Christina’s brother James is one of the nicest, most interesting people you’re ever likely to meet.
While we were chatting at Christina’s birthday party (themed 1970’s, so James was in a Luke Skywalker t-shirt and I was in a bright orange kaftan), he mentioned that he was planning to make blackberry jam for his wedding. As a present. For every one of the sixty guests.
And James isn’t one to do things by half measures – first he was going to make pectin from scratch (using his dad’s homegrown apples), and then he was planning to spend a weekend blackberry picking to gather enough fruit for the jam. His ever patient bride-to-be Suzanne just smiled as we discussed the intricacies of jar sizes and hot water processing.
A week or so later, Chris’ hubby Steve dropped around a jar of the aforementioned blackberry jam. I was both excited and somewhat surprised at how quickly the whole plan had been put into action – when James sets his mind to something, he clearly doesn’t procrastinate!
Serendipitously, the following day, Diana gave me frozen blackberries from her farm. I couldn’t resist combining the two into a sweet weekend treat.
Inspired by the Blackcurrant Crown recipe in Dan Lepard’s The Handmade Loaf, I made a version using our pain viennois dough (the step by step instructions are here), Di’s frozen blackberries, and James’ blackberry jam. It was an absolute treat – buttery, briochey and filled with oozing fruit.
- 1 batch pain viennois dough
- blackberry jam
- 100g fresh or frozen blackberries
- 100g brown sugar (I used rapadura sugar)
1. Prepare the dough and allow it to rise in the mixing bowl until doubled in size. In the meantime, grease a 10 cup bundt pan well.
2. In a separate bowl, stir together the brown sugar and blackberries.
3. Turn the risen dough out onto an oiled bench and divide it into 18 x 50g pieces. Shape each piece into a ball.
4. Turn each ball seam-side up, and flatten it out. Spoon a scant teaspoon of blackberry jam into the middle of the circle…
…and then gather the edges together to enclose the jam completely.
5. Layer the filled balls into the bundt pan, sprinkling with the blackberries and sugar as you go. Don’t squash them in too tightly.
6. Once all the balls are layered into the pan, cover and allow to rise in a warm spot until puffed up (Dan’s recipe specifies letting the dough rise until doubled in size, but mine didn’t rise that much). Preheat the oven to 200C with fan.
7. Bake the crown in the oven for 10 – 15 minutes at 200C with fan, then reduce the heat and bake for a further 20 – 30 minutes at 175C with fan. The top of the crown went very brown in my oven, so I dropped the heat after 10 minutes. Do keep an eye on this – particularly if you’re using a cast aluminium bundt pan as I was – as it can colour up very quickly. I let mine cook an extra few minutes to dry up the berry juices.
Edit: Living Delilah made this recipe, and found that the brown sugar burnt during baking. Do watch out for that and if your oven runs hot or you’re using cast aluminium, you might want to lower the starting temperature by 10 degrees or so, or reduce the initial baking time at the higher temp.
8. Rest the pan for five minutes before carefully turning it onto a plate (watch out for the hot syrup). Serve the crown warm, with a hot cup of tea!
Click here for step by step instructions for the pain viennois dough.
Click here for a printable version of this recipe.
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
What a great looking bread/cake!
I found you through Kitchen Butterfly and now I am following you. This just made me go WOW!
Gorgeous looking stuff, Celia – who wouldn’t love that? BTW, the blackberry is the curse of Oregon, as it grows wild everywhere and makes gigantic impenetrable masses – but, at the same time, it is loved by just as many for its delicious fruits.
That’s amazing! Your crown looks fantastic!! I love blackberries, but unfortunately they’re not on season now… my dad used to pick them every summer so we can make blackberry jam. I adore this idea to employ these berries. :)
My goodness this looks good. I can’t wait to try it. I’m sure it won’t look as good as yours, and of course, I won’t have that jam.
It looks very sweet and rich, just the thing for a big tea party!
Beautiful cake Celia.Love the concept of the crown, baked to perfection with all that blackberry jam. x
Looks great Celia, well done again. Not a bad result from the product of an Australian ‘weed of national significance’!
Suelle, thank you! :)
Norma, thanks for stopping by. I love Oz’s blog as well! :)
Doc, as Dave was saying a bit further down, it’s a big week problem here as well. Maybe the berries are its peace offering? :)
Rita, thank you! It was great fun to make, and wickedly sticky to eat.. ;-)
Deb, James’ jam is the nicest blackberry jam I’ve ever tasted. So many berry jams just taste sweet, but in this jar you can really taste the fruit!
Yvette, thank you! :)
Jo, a big tea party..OR..two starving teenagers! :)
Lovely looking bread/cake. My daughter, who lives in Devon, picks lots of blackberries every year when in season, I must show her this recipe, I’m sure she’d love to try it, and I would love to taste it!
This looks wonderful, Celia!
I spent yesterday wandering around in our paddocks, braving snakes and spikes, to collect enough blackberries for some jam.
It is a very labour-intensive past-time. After an hour of hunting and picking I had enough to make 6 jars. I suppose you’d need a herd of pickers to get enough for 60!
I love this post.
Homemade blackberry jam as a wedding guest gift- MADE by the groom? That makes me want to cry.
And then your crown is so beautiful, and I want to taste it so badly- but blackberries aren’t in season for MONTHS!
I think I will cry.
This is beautiful, Celia! I will bookmark your recipe . . . blackberries are my hubby’s favorite. Hopefully one day it will stop snowing here and fruit will grow again. ;o)
I am going to afternoon tea for my grandma on sunday and was going to make scones, but this just changed my mind!
Jeanette, thank you – it’s quite a fun recipe to make!
Amanda, isn’t he amazing? I can’t imagine picking enough berries to make 60 jars of jam! I think he roped in some family slave labour.. :)
Heidi darling, don’t cry. Make the crown out of jam from the pantry and some frozen berries instead, it will still be delicious!
Abby, hope the snow eases up soon! But as I said to Heidi, I think you could make this with almost any jam.
Delilah, thank you! I hope your grandma likes it! :)
James sounds utterly mad. Fun but mad! Has he got energy to burn? I just made challah and smothered it in blackcurrant jam – this is a more ambitious, spectacular blackberry version. How divine.
Congratulations on celebrating your two-year blog-iversary :) This bread is unreal. The blackberries, the brioche looking crumb structure… I’m desperately making a mental note to try this in a few months, when our local blackberries are ready.
I was having a look at this recipe the other day, wondering whether it needs a serious look at…it seems it does.
I had to like this post, as seriously that is the best present a groom could ever give. I love that he was willing to do that for all of his wedding guests. Sounds like the bride has scored herself a winner there :-)
Celia, what a brilliant concept, I have never baked anything like this before. I bet it would be perfect with a cup of tea.
:-) Mandy
How pretty this is, and how much fun to pull apart and discover the jammy middle. I picked 4 kgs of blackberries outside work this week, I love how they are just free for the taking. Yumm…
That looks delicious Celia! I am off to the folks’ farm Friday to pick their blackberries and scrump some apples, so I may just have to try that crown…once I have made the jam, but I’m sure I can pinch some of that from Mum’s pantry…
Sally, yes, he’s wonderfully bonkers. Our favourite kind of human! :)
Sasha, thank you! The bread dough is actually really easy to work – it’s not quite as rich and luscious as brioche, but it’s a quick and quite acceptable substitute!
Brydie, it’s really only inspired by Dan’s recipe – the dough is a Richard Bertinet sweet dough recipe. But Dan always has great ideas! I saw blackcurrants on sale and contemplated making THL recipe properly, but they were $20/kg!!
Mandy, thank you! I think there are variations on this bread called “Monkey bread” which uses lots of little balls dipped in butter and sugar before baking. I haven’t seen one with jam and fruit before though!
Becca, how cool would that be, being able to pick free blackberries! I have made the same dough before into jam doughnuts, and they were wonderful! The link is here: https://figjamandlimecordial.com/2009/06/20/jam-doughnuts/
Vix, thank you! It sounds like the blackberries were really in full swing around that part of NSW this year – I think James’ and Diana’s all come from that part of the state as well! :)
Girl, do you know that you just made Monkey Bread? LOL!
Lorraine, doesn’t that have lots more little balls of dough? These were quite big. But yes, same concept, I think! :)
How gorgeous! It’s a bit like a grown up version of monkey bread. I’ve got loads of jam because I made far too much last year, so this recipe really appeals to me :)
So many aspects to love about this post. Your crown looks glorious, homely and just a spectacular concept really. Thank you so much for this beautiful recipe. I went to Germany two years ago and it has brought back some wonderful memories of the bakeries over there. I must have seen something similar.
I’m going to a wedding in a couple of weeks. I may have to “accidentally” send your post to the bride’s mother. Hehe. Imagine receiving a beautiful pot of blackberry jam. I haven’t heard anything like it. Lucky guests. Lucky bride.
Isn’t it funny how that happens, one minute your having a discussion about something someone else is doing & the next its happening to you :) Serendipity alright.
I just love the blackberry crown cake., so different & so beckoning…., I can taste it now :)
Aveen, thanks for stopping by! I hope you enjoy this! :)
Mariana, lucky guests and lucky bride indeed! :)
Anna, yes, I was very touched that James thought to send me a jar. It was good to have a chance to do it justice – after all his hard work, I didn’t want to let it languish in the back of the fridge! :)
I love James’ idea. What a treat! I am assuming that his bride-to-be helped? James sounds like a wonderful guy.
The crown looks lovely. I don’t have blackberry jam, but maybe I could use jam made from blueberries or saskatoons? I’m going to try it with blackberries when they’re ripe.
Manuela, I think you could use almost any sort of jam, with or without berries. Dan the Man’s original recipe had blackcurrants and soaked grains interspersed amongst the dough balls, but I left the grains out. I bet James is blushing now with everyone saying how wonderful he is.. (and he is). :)
This looks like a wonderful recipe to use with jam. Here we call that shape of dessert Monkey Bread, so called because you can pluck a piece of it like a monkey would a banana from a tree.
Is this James clone-able? I would imagine thousand of single women lining up for a guy such as this..how romantic and thoughtful to make homemade wedding gifts with his own hand!
Wow, you certainly did those blackberries and the jam justice! Looks terrific, Celia! I can almost taste it from here :)
Gorgeous! I love Monkey Bread – have tried it very successfully with instant pudding from the US – but usually use butter & brown sugar. this certainly takes it to a whole new level with the jam & fruit – and hats off to the clever groom too!!
Waw!! What a decadent, fabulously looking dessert!!
I love this!
MMMMM,…I always love your creative desserts posts!
Cindy, that’s why it’s called Monkey bread! I could never figure it out. Thanks! :)
Chris, thank you, it was very nice. And it’s nice to have jam recipes too – there’s always some lying around here!
Anne, I think Monkey bread is small balls of dough dipped in melted butter and brown sugar. I found even without all the excess butter, this was still very rich!
Sophie, thank you dear friend! :)
This sounds delicious! I love blackberries :-)
Maria, thank you! I love all berries, but we usually only buy imported frozen ones – it was lovely to have locally grown!
WOW! this looks amazing and it also looks like a lot of fun to make :)
Thank you! It was fun – might try again this weekend, depending on what fruit we pick up from the markets! :)
That looks amazing and what a great way to use jam.
hi celia…i was talking to georgina and she told me what james was doing…what a fabulous idea…i love jam and i think i need some now…fabulous post…dzintra
Dzintra, isn’t he fabulous? And the jam is magnificent too! Hope you’re on the mend! Cheers, Celia
[…] also made a Jam Crown, and used a recipe from Fig Jam & Lime Cordial. I used sugar plum jam I had made a fortnight ago (is that another English word? I never hear […]
I think this has to be the most stunning loaf/cake I’ve seen recently, it looks fabulous. You’ve given me the biggest dilemma though – I desperately want to make this now, but I really, really want to make the sourdough raisin ring (based on a DL recipe) in your second birthday post too. Argh, which to make first? This one looks so soft and juicy and inviting….
C, make this one! Watch the oven temps, as it’s prone to burning, but the crumb is light and tender and I think you’ll love it. The raisin ring is a very firm loaf, which my Pete loves, but I suspect you’ll like this one better, given your recent comments on your blog… :)