The rich soils of our North Georgia Mountains are ideal for growing all sorts of fruits and vegetables, and you’ll find great local growers dotting our landscape. These are the farms that Unicoi Preserves taps to make its delicious fruit spreads.
Unicoi Preserves is a Cleveland, Georgia, company that’s passionate about what it does, and it shows in its products, many of which we use here at Lucille’s. In addition to sourcing top ingredients locally, Unicoi makes its products in small batches, with no artificial sweeteners, colors, or flavors. This results in incredibly tasty spreads that are similar to jelly, only with less sugar and more lusciousness.
Currently Unicoi Preserves makes five varieties: Vineyard, Apple Cider Pepper, Vineyard Fire, Strawberry Vanilla, and Salted Caramel Peach. Each sells for $5.50 or you can get a sampler of five for $25.
While the spreads are yummy on biscuits or with cheese and crackers, they also adapt beautifully to recipes. Unicoi Preserves offers a selection of recipes on their website. We’ve included one here.
Peanut Butter and Jelly Muffins
Serves 16
2 cups unbleached flour
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 Tablespoon baking powder
2/3 cup sugar
1 cup peanut butter
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 cup milk
2 eggs
2 4 oz. jars Unicoi Preserves Strawberry Vanilla Spread
½ cup chopped, salted peanuts
Preheat oven to 350°. Grease muffin tins, then line with paper muffin cups.
In a large bowl, mix together the flour, salt and baking powder. Stir the sugar, peanut butter and oil into the dry mixture until it looks like a sandy dough. Add the milk and eggs and mix until moistened using an electric mixer. Be careful not to overbeat; adding too much air will give your muffins tunnels and peaks.
Using an ice cream scoop, fill the muffin cups half full with the batter. Spoon 2 teaspoons of Unicoi Preserves Strawberry Vanilla Spread into the middle of each muffin. Finish each muffin by dividing the batter over each one, making sure to cover the Strawberry Vanilla Spread. Sprinkle peanuts over top of each muffin.
Bake for 18-20 minutes and cool in pan for five minutes. Remove to wire rack to finish cooling.
PHOTO: BRAD PERKINS, COURTESY OF UNICOI PRESERVES.