn a lovely golden pink.  

While the pears are cooking, chop up the crystalized ginger.   I like finer bits of ginger, so I take my time and make it small.   I use 2 tablespoons of chopped ginger for every cup of pears.   8 cups of pears, 1 cup of chopped ginger.    You can use less if you like less of a gingery punch.

Once they're soft,  I added 1 tablespoon of low/no sugar pectin for every cup of fruit that I started with.   8 cups of fruit, 8 tablespoons of pectin.

Note bene [This is Latin for Pay Attention!]:  Don't dump pectin in boiling liquid.   It clumps.   I hate that.    Either mix it in a cup of cold water, or sprinkle it daintily into the pot while stirring.   Try not to get it on the stirring utensil.  I'd have said spoon, but I use a big flat end spatula to stir my jam with, and I always get it all over the spatula when I sprinkle.   I much prefer mixing the pectin in cold water.

Once the pectin is in there, bring it to a hard rolling boil.    Boil it hard for 1 minute.  

After the pectin has boiled hard, I add the sugar and the chopped ginger.   I use half as much sugar as fruit.   8 cups of fruit, 4 cups of sugar.    That plus the candied ginger makes it plenty plenty sweet.

Bring it back to a boil - a hard rolling boil - and let it boil for 1 minute.   Take it off the heat, ladle into jars.    I processed in a boiling water bath for 15 minutes to seal up the jars. 

You can easily cut this recipe down:

4 cups cooked or canned fruit [with the juice]
1/2 cup candied ginger, chopped
4 tablespoons low sugar pectin
2 cups sugar

[...and you can cut that in half again, if you like.]


Looking for more great jam recipes?   Check out my ebook:  A Simple Jar of Jam  at www.rurification.etsy.com.   You can preview the book by clicking the link on the sidebar.  Every purchase helps support this site.  Thank you!

Pear Vanilla Nutmeg Jam

With more of my lovely cooked pears, I whipped up a batch of this delicious jam.   The vanilla and nutmeg don't overwhelm the pear flavor.    That's important in a jam.     You don't want the embellishments to take over.

If the embellishments take over the substance then you end up with something akin to Lady Gaga and though that's entertaining and all, it's not something you want to sit down to the table with.

Substance before embellishment.

And in this jam, the embellishments embellish and the substance shines through.   

Jam as a metaphor for life.

Because this is an all purpose blog.

Pear Vanilla Nutmeg Jam

• 4 cups cooked pears
• 1 vanilla bean split lengthwise [or 2 tablespoons vanilla extract]
• 1 tsp nutmeg
• 4 tablespoons Dutch Jell All Natural Lite pectin
• 2 cups sugar

Combine the pears, nutmeg, vanilla and pectin in a pot.   Add some extra cold water if your pears are too dry and you're afraid they'll burn.  Stir constantly.  Bring to a hard rolling boil that you can't stir down.   Boil one minute. Add sugar and return to hard rolling boil.   Take out vanilla bean.  Boil one minute.   Ladle into jars.

This jam was a huge hit with with my kid who only eats ''normal' jam, Mom'.   She licked the spoon and the spatula and the funnel and the pot.  Clean. 

Note:   Remember, pears in a can are cooked pears.  You can use them if you don't have 'fresh' ones.   Use unsweetened ones. 

Apple Pear Maple Jam

So I told you yesterday that I cooked down a big pot of pears all at once.   Well, once they're cooked down, they can stay in the fridge for a few days at the ready for you to make quick jams as you have time.   

I was totally telling you the truth.  

Here is a jam I made with some of those cooked pears, plus some new apples.  

 The pears cooked down further to give the jam a nice soft base, and the new apples stay firmer so there's a nice balance of textures and flavors.  I left the apples in chunks.   This jam is a favorite with my picky eater. 

Apple Pear Maple Jam

• 2 cups cooked pears 
• 2 cups chopped apples
• 1 cup cold water
• 4 Tablespoons Dutch Jell All Natural Lite pectin
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 cup maple syrup
• 1 cup sugar

Combine the pears, apples, cold water, pectin and cinnamon.  Stir well until pectin is dissolved.   Bring to a boil.   Stir constantly until it reaches a hard rolling boil that you can’t stir down.   Boil hard for 1 minute.  Add maple syrup and sugar.  Return to full rolling boil and boil hard for 1 minute.   Ladle into jars.

Note:   The maple is a supporting flavor here.   If you want a serious maple flavor, then use 1 cup of maple and only 1/2 cup of sugar.   Or you can use 1 1/2 cups maple and no sugar.   

Note:  Canned pears are the same as cooked pears.   Use a small can or two, drained, if you don't have this year's pears to cook up.