Zinglish Muffins, cream cheese, fresh fruit, and jam make a magical combo

A Jamwich is an easy dish to make at home for breakfast, lunch, dinner, or afternoon snacks. I’m reminded of it every summer when the fresh fruit is showing up in abundance at Ann Arbor farmers markets! It brings together a bunch of different flavors and textures in one terrific open-faced sandwich.

Start with one of the Bakehouse’s marvelous Zinglish Muffins. Be sure to use a fork to break it in half or pull it gently apart with your fingers (not a knife) to get the ideal bumpy, craggy, surface-of-the-moon-like look. The unevenness and tiny holes make for much better eating. Toast it up. Spread the toasted sides of the muffin with a good bit of the Creamery’s fantastically tasty, gum- and preservative-free, traditional handmade cream cheese. Spread each side with jam. And then lay on fresh fruit—if it’s peaches or pears, you can slice them; if it’s berries, keep them whole.

The key to the Jamwich is to pair the fresh fruit with jam of the same fruit. Right now, here in southeast Michigan, blueberries, raspberries, and peaches would be the most likely options but of course what’s fresh and in season can swing from week to week and region to region. For blueberries, try the American Spoon Wild Blueberry Jam. If you get fresh raspberries, try the Red Raspberry Preserves from American Spoon. For fresh peaches, I go to American Spoon’s Red Haven Peach Preserves. In the fall, you can use pears with some of the Golden Pear Preserves we have from American Spoon Foods. Figs and fig jam from Agrimontana in Italy. It works well with every fruit you can find.

And since tomatoes are a fruit, there’s no reason you can’t do this with tomatoes and tomato jam. Or go get some of those wonderful fresh varietal peppers that are only now beginning to appear at local markets in southeastern Michigan. Sauté them down in olive oil. Use some of the American Spoon Jalapeño Pepper Jelly on top of the cream cheese then lay on the roasted or sautéed peppers.

The textural contrast in a Jamwich—golden brown, wheaty Zinglish Muffin, creamy Creamery Cream Cheese, the sweet intensity of the jam, and the vitality of the slightly sweet fresh fruit make for a really marvelous combo. If you want, garnish with fresh mint leaves or fresh basil. If you like black pepper as much as I do, grind a bit on as well. Eat ’em while the muffin is warm and toasty!

Pick your preserves