Naturally Sweet Food in Jars is my third cookbook and was published in March 2016. It focuses on preserving with honey, maple, agave, coconut sugar, fruit juice concentrates, and dried fruits. You can find an array of ordering options here.
The idea for this book was initially sparked by this post, as well as the many alternatively sweetened recipes that have come since on this site. The finished book features more than 100 recipes for preserves, as well as a handful of recipes designed to help you use up some of what you’ve put up.
I had two primary goals in mind when I was writing Naturally Sweet. The first was to translate some of my most beloved sugar-sweetened recipes into those that used less refined sweeteners.
The second objective was to create new and novel recipes that would be safe for canning and that featured the various sweeteners in ways that made the most of their unique, individual flavors.
I also wanted to help change the conversation about preserving. So often, people dismiss it because they feel like the products created when you preserve aren’t always the healthiest.
However, by shining a spotlight on alternative sweeteners, I feel like I’ve created a collection of recipes that are able to balance health concerns with issues of safety and shelf stability.
And, as always, the recipes are relatively small batches that don’t require too much of your time and energy.
Hi Marisa, I wasn’t sure where to ask this so I hope here is appropriate! I’ve made the maple concord grape jam from Naturally Sweet for a while now and it’s an absolute favourite, but I do make it sparingly with the price of maple sugar. Would it be possible to make it with coconut sugar instead? I know the flavour would be different, but my thinking was that since it was maple sugar rather than syrup, coconut sugar would be a safe swap for sweetener. Still love the book!
Yes, you can absolutely use coconut sugar instead of maple. Maple sugar prices are insane these days.
Me please!
Happy Birthday, Marisa! All the best in the upcoming year. I hope you had a great celebration and lots of chocolate cake. Chocolate cake is absolutely the best birthday cake!
It’s no longer an annual tradition, but I still love having ice cream cake on my birthday – it’s a holdover from celebrating at Dairy Queen as a youngin’!
Happy Happy Birthday! I haven’t had a consistent birthday food tradition in years, but when I was really young, my grandmother would visit for my birthday and make a batch of warm, cakey muffins dipped in butter and a cinnamon+sugar mixture. Those were the (birth)days!
Just a bit of chocolate does me on my day!
First off, Happy Birthday!
My favorite thing to have is something with lemon. It can be lemon meringue pie, lemon cake, lemon sorbet, lemon something.
There’s nothing that I love more than a rich fruit cake with a dash of rum in it for my birthday, which is in April. Am looking forward to adding Naturally Sweet Food to complement the autographed Preserving by the Pint I’d picked up at your first canning event in Toronto, Canada.
Belated birthday greetings. Hope you had a marvelous birthday!
Happy Birthday to You + Happy Birthday to Me… we share the same bday, Marisa 🙂
On May14th, I had a lovely flourless chocolate birthday cake.
Cheers to an Amazing Year!!!
Such a good day to be born!
Happy birthday a bit late! I would like a slice of cheesecake with either fresh raspberries or a warm caramel sauce or both!
First time I’ve visited this site. Like the Naturally Sweet Food in a jar book. Had big garden last year and made whjat I called “refrigerator pickles’ tasted a lot like bread and butter pickles, so easy, very delicious and never lasted more than a couple of days. Use them in and on everything! But—took large amount of sugar. I’d like to try your Minty Pickle Spears and other recipes for Xmas presents. For the small jar sizes and reduced sugar content. I have strawberries—might try the Chocolate Strawberry Jam.
On my birthday, I like Rhubarb Cream Cheesecake. Happy Birthday to you! .
Happy belated birthday!
My birthday is May 15th, and I am from western Massachusetts. The perfect birthday dinner is the perfect confluence of late spring foods: pan-roasted shad roe, steamed asparagus, and strawberries for dessert. All from the glorious Pioneer Valley!
Here’s wishing you a very happy birthday! My birthday is at the end of July, so I’m able to celebrate it with breakfast and/or dessert that involves those lovely tiny wild blueberries that grow everywhere here in Downeast Maine.
One of my favorite things to look forward to around my birthday is getting together with our family “birthday club”. My husband and I have birthdays close to each other, and likewise two of his siblings with their spouses. We rotate hosting the birthday couple and make any cake or dessert they’ve requested that year, and either play games or just enjoy an evening of nice conversation. This year, my husband has requested Key Lime Pie and I am very much looking forward to it as well!
Wishing you a very happy birthday!!
Happy Birthday!!! I don’t really have a favorite birthday food…..
Happy birthday! My favourite birthday treat is rhubarb crisp…so yum.
Happy happy birthday! A good steak will do with my candles. Raspberry is my favorite cake.
I love going out to new restaurants for my birthday!
Raspberry pie is my preferred birthday celebration food. And happy birthday!
Best wishes! Hope you had a wonderful birthday. I’m loving your blog. Discovered you and your books thanks to Dundee Gardens. Unfortunately, I have to work the day you’ll be there. Otherwise, I would have loved to attend the event. Take care and have a great time!
Happy Birthday! I love coconut cake on my birthday.
HBD! The new book sounds awesome! I love pork carnitas on my birthday.
I don’t usually have cake for my birthday because I can’t have it (dairy).
This year I found someone who could make a cake that was dairy free. I ordered it to have on
Christmas for one of our desserts (in addition to homemade cookies).
(We have several December birthdays in our family) The cake was a hit. Everyone loved it!
It was a great birthday celebration! Happy Birthday!