Breakfast Pizza with Homemade Jam

     Pizza for breakfast is a delicacy to be enjoyed in moderation but when indulged, enjoyed to the fullest. The best part is the ability to create so many different flavor profiles by using a variety of topping ingredients and bases. While you can't always make bread covered in cheese "healthy" you can substitute ingredients to meet whatever dietary restrictions you have like vegetarian, gluten free, or dairy free. I always find myself creating a little sweet/spicy/salty combo to help indulge all my taste buds, and being able to use homemade jams from fruits in my garden as the base is just an extra treat!

In my garden I have a sour cherry tree that seems to always be filled to burst with bright little red cherries. Every year I am always trying to discover new ways to use the cherries in this tree as a girl can only stand so much pie. This season our splendor will be used for canning jams for ourselves and as fun giveaways for family and friends. PREPARE YOUR CUPBOARDS! On top of my fruit tree, a dear friend of mine is always needing people to help clean out their apricot tree. Looking forward to some flavor variety, this was a chance to experiment with different flavors and recipes.

First Step; Jamming:

Whether you're using strawberries, apricots, peaches, blueberries, or cherries, you start by pitting (if necessary) chopping/mashing, and mixing your selected fruit variety.

*I made small batches for my first round to see what flavors I like better and used only about 2 cups of semi mashed fruit, each. To make bulk servings you will want to use 8 cups or more.

What you'll need:
2-8 cups fruit depending on your chosen batch size
1-4 cups sugar (1 per every 2 cups fruit)
at least 1 cut jalapeno or habanero (if wanting to make it spicy, remember desired spice is all about how hot you can handle it)
1/2 cup lemon juice (for every 2 cups of fruit added)
1-4 8 oz Mason Jars you see how this works yet?

In my experience about 2 cups of fruit with other ingredients creates about 1, 8 oz jar of Jam. It might vary some depending on your fruit.

1. Add fruit, lemon juice, and sugar to pot, and bring to a hot temperature breaching on a boil.

*In my batch with sour cherries I added a chopped habanero, and to my batch with Apricots I added a jalapeno.

2. Keeping at a hot temperature I stirred  constantly for about 3 minutes then lowered the temperature to medium heat, stirring occasionally. I didn't add pectin to either of my jams so the texture was more paste like and I left the fruit a little thicker cause globs of spicy sweet fruit sound delicious to me. The length of time you need to keep the jam on heat will depend on when you like the texture it is at. After about 10 more minutes I removed my jams from the heat.

*If you aren't about waiting long to eat it you can skip the last step and refrigerate after transferring to jars.

3. You will want to move your jam to sterilized mason jars leaving just a little room at the top and screw on lids. Once lids are secured you will want to bring a big, deep pot to a boil and insert jars inside. You will start to see air bubbles escape from the jars. This process is to seal the jars to help preserve longevity without the fear of mold. This takes about 20 minutes, and you will know when you're done by your ability to press down on the lid without it making it's signature "pop" sound. Let cool then store in a cool dark place.

Once your jam is cool you can use it on toast, muffins, pretzels, or my personal favorite, as a pizza base. Pizza is about creativity so let your weird food cravings run free. I recommend mini pizzas that are great to feed one person, or make a multitude of flavors to serve as appetizers or horderves.

For mini pizzas you will need:

Pita Bread
1 Tbs Olive Oil (to brush on Pita bread before adding on toppings)
Your Homemade Jam
A cheese of choice (I chose feta for one and goat for the other)
2-3 toppings

My two pizzas:

Too Salty to be Sweet
Tofurkey (we are vegetarians so this was our "bacon" alternative)
Pecans
Apricot slices
Feta
Sour Cherry/habanero jam as a base

and

Spicy Apple Cider
Walnuts
Apple Slices
Goat
Apricot/Jalapeno Jam as a base

Bake at 400 for 8-10 minutes and VOILA Pizza for Breakfast, is served. If you're wondering how these flavors turned out well they both got the endorsement from my Husband, my Father-in-Law, and my neighbor, so that sounds like a pretty good sample size to me. Enjoy as you like but don't be afraid to try new things! Let us know what you did in the comments below.

These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

This post was written by:

Savannah Rose

Graphic Designer/ Photographer

Time Laboratories