As the thunderstorm turned into a misty drizzle, we devoured dessert – thin slices of rum cake layered with blueberries that had been cooked in orange liqueur and port wine, topped with freshly whipped cream.
The blueberries we ate came from the Pearl River Blueberry Farm near Poplarville. Since most summer trips to Wolf River result in my bringing home lots of hand-picked berries from the farm, I asked owners Angie and Cas Larrieu to share their collection of blueberry recipes with me. One of Angie’s favorites is one she calls JAR BREAD. It’s cooked in jars, an idea which intrigued me.
— Marcelle Bienvenu
Excerpted from Who’s Your Mama, Are You Catholic, and Can You Make a Roux, by Marcelle Bienvenu. Published by Acadian House Publishing, 2006.
Photo: Derek A./Flickr, creative commons
| Servings |
| 8 jars of bread |
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Angie notes that you can substitute the blueberries with the same amount of figs, pumpkin, carrots or zucchini in this bread. You can cut off the tops of cotton socks, dampen them slightly, and slip them over the jars before baking. This off-beat method helps to keep the bread moist.
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- 2/3 cup vegetable shortening
- 2-2/3 cups sugar
- 4 eggs
- 2/3 cup water
- 3-1/3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1-1/2 teaspoons salt
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground cloves
- 2/3 cup chopped nuts
- 2 cups blueberries rinsed, picked over and patted dry
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Cream together the shortening and sugar in a large mixing bowl. Beat the eggs and water into the mixture and set aside.
- In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and cloves.
- Add the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture and mix well. Add the nuts and blueberries. Mix gently.
- Spray eight wide-mouthed pint canning jars with cooking spray. Fill the jars half-full and place on a baking sheet. Bake 45 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and cool slightly. Seal tightly with sterilized lids. Incredible!
How do you get the bread out of the jars??
Grab a spoon and dig in! You can eat the bread out of the jar. That’s what you’d do if we were talking about a cake in a jar.
So I would suggest using wide mouth canning jars or even the small ones and dive batter up accordingly.
use only jars with no neck ..straight sides only. (not the one shown in the picture)
With the straight sided jars the bread will slip right out if well greased. Sometimes you may need to run a thin knife around the sides. Turn it over, shake, and there you have a cute jar of bread.
I have been baking (many foods) in the jars for over 20 years…
Good luck.
Thank you for this tip!
This sounds perfectly delicious. But what happened to where I thought we were headed: “thin slices of rum cake layered with blueberries that had been cooked in orange liqueur and port wine”. Is that recipe hiding out somewhere I could find it?
We wish! Seems to me the memory of such a dessert served as the impetus for the dessert the author shares. I bet you could improvise, though. Start with a rum cake recipe (this one uses rum extract, but you could probably substitute dark rum), and take it from there. Can you imagine the smell of those blueberries cooking in Grand Marnier and port? I’d add either the zest of an orange or a lime to that mix. I love blueberries and lime together.
Oh, are you ever on to something! And with the lime, a bit of ground coriander to bump both the lime and the blueberries! That’s it, Robyn, you’ve given me my next project. And having just returned from an outing to the store Cosmos that Chris mentioned in conjunction with sumac yesterday, I’m ready for anything! Thanks again!
I wish we were neighbors! You must have the most delicious smelling kitchen.