Genuine North <3s Toronto Made + Penny Candy Jam

Jam’ming New Flavour Combos

Whether you are a busy mom on the go, a college student just scraping by, or an active 5-year old kid, a good peanut butter and jam sandwich can help get you through life’s hectic moments. I recently discovered a fabulous jam while at the One of a Kind Show in Toronto, Penny Candy Jam (PCJ), and was inspired to try it and tell the world all about it.

Did you know PB&J is the most popular sandwich in America? It can brighten your day, and give you a simple uncomplicated taste of home when you needed. Commercial jams have come a long way, they have started offering reduced sugar-added options, “with more fruit”, and a lucky few natural and organic brands have made it to big-chain shelves.

There is still nothing quite like the homemade stuff. You know what it is made of; simple ingredients, with the fruit as the star. If you are lucky like me, your Nana might make an incredibly delicious strawberry jam. Once a year, the jams are made and distributed amongst lucky family members. When it is gone, you’ll be waiting another 360+ days for the next batch, totally worth it, BTW. You could go about making your own jam from scratch, but that can be costly, both on the wallet and on your time. Chances are it will end up on your Pinterest fail list. Some things are best left to the artisans.

Penny Candy Jam is just such an artisan. They make all natural, low sugar, ‘fruit forward’ jams. What is even better are the unique flavour combos they’re serving up, like Raspberry loves bay + lime, that will tickle your taste buds and keep you deep in delicious jam all year round. I also love that they use locally grown produce from Ontario Farmers via the Ontario Food Terminal, with the exception of a few tropical ingredients not grown in North America. So, if you are looking for a locally sourced, all natural quality jam, with fresh fruit ingredients that won’t rot your teeth with sugar, you have got to check out Penny Candy Jam, the way jam should taste.

Having just a few teaser tastes at OAKS Toronto, I wanted to bring a few jars home and try the jams in some more unusual ways, before sending people to the stores. I decided to try one of Penny Candy Jam’s #makeitmonday breakfast bowl recipes, Quick Chia Seed Pudding, and our own Penny Candy Jam recipe, a sweet and savoury take on Sunday Night Chicken Dinner. Their two most popular flavours are Raspberry <3s Bay + Lime and Mango <3s Soursop. We sampled both of them at the show, A-Mazing! I wanted to shake it up a little, so we chose two of their other tempting flavour combos, Blueberry <3s lavender + mint, for the breakfast bowl, and the Pear + thyme for our sweet and savoury Sunday Night Chicken Dinner.

After checking out Penny Candy Jam’s market dates online, I opted to stop at one of the local shops carrying PCJ. My journey started just outside of downtown Toronto at Prairie Boy Bread (970 College St, Toronto, ON M6H 1A5), just one of the locations where you can not only pick up your Penny Candy Jam, but also grab some amazing fresh sourdough bread to pair with your sweet purchase. If you can’t make it to one of the local shops in downtown Toronto, do not fret, Penny Candy Jam is available online and ships right to your door. (Click Here to Order Now)

USE PROMO CODE: THATSMYJAM to Save 10% off your order

Prairie Boy Bread is baked fresh daily, what better location is there to get PCJ than a bakery? The aromas filling the shop made my mouth water, I just had to grab something to go. Spotted, I snatch up their house-made Nutella bread pudding, which was 100% worth the extra calories. I will definitely be back to pick up some sourdough bread.

Back to our Jam journey. Once we got our jams home, we couldn’t resist opening them right up. Grabbing a spoonful, we closed our eyes and let the ‘fruit forward’ jam delight our taste-buds. It was so fresh, with a wonderful mouth feel, the real fruit textures and juices were truly enjoyable.
As soon as we tasted the Pear + Thyme, we knew it would work perfectly as a sweet/savoury sauce for any dinner dish (pork, chicken, or even white fish).

Pear <3s Thyme jam + dijon sauce recipe

Here is our quick and easy recipe for Pear <3s Thyme jam + dijon sauce, try it any day of the week, lunch or dinner, or as a dipping sauce with chicken satays.

Sweet <3s Savoury Sunday Night Chicken Dinner (Serves 2)

• 2 TBSP Penny Candy Jam Pear &Thyme
• 2 TSP French’s Dijon Mustard
• 2 Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast
• Combine jam and mustard in a small saucepan, heat and serve over moist roasted chicken breast and enjoy!

I’ve listed the ingredients for each of the jams we tried in this post, nothing but the all natural good stuff. I know what you’re thinking, like all the other natural products out there, what must the shelf life be like? Well, I am happy to say that you get a whole year to enjoy your jam, but I guarantee you won’t need it.

Next, we tried the #makeitmonday recipe for a Quick Chia Seed Pudding breakfast bowl, we found on the Penny Candy Jam’s Instagram page. We replaced the raspberry <3s bay + lime with the blueberry <3s lavender + mint and used our own chocolate peanut butter cup chia seed pudding base for an extra kick of delish! Waking up in the morning was a breeze knowing I had this healthy breakfast treat waiting for me in the fridge. All I had to do was add my hemp hearts and a generous teaspoon of PCJ and it was ready to be inhaled. I took one bite of the chilled breakfast pudding, let out a ‘yummmm’ and a smile stretched across my face.

After enjoying Penny Candy Jam in a morning chia seed pudding, on a PB & PCJ sandwich, on French Vanilla Ice Cream, on a warm Oreo Cheesecake Cookie, and our chicken dinner, we have got to say we LOVE Penny Candy Jam. We know you will too!

Where to buy?

Online: www.pennycandyjam.com

In Store:
Prairie Boy Bread
Bloomer’s
Easy Tiger Goods
Urban Bulk Emporium

Tried any other unique local jams lately? Or other sweet and savoury toppings? Tell us about them, send us your recommendations on brands or products we should review. Click Here