Made with fresh elderflowers, ripe strawberries and classic pectin for a ruby red, crystalline jelly with a subtle undertone of floral elderflower flavor. This small-batch recipe can be water-bath canned for shelf-stable storage, or refrigerated or frozen instead if you prefer.

Also included in this recipe is a variation for strawberry rose petal jelly using dried rose petals (or any other edible flower, really).

Don’t forget to scroll to the bottom of this post to download the free printable labels (both elderflower and rose variations included!)

I have so many strawberry jam recipes. I mean, how many is too many? Asking for a friend…

Without fail, every year I end up picking at least two baskets worth at the pick-your-own farm near us. I just can’t resist the lure of these springtime gems.

In lieu of yet another strawberry jam recipe, I thought I’d mix it up a little bit. Hence: strawberry jelly! The main difference between jelly and jam is strained fruit juice versus whole fruit (more on that below). If a smooth, even texture is your jam—excuse me, your jelly—then this recipe is for you.

This small batch recipe makes 6 obscenely large cookies (equivalent to 12 normal sized ones), but feel free to double or triple the recipe (they freeze beautifully before or after baking). Even better… because it uses melted brown butter, there’s no electric mixer required—the entire recipe can be mixed by hand.

There are a million and one brown butter chocolate chip cookie recipes out there on the internet, but I wanted something impeccable, that was just a little bit different than all the others.

Which is… harder than it sounds.

Needless to say, these cookies have been a long time coming.

And by a long time I mean I’ve tested least 7 test batches baked over the course of the last few months (a sacrifice I’m happy to make). Each time tweaking one tiny little thing to improve the texture, flavor, and/or appearance (or all three). I think there is a reason I haven’t done a basic chocolate chip cookie recipe before now (the closest I’ve come is probably these ganache-stuffed beauties) and that’s because all my years of baking knowledge and know-how was needed to tweak these cookies to perfection.

Normally I go for cookies that spread thinly and evenly for an overall chewy experience, like these pistachio chocolate chip cookies. But this time I wanted a cookie with more substance, a cookie with some meat on its bones, thick and plush and even borderline fudgy, gooey in the middle but still crisp and chewy on the edges, with the perfect balance of buttery cookie to pockets and puddles of rich, dark chocolate.

That’s… a lot to ask of a cookie. (Now you see why it took me so long?)

I ultimately achieved this cookie convergence by precise proportions of flour, sugar, and fat, baking soda (and definitely no powder, which caused the cookie to be overly cakey for my tastes), and by shaping the dough into, of all things, snowmen. Plus a thorough chill and a nice hot oven temperature.

The resulting cookies are oversized and flavor packed, with a robust, toasty brown butter flavor that’s complimented and enhanced by a combination of not-so-secret ingredients: dry milk powder, dark brown sugar, and instant espresso powder, plus cornstarch and an extra egg yolk for the most tender and fudgy cookies of your dreams.

With only three main ingredients and a mere 20 minutes of active time (plan on an hour or two for it to set, but it can also be made further ahead of time), this homemade pistachio ganache is a true showstopper, and easily adaptable depending on the exact consistency and flavor you desire.

My pistachio obsession is showing no signs of abating any time soon.

After making a truly otherworldly whipped pistachio ganache to top my exquisite raspberry pistachio frangipane tart, I decided that a standalone pistachio ganache recipe was probably a good idea, as it makes such an incredibly versatile frosting or filling.

This recipe is for a standard soft-set pistachio ganache (perfect for truffle filling or macarons), but it’s easy enough to turn it into a whipped ganache by just adding additional cream and then whipping it to silky smooth, airy perfection the next day.

What to do with it?

Other than eat it with a spoon, you mean? That’s a great question!

Ganache is truly one of the most flexible fillings in the pastry world, and you can use this pistachio one in just about any recipe that calls for chocolate ganache.

I used it to fill some gorgeously green truffles (seriously, the contrast of the rich, dark chocolate with the sweet pistachio is a revelation). If I have the time to make a batch of chocolate or pistachio macarons, I might use what’s left to fill those (did I mention I made multiple batches of this?)

But truffles and macarons are only the beginning.

Sometimes simple cakes hit just as hard as any multi-tiered masterpiece. As is the case with this deceivingly simple crumb cake, with three layers of textural perfection: tender and buttery cake, sweet and sticky jam, and crunchy crumb topping. And did I mention it’s ready in under an hour from start to finish?

I always seem to have a few jars of homemade jam open and floating in the fridge at any given time. Such is the plight of the jam maker (as I’m sure anyone who makes homemade jam in any quantity likely has the same problem).

It’s why I have an entire category of recipes dedicated to Jams in Action: recipes that use jam as a component in one way or another.

That’s also why this cake—complete with its sticky swirl of sweet and fruity jam—is my ideal cake. One that’s buttery and rich but not overly sweet, with multiple textures to please the palette, and that also uses up some of those sad little orphan jams hidden away in the back corner of the fridge.

The recipe itself is quite similar to my grandma’s sour cream coffee cake (this version with apples being the first version I ever posted), with slightly tweaked proportions and an added shortbread-like crumb topping, plus a layer of fruit jam in between. I like to think of it as a choose-your-own-adventure cake, where the type of jam you use will make it taste completely different every time!

I’ve personally made it with plain raspberry jam, old-fashioned strawberry jam, as well as a blend of raspberry and guava jam from random leftover jars that I mixed together (this one was my favorite, the guava is so punchy I just love it). While I don’t have a recipe for raspberry guava jam, I do have a strawberry guava jam that I think would be absolutely lovely here!

While I’m not calling it coffee cake this time, it really is quite wonderful as a breakfast cake, especially when you take into account the fruity jam. But it’s also perfectly sweet and satisfying for an afternoon tea and even fancy enough to count as dessert (maybe dusted with powdered sugar and served with a scoop of ice cream, perhaps?)

This colorful and impressive dessert might look fancy and complicated, but it’s actually easier to make than it looks! The whipped ganache is made the day ahead of time then whipped to fluffy, puffy perfection, and the crust and frangipane filling come together surprisingly quickly too with the help of a food processor and electric mixer (but you could also make the frangipane in the food processor as well).

The first time I made this (for a Hanukkah dinner with our friends, ironic considering the colors make it look like it’s straight from the Grinch’s kitchen), I just made a simple tart crust and the filling of pistachio frangipane and fresh raspberries. No jam layer, and definitely no whipped ganache (sad, I know).

And it looked cute enough and tasted more than fine, but certainly nothing to write home about.

And if there’s anything I want more than anything, it’s to share recipes that are worth writing home about! Writing anyone in fact, I do so love it when my recipes are shared.

So when it came time to make it again, I added a layer of raspberry jam under the frangipane, and topped it with swirls of fluffy pistachio whipped ganache. With those two additions, it became clear, quite quickly, that this is one of my favorite things I’ve ever made. All the flavors and textures come together so beautifully in the end, making each and every bite a truly transcendent experience.

Together, pistachio and raspberry make for a vibrant, eye-catching (and mouth-watering) pairing that balances the rich earthiness of the pistachio with the bright fruitiness of the raspberry.