Recreating a Childhood Favorite

I could always count on three things when I went on a summertime visit to my grandparent’s house deep in Southern California: An angel food cake was cooling upside down on a wine bottle, there were plans to visit cousins, aunts and uncles, and jars of my grandma’s Blenheim apricot jam filled the refrigerator. 

Bright orange and just barely sweetened with pieces of fruit suspended in each jar, my grandma’s jam was made with fruit harvested from an old tree with gnarled limbs so wide and heavy with fruit that my grandpa had to build wooden supports to keep the tree from splitting apart. 

Blenheim apricots are an heirloom variety of fruit. They’re small, bright orange, blushing red, freckled specimens that when fully ripe and torn apart yield a sip of fresh apricot juice at the pit. They’re a delicacy experienced only in California, where the unforgivable heat and little water ripen these orbs into sweet, tart, intensely flavored fruit that are ideal for eating out of hand, drying and preserving. 

Last week, the local apricots that I was using for jam needed a little nudge. They had a good soft, jam-like texture, but they were one dimensional in flavor. Sweet but without acid or perfume. 

Undeterred, I moved forward knowing I would figure out a way to coax the flavor that I needed out of this fruit. I caramelized sugar to the palest shade of gold, stirred in sliced apricots and let them sit to give the fruit time to release their juices. 

Meanwhile, I sliced peaches for tarts and realized that the peaches were cling fruit (meaning the pit “clings” to the fruit rather than releases). Not wanting to waste any of this farmers market fruit and realizing the peaches had the acid that the apricots were lacking, I tossed the pits and their fruit into the jam pot and let them sit there to soften. After a few hours, I went back to the jam and cooked it until slightly thickened and the fruit around each peach pit released itself into the jam. And voila, the jam of today had the flavor of my childhood. 

In the hustle and bustle of the bakery’s busy production kitchen, jam making let me slow down and create the space to allow my mind to wander. There was room for memories of long ago to guide me. It’s these times that I live for in the kitchen. They balance the realities of running a business and remind me why I’m so very grateful to do this work. 

This jam is what you’ll find in our Apricot Rye Jam Bars this week. I’m also working on creating more jams, which will make their way both into future pastries, as well as jars available for your purchase. Stay tuned!