Disclaimer – We received this item free for the purpose of this review/feature but all words and opinions are our own.
Opies Christmas fruits will surprise you. Not just because of how tasty they are but because of how versatile the fruits are, especially at Christmas. We were sent 4 different fruits in their iconic round glass jars to try as part of the Christmas 2024 range, including the exclusive Fruits of the Forest which is out now. Baby Pears, Black Cherries and lastly Peaches were also sent to us. The uses for them are endless, but have you thought about giving them as gifts too?
Great for Secret Santa, or as part of a Christmas hamper, the fruits are preserved in juice and alcohol and already stoned ready to eat. There’s a minimum of 460 grams net in each jar too, which is plenty for cooking or baking with. The suggestions on the website are endless and include using them in cocktails and punches at Christmas, but I prefer eating them just as a dessert with cream or ice cream, or baking with them!
In the photos, I’ve used the Black Cherries in some homemade almond cookies. Made with butter and almond flour, the cookies are flavoured with the cherry pieces and I added some of the juice from the jar to give the deep purple colour. Once cooked, there isn’t the alcohol taste at all but instead it left the cookies soft and with the cherry fruit as the main ingredient.
Taking each of the baby pears, I wrapped them in pastry and added sugar and cinnamon to create these little desserts. They only took 20 minutes in the oven and I actually cheated and used ready-made pastry so that I could concentrate on the flavour. These freeze really nicely so that you can bring them out at Christmas or as a dessert one evening with a little ice cream, especially if they’re warmed slightly. I also used the pastry to make these gorgeous little Fruits of the Forest tarts. Some of them had pastry crust and some of them I left open to bake but they were all so colourful and so delicious that they looked fantastic for snacks or dessert!
Other uses for the fruits include making a tart with the peaches, creating a flan with gelatine using all the different fruits and my favourite way of using them is to add them as a filling to croissants, especially useful if you’re making the croissants out of a ready-made tin. Opies Fruits are great to use with kids as they’re nice and sweet and easy to handle, and if you are baking them then the alcohol burns off. The juices from each of the jars can be added to alcoholic drinks or jelly mixture too. Ever thought about Opies Fruit juice and gin lollies?
Each of the jars is packed to the brim with real fruits and Opies make sure they’re the best quality and well preserved. There’s so much in each jar that I had to put them in the fridge each time I opened them in order to use them again and again. They’re handy to keep in the cupboard too, unopened so that you can have a dessert on hand or add the juice and fruit to something you’re baking. If you’re a real Christmas food connessuier though, Opies Fruits are delicious this time of year and a gorgeous reminder of summer fruits as we go into winter.
Available from most supermarkets and online from £7.50 at: https://www.bennettopie.com
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