It shouldn’t surprise anyone to learn that Turnip Fitzhugh, hero of The Mischief of the Mistletoe, has something of a sweet tooth. Turnip may not be so keen on mince pie, but he has a distinct taste for raspberry jam (both as comestible and metaphor).

There’s a bit of art/life confluence here. After a bout of berry picking, I tried my hand at jam making while I was writing The Mischief of the Mistletoe last summer. There were several “the jelly won’t jell!” incidents, one dramatic boil-over, three nasty blisters, and many botched batches, but, in the end, I managed to produce something vaguely resembling raspberry jam.

Here, for your culinary pleasure, is Turnip’s Wild Raspberry Jam:

8 cups wild raspberries
1 apple, peeled, cored, and diced.
1 cup sugar (may add more depending on personal taste)

Remove bugs and twigs from berries. Finely dice apple (in case you’re curious, the apple provides the pectin). Combine raspberries, apple, and sugar in medium sized saucepan. (Optional: you can lightly crush the berries with a potato masher. Good for getting out aggressions, may or may not do anything for the jam.) Bring to a boil. Continue to boil, stirring frequently, for thirty minutes or until mixture appears sufficiently gooey. Pour into prepared mason jars. Yield: two 16 ounce jars.

Works well spread on toast, served over vanilla ice cream, or eaten straight out of the jar with a spoon while stressing out over book deadline.

I’ll save the Christmas pudding recipes for autumn….

Does anyone else have any good jam recipes to share?