The prepared ham has become so ubiquitous honey baked and spiral cut, anyone? at Easter, many cooks assume they can just heat and eat, leaving all their culinary creativity for the rest of the meal.
To be sure, cured and smoked pork legs are tasty as is, but there's little reason not to give it an exotic treatment, as with this apricot-peach and gingersnap crusted baked ham.
Here, the bright flavors of apricot-peach jam spiked with some Dijon mustard and brown sugar provide the glue, if you will, for a spicy crust of gingersnap cookie crumbs, all of which combine to create a perfect balance to the salty ham.
This simple and versatile crusting technique comes courtesy of meat expert Bruce Aidells. If you like, passion fruit jam or guava jelly also work well in this recipe.
Apricot-Peach and Gingersnap Crusted Baked Ham
Start to finish: 2 hours 15 minutes (15 minutes active)
Servings: 14
8- to 10-pound bone-in or boneless ham
1 1/2 cups apricot-peach jam (can substitute apricot or peach jam for the blend)
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
cup Dijon mustard
1 1/2 cup gingersnap cookie crumbs (about 15 cookies pulsed in a food processor)
1 1/2 cups chicken broth
1 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch dissolved in 4 tablespoons of water
Salt and ground black pepper, to taste
Heat the oven to 325 F. Place an oven rack low enough in the oven so that the ham won't touch the roof of the oven while baking.
Trim any skin from the ham, then trim the external fat to about -inch thickness. Place the ham, fat-side up, in a roasting pan and place in the oven. Bake until the internal temperature reaches 130 F at the center, about 10 minutes per pound. Remove from the oven and increase the heat to 425 F.
In a bowl, whisk together the jam, brown sugar and mustard. Set aside.
Using the tip of a