Taste of Summer: how to make fig jam with lemon balm & thyme

This recipe was originally posted on the Dutch Handmade blog, but since the blog's language became only Dutch, this recipe came back to me :)

We all know that fig is not an everyday phenomenon in The Netherlands, but if you have the chance to get a larger amount of these heavenly fruits and you already ate it as much of them freshly as you could, try this very easy recipe to preserve the sweet taste of summer for the rainy days.

This jam is made with lemon balm and thyme, the herbs give the jam a really nice flavor, not too harsh, just a little hint of something special.

As you can see on the pictures the figs I used are a different variety than the ones in the stores, they are longer in shape and their skin is much softer what makes them very difficult to transport (I am a lucky person I picked these fruit with my own hands in our own yard in Hungary, but they almost not survived the long trip back to our Dutch home). The figs available in stores have a tiny harder skin, which means you have to cut them in smaller pieces than I did.

Figs are very sweet on their own, so I used less sugar than I normally would if I make jam, which meant that I had to be extra careful with cleaning the jars (hurray for the dishwasher!) and I have to keep the jars in a cool place.

Before you begin, prepare your jars and lids. They have to be very, very clean, so if you don't have a dishwasher, wash them in hot soapy water, rinse, and sterilize the jars by boiling them 10 minutes (watch you hands!). The lids don't do well in boiling water, so just try to get them as clean as possible. Also important that you keep the jars warm before you used them by leaving them in the dish washer on heated dry or by carefully let them stand in some hot water (watch that the water don't get into them after they are clean!) to prevent them from cracking.

First I washed the figs and the herb very throughly and I cut the fruits in blocks. I left the herbs whole as you can see it on the photo, but afterwards I wish I didn't, because I had to fish out all the little branches later, so next time I will chop them too.
I put the fruit and herbs into a large cooking pan together with the sugar and some lemon juice. Also added some long peppers to give it a little edge.

After it I put it on low fire and let it cook for as long as the water vaporized completely. There are some universal laws in jam making, one of them is that you never leave it alone: once it burned on the bottom of the pan it's totally ruined. So stand by and stir!


When the jam looked like jam, I considered it done, so I took my jars and spoon by spoon I filled them very carefully. After I put the lid on I turned the jars upside down and left them like that for 15 minutes.

Now there is only one thing left, dressing the jars!

I used vintage crocheted doilies to give them a sort of "granny" feeling and I printed some cute labels, using simple printing paper stained with black tea, creased and ironed to give the labels a real antique look.

Fig jam with lemon balm & thyme:

1200 g figs
350 g cane sugar
a few branch of thyme and lemon balm
3 table spoons of lemon juice
freshly grounded long pepper (optional)

You can also replace the herbs with the flesh of two oranges.

Lovely little flower earrings

My creative space today is all colorful and shiny: I would like to make good pictures of these lovely little flower earrings and list them in my etsy shop.





I think this song just fits the theme perfectly :)

Sourdough bread recipe and flickr favorites

I love bread, I really like to make it, all kinds of it weather sweet or sour. This really easy sourdough recept comes from Jamie Oliver's book the Happy Days with the Naked Chef.

It takes a week to prepare, but it's really worth the effort.

Monday:
Mix 500g of organic rye flour with enough water to make a soft dough in a bowl. Put it outside for an hour and then bring inside, cover with plastic wrap and put in a warm place. (it has to be organic, rye flour!)

Tuesday:
It will start to bubble. Leave it alone.

Wednesday:
The mix will continue to bubble and go slightly grey. Stir in a handful of flour and a little bit of water, enough to get the mixture back to the same consistency as on Monday. Leave it covered again.

Thursday:
Leave it alone

Friday:
By now the mixture should be beery, malty smelling and ashy coloured. Make the bread by adding all of this starter dough mix to 1kg of strong flour, then add enough water to make a firm, pliable dough that isnt sticky. Knead for a good 5 minutes. Remove a 500g piece of dough for your next starter before adding any salt, cover and put to one side, ready to repeat the process the next day and so on, etc. Add salt if you want to. Shape the dough and put it into a bowl or tin lined with a floured tea towel. Leave for 14 hours.

Saturday morning:
Bake the bread. Preheat the oven to 190 degrees C. Gently turn the dough out on to a floured baking tray, cut quite deep slashes into it, and bake for 1 hour or until it is crisp and sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom. Allow to cool.

My thoughts: I like my bread more flat, because it's easier to dip with it, but if you want a nice "high" loaf, makes sure that the bowl where you will leave it to rest those 14 hours is high enough.
To achieve a more crispy outside you have to spray some water on the bread before baking, but the best way is to put a roasting tray on the bottom of your oven before warming it up and when you put your bread into the oven, pour a half a liter boiling (!) water in that tray (keep your face back!!) and that really, really quickly shut the door to keep the steam inside. When your bread is ready and you put it on a roaster to cool down, first thing you do is spray a little water on it :)
Also very important: if you can, always wait till your bread cools down completely. This way it will stay moist inside and you can enjoy it longer.


as you may guessed, flickr favorites are also about bread, I collected these yummy photos from my flickr contacts:

1. Hot (rye bread), 2. Homemade bread, 3. Bread, 4. kukoricás kenyér - corn bread

Created with fd's Flickr Toys


for more flickr favorites from other etsy artists, please visit Artmind's blog!