Raspberry & Ginger Jam With Orange Zest & Bourbon

Last month I was challenged by Driscoll's Berries to incorporate their raspberries into a rugelach recipe from Dorie Greenspan's Baking Chez Moi cookbook. I was provided with a free copy of the book, a few coupons for raspberries and a gift card to use for the ingredients. I was otherwise not compensated for this project and as always all opinions are my own.

Phew, not that that's out of the way, let's talk JAM!

I decided to use the Driscoll's raspberries to make jam which I then would use to fill the rugelach dough. I will be posting about that adventure next week: stay tuned.

I did not want to make a simple raspberry jam using only raspberries and sugar. Instead, I decided to add orange zest and fresh ginger and use vanilla sugar. After a few wrong turns, I ended up also adding bourbon!

Raspberry & Ginger Jam With Orange Zest & Bourbon
Ingredients
2 cups raspberries
2 cups vanilla sugar {this is sugar infused with vanilla bean}
peels of one orange {try to avoid the white pith}
1" ginger knob, sliced into coins
2 tablespoon bourbon, optional
1 tablespoon water, optional

Directions
1. In a heavy bottomed pot heat together the first 4 ingredients bringing them to a hard boil and mashing the berries.
2. Boil the jam on rapid boil for about 10 minutes.
3. Strain the jam leaving the ginger coins and orange peal as well as the raspberry seeds in the strainer.
4. If your jam is too thick, pour it back into the pot, add bourbon and water and reheat. {Thank you for that suggestion Cecilia!}

How gorgeous is this color? The photo above is of my second jam attempt. The first time I made this jam, it was too liquid. I brought it back to a hard boil and ended up burning it: the color resembled that of burnt caramel. I was seriously thinking of giving up, but decided to try again because luckily I had enough ingredients. This was made at 10 pm last weekend! Talk about commitment ;)

The ginger and orange zest gave a lovely "what is this??" flavor to the raspberry jam and offset the sweetness of the berries and vanilla sugar. You can use the jam mixed with sparkling water or champagne for a festive beverage, top slices of bread with it, or use it to fill your rugelach as I did: photos and post next week!