Small Batch Dried Apricot Jam

No fresh apricots, no problem! This easy recipe for dried apricot jam is made, of course, with sweet soft dried apricots and it’s delicious! 

A common ingredient in pastry glaze in classic French patisserie and fruit tarts, apricot jam or preserves are readily available in French grocery stores but they aren’t as easy to find in other places. In the Channel Islands, where we spend half the year, it’s just an hour’s boat ride from France. So shops there sell it too. 

In Norfolk, England, where some dear friends live, apricot preserves are hard to come by so I’ve been known to carry jars to them in my suitcase when we visit. 

If you saw my post from yesterday where I shared cheater pain aux raisins using puff pastry, you also read that I couldn’t find apricot jam here in Houston! Well, to be fair, I only went to one store and decided on the spot to buy dried apricots and make my own, rather than traipsing all over town looking. I’m sure elsewhere in Houston I could find it but I was too lazy to try.

If you too find yourself short of apricot jam and shopping motivation, here's the recipe.

Dried Apricot Jam

The recipe makes a not-quite-full jam jar (Bonne Maman, 13 oz or 370g capacity) of jam, perfect for making glaze or spreading on toast. 

Ingredients 

6 oz or 170g dried apricots 

1/2 cup or 100g sugar

1 tablespoon lemon juice

Pinch fine sea salt

Method

In a heatproof bowl, pour boiling water to just cover the apricots and leave to soak overnight or for at least six hours.

I left mine overnight. 

Mince the apricots in a food processor with their soaking water.

Add the apricots to a pan along with the sugar, lemon juice and salt.

Heat gently till sugar has dissolved then boil steadily (it should be bubbling) till it reaches a good jammy thickness. 

Keep an eye on the pot and stir often. 

I used a thermometer and mine never reached the ideal jam set temperature of 222°f or 106°C but it got quite thick and actually started to catch and darken a little so I deemed it done. 

Spoon into a sterilized jar. I put a metal spoon in mine to keep the glass from breaking when the hot jam is added. I don't really understand the thermodynamics but it seems to work. Screw lid on tight and turn the jar over. 

Leave to cool. The lid should form a suction and pop in when it has cooled and you turn it back over. 

If it does not, store it in the refrigerator. 

Enjoy! 

Welcome to the 4th edition of Alphabet Challenge 2025, brought to you by the letter D. Many thanks to Wendy from A Day in the Life on the Farm for organizing and creating the challenge. Check out all the D recipes below:

• Jolene’s Recipe Journal: Double Dark Chocolate Waffles
• Blogghetti: Dragon Fruit Smoothie Bowl 
• Karen’s Kitchen Stories: Dutch Macaroni 
• Mayuri’s Jikoni: Date Salad, Ottolenghi Style 
• A Messy Kitchen: Sugarplum Date Balls 
• A Day in the Life on the Farm: Chicken with Dates
• Palatable Pastime: Balkan Lamb and Rice Casserole (Djuvec) 
• Magical Ingredients: Dill Pickle Dip 
• Food Lust People Love:Small Batch Dried Apricot Jam 
• Sneha’s Recipe: Dal Sultani 
• Faith, Hope, Love, & Luck Survive Despite a Whiskered Accomplice: Sun-Dried Tomato Dip with Italian Seasoning

Here are my posts for the 2025 alphabet challenge, thus far:

A: Roasted Asparagus Soup

B: Blistered Sugar Snap Peas

C. Jersey Royal Chicken Chorizo Traybake 

D. Small Batch Dried Apricot Jam – this post!

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Cheater Pain aux Raisins #BreadBakers

Use ready-made puff pastry instead of the traditional laminated yeast dough to make these cheater pain aux raisins. They are more-ish and delicious! 

I’d have called these easy but I did have to make the pastry cream filling and even the apricot jam for the glaze since my local supermarket didn't have any. If you can somehow buy both of those, these would be a cinch! If you do need to make the pastry cream, I have a quick and easy recipe you can follow. Link in the ingredients list below. 

Years ago, back when our girls were young, we were living in Paris and there were many days when we needed a pre- or post-nap outing to break up the day. We'd walk down to the boulangerie on the far corner of our block. Then on to the nearby park to eat our snacks. As I mentioned before in my rosemary orange boule post, our younger daughter always chose a pain aux raisins for her treat. Nowadays she doesn't want raisins in things! Go figure.

Cheater Pain aux Raisins

For the puff pastry, I used the one from Trader Joe’s (18 oz, sadly seasonal but I alway buy extra to store in my freezer) because it is made with butter rather than shortening but if you can’t find that, the Pepperidge Farm (17 oz) brand would work too. Both brands come in a box with two sheets. 

Ingredients for 8

For pain aux raisins:

2 sheets puff pastry (see note above)

1 cup or 265g crème pâtissière aka vanilla pastry cream (This recipe.) 

½ cup or 70g golden raisins

For the egg wash:

1 egg

1 tablespoon milk

For the glaze: 

¼ cup or 70g apricot jam (store-bought or homemade)

1 tablespoon water

Method

Soak the raisins for 5 minutes in warm water. Drain and pat dry with paper towels. This also gives you an opportunity to pull off any small stems if you see them. Those tiny bugs on the right? My stem bits. 

Lay one sheet of puff pastry on a cutting board and spread half of the pastry cream evenly on the pastry sheet. Top the pastry with half of the golden raisins. 

Lay the other piece on pastry on top. Spread the rest of the pastry cream on top and sprinkle on the rest of the raisins. 

Roll the two pieces of pastry up together, forming a big log. 

Cover the log snuggly in cling film and chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. 

During the chilling time, preheat your oven to 375°F or 190°C and prepare a large baking pan by lining it with baking parchment or a silicone liner.

Use a sharp knife, unflavored dental floss or some fine fishing line to cut the log into eight even rolls. I used fishing line! Slide it under (you may have to lift the log) to the place you want to cut. Bring both ends up and put one piece under the other like you are starting to tie a shoe. Pull the ends and voilá, a clean cut. 

Transfer the pain aux raisins to your prepared pan and secure the ends with toothpicks. In retrospect, I should have stuck mine in deeper! 

 

Whisk the egg with the milk and brush each roll well with the mixture.

Bake the pastries until the pain aux raisins are golden brown in color, about 30-32 minutes, depending on your oven. If your oven doesn’t heat evenly, turn the pan around halfway through the baking time. 

Right before the pastries come out of the oven, microwave the apricot jam and water for 30 seconds in a small bowl to make a chunky glaze. Mix well.

When the pain aux raisins come out of the oven, brush them with the apricot glaze.

Allow them to slightly cool before eating. The bottoms are lovely and crunchy. I should have take a photo of them! 

The outsides of mine were much flakier than the middles but since I used all butter puff pastry, they were still rich and delicious. Perfect, in fact, with a cup of coffee in the morning or hot tea in the afternoon. 

Enjoy! 

It’s the second Tuesday of the month so that means it’s Bread Baker time! This month our theme is French breads! Many thanks to our host, Wendy from A Day in the Life on the Farm. Check out the links below. 

• The Wimpy Vegetarian: Black Olive and Herb Fougasse
• A Day in the Life on the Farm: Brioche 
• Food Lust People Love: Cheater Pain aux Raisins
• Karen's Kitchen Stories: La Couronne Lyonaise 
• Culinary Cam: Pain au Chocolat
• A Messy Kitchen: Pain Brié 
• Zesty South Indian Kitchen: Pain de campagne 
• Sneha's Recipe : Sourdough French Bread

#BreadBakers is a group of bread loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bread with a common ingredient or theme. Follow our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated each month on this home page. We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient.

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Crème Pâtissière- Vanilla Pastry Cream

Crème pâtissière or vanilla pastry cream is a cooked egg custard thickened with cornstarch in addition to egg. It can be used in a variety of recipes or eaten as is. If you ever watch The Great British Bake Off, they call this creme pat!

This pastry cream is an essential ingredient if you want to make the classic French treat, pain aux raisins. It is spread on the flattened dough which is then rolled up with raisins, sliced into spirals and baked till golden. I’ll be sharing my cheater version using store-bought puff pastry tomorrow.

It is also lovely used to top a pavlova before adding fruit to serve and is the typical filling for profiteroles. Or truly, you can eat it with a spoon.

Crème Pâtissière - Vanilla Pastry Cream

In France bakers would probably use vanilla sugar or vanilla paste in this recipe. If you have real vanilla extract or essence, that works just as nicely. 

Ingredients to make about 1 1/4 cups or 300ml

1 cup or 240ml milk

3 tablespoons sugar

2 tablespoons cornstarch (US) or cornflour (UK)

1 large egg

Pinch fine sea salt 

1 1/2 tablespoons butter, softened

1 1/2 teaspoons real vanilla extract

Method

Heat the milk over medium high heat and bring it to a simmer, till it just starts to steam. 

While heating the milk, place the sugar, cornstarch, egg and salt in a bowl. Whisk until you have a thick, smooth mixture. 

Place the bowl with the egg mixture on a towel or napkin (to prevent the bowl from slipping while whisking in the next step), and set aside until the milk just starts to steam. 

Slowly pour the hot milk in a thin stream into the egg mix, WHILE WHISKING CONSTANTLY to temper the egg mix. 

Pour it all back into the saucepan. 

Heat over a medium heat, while whisking vigorously until it starts to thicken. This should take about 1 – 2 minutes depending on the heat of your stove and size of your saucepan. Do not neglect whisking every part of the pan to make sure the mixture isn’t catching and lumps aren’t forming. 

Keep cooking and whisking until it’s really thick and a spoon pulled through the pastry cream leaves a gap that doesn’t refill. 

Remove from the heat and whisk in the butter and vanilla extract until they are completely mixed in.

Pour the pastry cream into a bowl and immediately cover the surface with plastic wrap, making sure the plastic wrap is touching the whole surface. This is to prevent a skin from forming on top. 

Pop the pastry cream in the refrigerator for a few hours, until completely chilled and set.

Use as needed or eat with a spoon.

Enjoy! 

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