Marcy Jams! Our Favorite Recipes
Marcy Jams! Jam is one of our best-selling items, and it’s not hard to see why. Marcy uses only fresh ingredients, many of which are locally sourced. Tracy and I recently hung out with our friend and customer Marcie Rainey to try out some of our favorite recipes using the jams. We hope you enjoy!
Thumbprint Cookies
Ingredients
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon fine salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks), softened
2/3 cup sugar, plus more for rolling
1 large egg
1/2 vanilla bean, seeds scraped from pod, or 1/8 teaspoon vanilla bean paste or 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/3 cup raspberry, cherry or strawberry jam
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone mats.
Whisk the flour, baking powder and salt together in a bowl.
In another bowl, whip the butter and the sugar with a hand-held mixer until fluffy, about 5 minutes. Beat in the egg and vanilla until just combined. Slowly beat in the dry ingredients in 2 additions, mixing just until incorporated.
Scoop the dough into 1-inch balls with a cookie or ice cream scoop and roll in sugar. Place about 2-inches apart on the prepared baking sheets. Press a thumbprint into the center of each ball, about 1/2-inch deep. Fill each indentation with about 3/4 teaspoon jam.
Bake cookies until the edges are golden, about 15 minutes. (For even color, rotate the pans from top to bottom about halfway through baking.) Cool cookies on the baking sheets. Serve.
Store cookies in a tightly sealed container for up to 5 days.
Tracy's Famous Strawberry Nut Bread
Ingredients
1 cup butter or margarine
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp lemon extract
4 eggs
3 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 12oz. jar of Marcy Jams! strawberry jam
1/2 cup sour cream
1 cup chopped walnuts (use 1 1/2 if you like more nuts)
Directions
Cream butter, sugar, vanilla and lemon extract until fluffy.
Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
Sift together flour and salt, cream of tartar and soda. Combine jam and sour cream. Add jam mixture alternately with flour mixture to butter mixture, beating well after each addition until well combined.
Stir in nuts. Divide batter among six well greased 4 1/2 x 2 1/4 loaf pans (do not use anything but the little loaf pans or the outside will burn before the inside cooks).
Bake in 350 degree oven until breads are golden brown and test done-about 45-50 minutes. Cool 10 minutes in pans. Remove and cool completely on wire racks.
About Marcy Jams!
Marcy Jams! began after the positive response we received at the
Murfreesboro, Tennessee Saturday Market on the Square.
Marcy and her family had heard that a Farmer's Market was going to start
on the Square in 2010 and we thought it would be fun to get a booth together and
sell some produce from Marcy’s Mother's garden and maybe sell some baked goods.
We were one of the original 10 vendors for the first market. Marcy decided that
her contribution to the booth would be to make fresh Strawberry Jam from
strawberries that she picked from Wartrace, Tennessee. She brought 40 jars or so
to the market and to her surprise, they sold out within a few hours. This
prompted her to make more for the next market and she had similar success. She
then decided to add Pepper Jelly and that's when things started to get crazy.
People really seemed to like the Pepper Jelly (named Firecracker Pepper since we
started selling it around the 4th of July) and we couldn't make enough of it to
meet demand. By this time, all we sold at the Market booth was jam and jelly. We
came up with the Marcy Jams! name to keep it fun and my husband made us a
website. What started out as just a fun idea to do something with my Mother and
sister has turned itself into her full time job. Things have really changed. Now
we have 16 retail locations, close to 50 flavors and our best estimate is that
we have sold around 20,000+ jars of jelly. Every jar is hand made, hand labeled
and packed one batch at a time.