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Amazing Ideas to Use your Homemade Fruit Preserves

Amazing Ideas to Use Up Your Homemade Fruit Preserves

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Amazing Ideas to Use your Homemade Fruit Preserves

I visited the Niagara region this week and we were given a tour of the local stone fruit farms that are now harvesting all the goodies (I think I ate enough peaches for everyone out there!!). I was astounded by how hard those peach farmers work.  It truly is inspiring!  I want to make a few peach desserts with the peaches that were gifted to us so look for that coming up soon!!!

In the meantime, I realized something…

When fruits that are bursting with seasonal goodness are in season, we tend to buy a lot of them and then, sometimes, are left with more than we can eat.

When that happens, I find people are at a loss with what to do with all this amazing fruit without letting it go to waste.  I wrote a blog post a few years back about what I do with peaches when they start to go soft (you can read about that here), but that is about chopping and freezing to use them up later.  But, when I want to savour the goodness for as  long as I can right now, I usually make up a quick “sauce” and use it in a million different ways. When I made a strawberry version a few weeks ago and posted it in my stories, I noticed a few of you wanted a recipe.  Below, I’ve posted this very simple way I use up my fruits that are on their last leg.  I made two batches yesterday (one with some very “sorry” looking strawberries and another with some of the softer peaches that I got from the farm!)


Amazing Ideas to Use your Homemade Fruit Preserves

Amazing Ideas to Use your Homemade Fruit Preserves

I literally just chopped them up, added some good jam and cooked them down for a bit….easy peasy!

Amazing Ideas to Use your Homemade Fruit Preserves

Now, if you’re wondering what to do with them, that’s where I come in!

How about baking up a batch of scones (here is my version of the British classic)? Pull apart a warm scone and pile on some of these preserves…add a dollop of whipped cream or creme fraiche and you have yourself a very tasty snack!!

Amazing Ideas to Use your Homemade Fruit Preserves

Have you ever tried your hand at Panna cotta?  It’s super easy (all the deets are right here!) and, best of all, you can top it with some of your luxurious fruit preserves!!

Amazing Ideas to Use your Homemade Fruit Preserves

I know we talked about making scones above, but if any of you have tried the ricotta cookies on the blog, you’ll know it is a super easy recipe, makes a ton and can be frozen pre-baking! So, if you have a batch of these in your freezer (and if you don’t, you really should), you can pop the un-cooked dough in the oven and do the same as you would for a scone.  My kids actually rip open the hot cookies and dip them into the fruit preserves! If you haven’t made them already, here is the recipe!

Amazing Ideas to Use your Homemade Fruit Preserves

I know how much everyone loves pie – or maybe it’s just me!! But, if you’re a pie lover like me, you can always do a little cheat and just add some of your preserves to a baked pie shell (directions for those are right here!!).  It’ll almost taste like you were baking pies all day long…even if you weren’t (I promise…I won’t tell!)

Amazing Ideas to Use your Homemade Fruit Preserves

How about making some crepes (you can find a recipe here!) or, heck, you can even buy them!!  Just fill them with some preserves and fold those babies up.  Serve it with ice cream and you have one fantastic dessert!!

Amazing Ideas to Use your Homemade Fruit Preserves

And have you ever had fruit preserves on your pancakes instead of syrup? Oh ya baby…it’s a game changer!! If you want to try your hand at it, here is my recipe for fast blender pancakes and here is a recipe for the best (and fluffiest) foolproof pancakes.  Heck, while you’re at it, have them with the preserves AND the syrup, ’cause YOLO!

Amazing Ideas to Use your Homemade Fruit Preserves

Have you ever looked at a tray of leftover brownies and said, “hmmm, what should I do with those?” If you have, I need to ask you if you are on medication for something because you should clearly be eating them (and, also, WHO has leftover brownies? Asking for a friend). But, if you do happen to have some brownies hanging around, you can transform them into these mini parfaits with a bit of ice cream and some preserves.  Seriously, it will looked like you slaved over dessert all day!!

Amazing Ideas to Use your Homemade Fruit Preserves

If we’re talking breakfast, you can always serve your preserves on top of yogurt and if you’re extra fancy, you can even make your own granola like this easy version and add an extra layer of crunch.  And if you’re extra, extra fancy, you can make up a batch of overnight oats (recipe is right here) and add some preserves to that!!!

Amazing Ideas to Use your Homemade Fruit Preserves

So there you have it….from a no-waste advocate that always wants to make sure you all have the tools to make the most of this incredible harvest!!  Send me photos of the recipes YOU create with your fruit elixirs!!

Amazing Ideas to Use your Homemade Fruit Preserves

Amazing Ideas to Use your Homemade Fruit Preserves

Stewed Fruit

When you find yourself with extra fruit that isn't being eaten, make up a batch of this deliciousness...and then use one of the many ways to enjoy it!!

Ingredients
  

  • 2 cup diced fruit of choice (any stone fruit or berry is the best choice)
  • 1/2 cup good quality jam or preserves

Instructions
 

  • In a medium saucepan over medium heat, combine both fruit and jam/preserves and cook for about 8-10 minutes or until the fruit begins to break down a bit (if you are using stone fruit, you may want to use a potato masher to break down the fruit.)
  • Once it's cooked, cool it to room temperature and store it in the refrigerator for a week or freeze it for up to 3 months.