King Arthur Baking Find Makes Fruit-Flavored Baking Easier

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I love to bake, and although I have a habit of remaking my favorite recipes again and again, I try to make something new every couple of weeks. As a sourdough baker, one of my staples is a simple fresh loaf of sourdough. I often make them plain, but I also love finding new ways to jazz them up. It gives me the best of both worlds: something new, built around a recipe I already know will be good.

A few months ago, I came across King Arthur Baking Company’s Jammy Bits. The timing was perfect because I had recently tried making lemon blueberry sourdough rolls, similar to cinnamon rolls, and they came out far too wet.

At $18.95 for a 16-ounce bag, though, I wasn’t ready to order them mindlessly. So I checked with my friend Paula, who regularly travels to King Arthur Baking in Vermont for baking classes. If anyone would know whether these were worth trying, I figured she would.

Her response was immediate: They were terrific. She especially loved the Raspberry Jammy Bits and even offered to give me a bag from her pantry. If we still lived near each other, I probably would have taken her up on it. But with her in Connecticut and me in Florida, I ordered a bag of Blueberry Jammy Bits instead.

Blueberry Jammy Bits Solved a Baking Problem I Have With Fresh Fruit

My original plan was to revisit those blueberry lemon sourdough rolls. Shamefully, I still haven’t.

Summer got busy, and I wasn’t particularly interested in putting all the work into another batch of rolls only to find out they still didn’t come out right. So a few weeks ago, I decided to start with something much more familiar: one of my traditional sourdough loaves.

I added the Blueberry Jammy Bits along with fresh lemon zest, and the result was far better than I expected.

The little bits melted right into the bread, leaving beautiful swirls of blueberry flavor and sweetness throughout the loaf. The lemon kept everything bright, but most importantly, the bread wasn’t wet or sticky.

That’s a big deal for me. I love fresh fruit and sometimes bake with wild blueberries, but whole berries can leave wet pockets behind. In bread especially, that can make the finished texture inconsistent.

The Jammy Bits gave me the blueberry flavor I wanted without introducing all that extra moisture.

And I wasn’t the only one who liked it. I cut up the loaf and gave pieces to some of my baking friends without telling them what I’d used. The response was overwhelmingly positive. It also toasted beautifully, and I even served slices with a ball of Burrata on a charcuterie board, which turned out to be a winning combination.

How Much I Used in My Sourdough

King Arthur Blueberry Jammy Bits compared with mini chocolate chips on a white plate. — *The Blueberry Jammy Bits are about the size of mini chocolate chips.*

This is where I have to admit that I’m not much of a measurer. I’m one of those bakers who likes to see how things feel in the moment.

I’d estimate that I used somewhere between 1/3 and 1/2 cup of Blueberry Jammy Bits in my loaf. The next time I make it, I’ll pay closer attention so I can update this with an exact amount, but personally, I’d probably add another 1/4 cup. I loved the flavor and wouldn’t mind a little more. (Here’s my updated sourdough recipe.)

The bits are tiny, about the size of mini chocolate chips or slightly smaller. But once baked into my sourdough, they didn’t stay that way. They melted into the loaf rather than leaving big lumps or chunks behind.

The 16-ounce bag is also more generous than I expected. Based on what I used in my first loaf and what’s still sitting in the bag, I should easily get another four or five loaves from it. That makes the $18.95 price tag feel considerably less painful. And one fair word of warning: these little bites are absolutely delicious and are very easy to eat by the handful.

Now I Want To Try the Other Jammy Bits Flavors for Fall Baking

I still plan to go back to those blueberry lemon sourdough rolls, and when I do, I’ll use the Jammy Bits instead of fresh blueberries to see if they solve the moisture problem there, too.

But now that fall is here, another flavor has my attention.

I just ordered the Apple Cinnamon Jammy Bits because I can already imagine them in a sourdough loaf, muffins, or cinnamon rolls. King Arthur also makes Raspberry, Cherry, and Orange Jammy Bits, so there are plenty of ways to experiment once you know you like them.

And while looking through the flavors, I found something slightly different: Cinnamon Sweet Bits.

These aren’t simply another flavor. Unlike the Blueberry Jammy Bits, which melted into swirls throughout my sourdough, King Arthur says its Cinnamon Sweet Bits are designed to hold their shape and stay soft even after baking. That means you should get little bursts of cinnamon throughout whatever you’re making rather than the same melted, jammy effect.

Naturally, I ordered those, too.

I have a feeling they could be especially good in something like chocolate chip cookies or shortbread, although I’ll have to bake with them before I can say for sure.

That’s probably the biggest problem I’ve found with these so far. Once you know what they can do, deciding which flavor to try next gets a whole lot harder.