Haw Berry and Star Anise Jam Recipe
I love this sweet, smoothly textured, wild hawthorn fruit jam and it went down a treat with participants on my autumn foraging course too. Read on to recipe! Haw berry and start anise jam make a gorgeous
Haw berries - the fruits of the hawthorn tree (Crataegus monogyna) - have long been used as medicine in the East and West, as well as used as a wild food.
Their taste is mild and unimpressive when eaten raw off the tree - think soft apple or apple peel. However, once cooked and flavoured these berries can be turned into a delicious jam, with a lovely texture of pureed fruit.
My three favourite recipes for transforming haw berries or 'haws' are; hawthorn berry ketchup, hawthorn and apple fruit leather and this jam which can be spread on bread or used in desserts. Oh, and I also make a punchy, medicinal Hawthorn berry schnapps!
The benefits of eating haws
I've written about the benefits of eating and using hawthorn berries and my personal motivation for using them here - why eat haw berries.
Are all hawthorns edible?
Hawthorns are a large plant family with a variety of different species, all bearing fruit. Each hawthorn produces an edible fruit, though the taste and size can vary a lot.
For example, Chinese hawthorn fruits (Crataegus pinnatifida) have a tart flavour and look like crab apples. While several of the native species in North America look very different to our native Hawthorn tree here in the UK.
Across the world these fruits are used for jam, jellies, sweet treats and for flavouring alcohol. In This recipe I have created fits nicely into this International theme.
Haw Berry and Star Anise Jam Recipe
This is a lovely, thick textured jam, or more like a mildly flavoured dark red fruit puree. It makes a great filling for jam tarts and goes well with cream cheese. I love it plain, though the star anise adds a gorgeous sweetness and added layer to it.
This recipe is from my book 'Wild and Sweet' (p233) alongside 3 other haw berry recipes, such as haw berry and chocolate baked cheesecake and 100 more wild desserts.
7 comments on “Haw Berry and Star Anise Jam Recipe”
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Tags: Crataegus monogyna, haw berry recipe, Hawthorn tree, may hawthorn, May Tree, one-seeded hawthorn
Just one of the the best and most interesting jams I have ever tried. Will be making this asap.
That's great Thelma!
I can't see the recipe here...is it not loading or is it not provided on the page?
It's in my Wild and Sweet book Rebecca. thank you.
Wow! And what gives you the right to expect to receive someone's work for free?? I think you have no idea what is involved in creating recipes, working towards a book and running one's own business.
This is horrible : to be told sweetly ‘read on to the recipe’ when it is really just a pitch for your recipe BOOK. Pay £25 to ‘read on to the recipe’! Felt cheated and badly treated. Will make up my own recipe thank you.
Hi Karin, thank you for your comment. You're the second person to write something like this. I think what people don't understand is the hours and hours of free time I spend creating stuff (there are plenty of free recipes and info on my website), and I feel it only fair to ask for payment for my time. I am not a large corporation, I am one person, also, the publisher invested their money to create this book, so to then offer recipes for free from the book would be disrespectful to their time and energy too.