Cakes, tarts, cookies, bars, and more that start with a jar of your favorite jam! Bright and fruity jam desserts are the ultimate pantry friendly recipes.
Jam desserts are one of the smartest (and most delicious) baking shortcuts waiting for you right in the jam aisle of your supermarket. I love to take advantage of the current trend for exotic flavors and unusual blended preserves to make unique jam desserts, but you might go with the classics ~ you get to be the creative genius behind these recipes 🙂
Simply open a jar of jam to save lots of extra steps and add tons of wonderful fruit flavor to your cookies, cakes, tarts, and bars. I hoard stock my own pantry with a pretty big selection, and as my jam collection grows I’m always on the lookout for new ways to use them. Here are some favorite jam dessert recipes to get you started.
Let’s dig in to the recipes
- Tangerine Shortbread Tart
- Raspberry Apricot Rugelach Bars
- Raspberry Almond Puff Pastry Danish
- Copy Cat Harry and David Fruit Galettes
- Classic Victoria Sponge Cake Recipe
- Lingonberry Jam Tart with Cardamom
- Peach Pie Bars
- Sour Cherry Almond Bars
- Blood Orange Crumble Bars
- Blackberry Slab Pie Bars
- Strawberry Jam Bars
- Jam Thumbprint Cookies
- Pumpkin Butter Bars
- Raspberry Almond Bars
Tangerine Shortbread Tart
The Jam: Tangerine Marmalade from Stonewall Kitchen
This tart is perfect for brunch or afternoon tea time. Tangerine is a unique flavor that sets this marmalade tart apart from the rest. The sophisticated pairing of citrus with fresh rosemary makes this tart special, but I can imagine it with a fig preserve or a lemon curd as well.
Raspberry Apricot Rugelach Bars
The Jam: Apricot Raspberry Preserves from Bon Maman
This is one of my favorite jam desserts. Flakey bars filled with the most beautiful blush colored jam and topped with coarse sugar for crunch is just wonderful. Don’t forget you can make your own jam blends, just get creative! How about blueberry peach, or strawberry rhubarb?
Raspberry Almond Puff Pastry Danish
The Jam: Raspberry Preserves from Bon Maman
The combination of frozen puff pastry plus tart raspberry preserves makes this Danish easy to make but so impressive. Imagine the endless variations on this jam dessert for breakfast! Wild blueberry jam would be amazing.
Copy Cat Harry and David Fruit Galettes
The Jam: Black Raspberry Jam from Stonewall Kitchen
My favorite mail order cookies are filled with tart jams that give you a burst of bright fruit flavor when you bite into them. My copycat recipe has to be made with the very best, brightest jams you can find. Preferably a few unique varieties to give these cookies a jewel box appearance and gourmet flavor.
Classic Victoria Sponge Cake Recipe
The Jam: Seedless Raspberry Jam from Stonewall Kitchen
When I think of jam desserts, the Victoria sponge is one of the first things that comes to mind. While you could make your own homemade strawberry or raspberry jam for this recipe, I think the jarred is almost preferable because it has a consistently thick texture that won’t run when you slice into this tea time cake.
Lingonberry Jam Tart with Cardamom
The Jam: Lingonberry Jam
One of my favorite jam tarts with a true Scandinavian personality. Lingonberry jam or preserves is available in many if not most larger grocery stores these days, so when you spot it, stock up on a few jars. It will come in handy for Swedish Cocktail Meatballs and Swedish Meatball Noodle Bowls! *If you can’t find lingonberry jam, try cranberry or raspberry.
Peach Pie Bars
The Jam: Stonewall Kitchen Peach Amaretto
No need to wait for peach season for these juicy crumble bars, just sub in a good peach jam. Tip: if your jam seems too sweet, add a bit of lemon juice for tartness.
Sour Cherry Almond Bars
The Jam: Sour Cherry Jam from Stonewall Kitchen
A mouthwatering sour cherry jam fills these chewy bars and oozes out during baking. Sour preserves are especially nice to bake with, the tart fruit balances out the sweetness of the brown sugar oat crust.
Blood Orange Crumble Bars
The Jam: Blood Orange Marmalade from Sarabeth’s
This recipe calls for my homemade blood orange jam, but you can substitute store bought! Some flavors are a little harder to track down, but they’re so worth it. This is a wonderful jam dessert to make during citrus season. Try lemon curd, as well.
Blackberry Slab Pie Bars
The Jam: An Easy Blackberry Jam Recipe
All these jam desserts work with your own homemade preserves, of course. And if you do have a pantry full of homemade jams this is one way to make a dent!
Strawberry Jam Bars
The Jam: Strawberry Fruit Spread from Bon Maman
Strawberry jam bars are a classic, but they’re so much better if you source a nice tart jam so they aren’t too sweet. Bon Maman has a line of fruit spreads that are made with significantly less sugar and no high fructose corn syrup ~ which leaves more room for the fruit flavor! (Also try: Peanut Butter and Jam Bars)
Jam Thumbprint Cookies
The Jam: Mix & Match, your choice!
The ultimate way to use up all those almost empty jam jars!
Pumpkin Butter Bars
These buttery pumpkin bars are delicious! They’re based on my standard shortbread crumble bars, but this time I’ve enriched the dough with lots of toasty pecans and filled them with a velvety pumpkin butter filling.
Raspberry Almond Bars
The Jam: Bon Maman Intense Framboises
I make these bars with fresh raspberries in season, and jam off season. There are so many recipes you can tweak like this!
Great post! All the recipes look scrumptious.