Jam Swirled Cornbread

• 1 cup all-purpose flour

• 1 cup self rising cornmeal

• 2/3 cup sugar

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 3 3/4 teaspoons baking powder

• 1/3 cup oil

• 1 large egg

• 1 cup whole milk

• 1/2 cup of jam

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

Coat a 9 inch cake pan with baking spray.

Place first 5 ingredients in a bowl and stir together until combined. Add oil, egg and milk. Mix then pour it into the cake pan. Place 1/2 cup of jam dollops on top and gently swirl. Bake at 400 degrees for 25 minutes.

*I know using self rising cornmeal and baking powder seems odd but it works and it’s delicious!

The Anatomy of a Stellar Cheese Board

 In recent times, people have fallen deeply in love with a great charcuterie board, and we get it! There’s something so decadent about your favorite meats, cheeses, crackers, bread and everything else all on one board. The best thing is that it’s completely up to you what you include!

        So, what should you include? Well, while it’s up to you, we have a few suggestions.

Meat

        Meat is the main reason that a lot of people are attracted to great charcuterie boards - the meat will be a tasty, filling, and reliably wonderful part of the charcuterie. What meat you use is really up to you, but we’d recommend opting for at least two - this will provide good variety while not posing too many choices.

        A great option for a basic meat is pancetta. It tastes incredible on its own, and the wafer-thin slices will go down a treat no matter how many you might have already had.

        For a second meat to go on the board, we’d recommend Soppressata. While it’s certainly an option that can be difficult to track down, you won’t regret a thing once you’ve tasted it. Soppressata is an Italian dry salami that can be sweet or hot but it’s always delicious. It really is like no other flavor! Even today, Soppressata is produced the same way it has been made for centuries!

Cheese

        Cheese is probably the second most important thing on a charcuterie board. It’s a wonderful product that too many people are seemingly eager to overlook in their everyday lives.

        On a charcuterie board, it’s a good idea to have 3-5 cheeses including a fairly mild cheese and some more out-there alternatives. For the more mild options, we would suggest something like an goat or feta. They will look a little different from other things on the board, and they are familiar enough to most people. This means that plenty of people will be all too happy to try some!

        For a more unusual option, try Gargonzola, Manchengo or Camembert. The textures will be utterly different from the other cheeses. This means that the overall board will be improved thanks to the variety.

Bread

        Bread is a wonderful addition to a charcuterie board, but there are so many options to pick from! To be honest, we’d be inclined to recommend going for a well-aerated option. This is because a lot of things on the plate are particularly dense. In contrast, you’d quite like something light, fluffy, and pillowy to try out.

        We would recommend going to your local bakery and trying some of their focaccia. Focaccia can be wonderfully herby, delicious, and an exciting bread that isn’t quite like any others. It would go very well on a stellar charcuterie board thanks to its light texture and buttery, salty taste.

Dips

        As dramatic as this might sound, it’s true: dips can make or break a charcuterie board. Which dips you pick can honestly dictate the way that the rest of the board unfolds. Therefore, we’d recommend picking two: one more flavorful, and one more plain.

        A good plain dip could be hummus. The flavor of hummus is a gentle, mild and nutty thanks to the chickpeas, as well as a slight hint of lemon. This is a great option that’s versatile and simple.

        For a more flavorful option, try small batch jam! There are so many choices that will be miles ahead of the stuff that you might be in a jar at the supermarket. Think about what flavors pair well together and the options are endless.

Extras

        Extras are hard to define, but they can really finish the look and taste of a good board. We’d recommend going for bite-sized nibbles packed with flavor!

        A good option could be green olives that are stuffed with your choice of filling. We’d recommend lemon, as it really makes the flavors of the olive sing!

        Alternatively, you could track down some cream cheese stuffed mini peppers! They’re easy to make (and easier to buy), plus they’re recognizable and have a stunning flavor. What’s not to love?

Blueberry Lavender Smash

Ingredients:

2 oz. London Dry Gin

3/4 oz. Freshly squeezed lime juice

3/4 oz. Lemongrass syrup

2 Bar spoons Blueberry Lavender Jam

Preparation:

Fill a shaker with ice, add all of the ingredients and shake for about 15 seconds. Double strain with a fine strainer in a Collins glass with crushed ice cubes, and garnish with fresh blueberries.

• lemongrass syrup can be found online or you can make it by combining one bruised and chopped stalk of lemongrass with 1 cup of water in a small pan and simmer for 15 minutes. Then add 1/2 cup of sugar over heat until dissolved. Let it cool, strain and store refrigerated for up to 7 days.

A History of Jam

        Making jam has become a wildly popular pursuit across the US with the recent pandemic, such that there’s actually a nationwide shortage of jars! There’s an undeniable pleasure in canning, and it can be seen throughout history. In this post, we’re going to talk about how you can trace that exact interest through history and how great that really is.

        For a long, long time (think in the millions of years), people have been preserving food. Generally speaking, early preserving methods revolved around separating a food product from water and air. This meant that products were often salted and dried, or even coated in honey (which forms a barrier against the elements).

        In ancient Greece, quince was mixed with honey, dried, and packed into jars. The Romans improved upon this method by cooking the quince and honey together, thereby producing a meld of the ingredients. If you’re up to date on how preserves are made, you’ll see the bones of the style starting to emerge here.

        Generally speaking, the first jams and preserves are accredited to cooks in the Middle East at some point before the eleventh century - it’s hard to pin down an exact time frame. These preserves used honey as their sweetener, though sugar quickly surpassed honey in popularity for making jams. From that point onwards, you can essentially follow the spread of sugar around the world on a map. If a place had sugar and fruit, people would likely combine the two to make a preserve.

        Jam making and preserves came to the US with colonists, who had sampled jam in their home countries. Generally speaking, jams became popular throughout Europe due to the sweet tooth of assorted royal families who could afford the sugar that was required to make them. As sugar became more widespread, poorer people in European cities were able to make jam themselves and took that skill to the US with them.

        As time went on, more and more people made jam in the US. There was ready access to both sugar and fruit, so they made plenty of preserves, along with all other kinds of foodstuffs. The next great advancement in the jam-making world was the process of aseptic canning.

        If you’re used to making jam in your home, then you’ll surely know what that is. Aseptic canning is the process of heating the jam and the can separately, in order to ensure that all surfaces are sterile. This allows the jam that is added to the can to stay sterile and safe to eat for a long time - it is completely shelf-stable.

        When sugar prices soared in the 1970s, companies began to regularly add high-fructose corn syrup to their jams instead of sugar, which was particularly unhealthy. It is only in the fairly recent past that people have gone back to sugar and alternative sweetness, allowing for a great artisan, home-making movement to arise.

        We love jam, and we love that it has such a huge footprint across history - what other foodstuff has remained to prevalent the world over? Well, now that you’re armed with a little more knowledge about the history of jam - happy canning!

Blackberry Bourbon Vanilla Shortcake

Taste like summer in the south

As our summer season wind’s down, your sweet summer treats don’t have to! This Blackberry Bourbon Shortcake combines the juiciest blackberries with rich bourbon and vanilla to create the ULTIMATE summer dessert.

Move over Strawberry Shortcake, we’ve got a mix of complex flavors and textures that will blow you out of the water!

We’ve created a treat that only looks fancy. It is a simple buttermilk biscuit jazzed up with some fresh vanilla bean, topped with our jam, and finished off with a quick bourbon whipped cream. Easy as pie...or shortcake! 

Layered in between vanilla bean biscuits is a thick layer of our Blackberry Bourbon Vanilla Jam. Little Black Box blackberry jam is made with whole berries so you will find the texture of the seeds add to the overall enjoyment of this dessert. Along with just a touch of warm bourbon and vanilla it just screams summertime! 

Top the jam with a few fresh berries for added brightness. Finally, add on a big dollop of bourbon whipped cream! A few ingredients stand between you and this sweet summertime treat. Grab your Blackberry Bourbon Vanilla Jam and let’s make some fresh Vanilla Bean Biscuit Blackberry Bourbon Shortcake! 

Ingredients:

Biscuits - makes 5 biscuits

2 cups flour

1 tbsp sugar

3 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

½ cup cold butter, cubed

¾ cup buttermilk

1 tsp vanilla or the inside of 1 vanilla bean

Filling:

5 tbsp Blackberry Bourbon Jam

½ cup fresh blackberries

Whipped Cream:

½ cup heavy whipping cream

1 tbsp bourbon 

Instructions:

Biscuits:

1. In a food processor or blender combine all dry ingredients as well as your cubed butter.

2. Pulse 5 times to incorporate the butter. It should still be in pea sized chunks.

3. Add in buttermilk and pulse about 10 more times until it starts to form a dough.

4. Turn out the dough onto a floured surface and form into a rectangle.

5. Fold the rectangle in half lengthwise and roll out a bit. It should be about ½ inch thick.

6. Cut out 3 biscuits and then repeat the process with the “scraps” It should form 5 biscuits all together.

7. Bake at 450 for 10 minutes.

Blackberry Bourbon Shortcake

1. In a small bowl whip together the heavy cream and bourbon.

2. Take one biscuit and cut it in half.

3. Layer 1 tablespoon of jam, top with a few fresh berries and some whipped cream.

4. Top the biscuit with the other half.

5. Dollop the whipped cream on top of your shortcake. Enjoy!

Jam Life

It’s a little bit of chaos, but organized. Usually the day starts around 6:00. Mostly because I don’t sleep and often because my dogs need to go out. I also like to check email accounts, validate orders and if I planned well on Sunday there is food for breakfast Monday. Often I get out the house by 7:30 headed to the shop or off to get supplies. I spend a lot of time in my car…. No I mean A LOT of time. I break the days up because I have deliveries to make, jam to make, baked goods to prep, new accounts to on-board and established customers to follow up with. That is what this jam life requires. I work 6-7 days a week, turning it off is almost impossible but there are those days when I can and they are fantastic. Part of 2019 has to be about balance but that can start in February because right now it’s almost show season so my days are spent working on inventory to bring to the newest Jam Fans I meet,