Homemade Fig Preserves

Figs are truly a rare treat whether you enjoy them fresh or preserved. There are so many varieties of figs and I am not sure what kind of figs my in laws have but I was lucky enough to receive tons and tons of figs this year from their tree. They are greenish on the outside with pink flesh inside. We had fun picking them before the birds get to them. I made several jars of preserves to keep and to give away.

Fig Preserves Recipe

Makes 3-4, 8 oz jars

Prep time 35-40 minutes

Cook time about 1 1/2 hour

• 8 Cups whole fresh figs
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 2 Cups granulated sugar
• 1tsp minced ginger or powder
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract 
• Zest and juice from 1 Lemon
• Hot tap water

Directions:

• Dissolve the baking soda in hot tap water, and gently stir to wash the figs in it.
• Then rinse the figs thoroughly with fresh cool water. 
• Slice figs in half. (leave whole for whole fig preserves)
• In a large stock or canning pot, combine figs, sugar, lemon juice, lemon zest, ginger and 1 cup hot tap water bring to a boil stirring frequently. ( I used a Dutch oven)
• Note: if using whole fruit gently stir in order no to break fruit.
•  Reduce heat and continue cooking until mixture is thick and gooey. (about an hour)
• I also cut the figs more while they are still in the pot with shears towards the end to get smaller pieces.
• Add cinnamon and vanilla in the last 20 min of cooking.
• Watch closely in the last few minutes to keep bottom from burning
•  Fill sterilized jars with hot preserves leaving 1/4 inch head space and cover with clean tops and rims cook in a hot water bath for 15 minutes. Follow manufacturer's canning instructions for more details in canning. 
• Open jars can be kept up to a month in the refrigerator.
  
  

The fun part now that I have all the preserves in the jars is to decorate and give them as gifts. These make great gifts and many people love fig jam. I used brown paper, some pretty scrap booking paper and bakers twine to decorate the jars. My daughter helped me with the decorating part and we had a great time.

I enjoy my preserves on a piece of toasted crusty rustic bread with some mascarpone or cream cheese. It should be yummy on a bagel or on an english muffin as well. How about on pizza with some goat cheese? I will have to try that soon.

Lemon Curd

My in laws have a Myer lemon tree and they gave me some beautiful lemons. I was trying to figure out what to do with them and eventually decided to make lemon curd using Ina Garten's delicious lemon curd recipe I found on food network's site. This recipe uses all the zest and the lemon juice so I felt like I am fully using the pretty lemons. Also, I can enjoy the lemon curd in the fridge for a while.

There are many ways to enjoy this delicious spread and many recipes are available on the internet world.

Here are a few of my favorite ways to enjoy lemon curd..
               Over fluffy ricotta pancakes
               Filling inside raspberry or coconut cupcakes
               Spread on a cheesecake
                Make mini lemon tarts
and many more.....

The recipe is as follows:

Prep Time: 20 min   Cook Time:10 min   Level: Easy
Serves: 3 cups

Ingredients

3 lemons
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 pound unsalted butter, room temperature
4 extra-large eggs
1/2 cup lemon juice (3 to 4 lemons)
1/8 teaspoon kosher salt

Directions

Using a carrot peeler, remove the zest of 3 lemons, being careful to avoid the white pith. Put the zest in a food processor fitted with the steel blade. Add the sugar and pulse until the zest is very finely minced into the sugar.
Cream the butter and beat in the sugar and lemon mixture. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, and then add the lemon juice and salt. Mix until combined.
Pour the mixture into a 2 quart saucepan and cook over low heat until thickened (about 10 minutes), stirring constantly. The lemon curd will thicken at about 170 degrees F, or just below simmer. Remove from the heat and cool or refrigerate.


I canned mine in mason jars and stored them in the fridge.

Daring Cooks September 2010 Challenge: Food Preservation: Apple Butter

The September 2010 Daring Cooks’ challenge was hosted by John of Eat4Fun. John chose to challenge The Daring Cooks to learn about food preservation, mainly in the form of canning and freezing. He challenged everyone to make a recipe and preserve it. John’s source for food preservation information was from The National Center for Home Food Preservation. I had so much fun with this challenge. I made it twice. I gave most of it away to friends and neighbors too!
It's a little time consuming but DELICIOUS!!! I also came up with my own recipe which I was very pleased with. I do want to warn you that this is my own recipe which I am here trying to remember and write down, so forgive me if it is hard to follow and please feel free to email me or leave a comment if you have any questions. Here it is:
9 golden delicious apples
3/4 C apple Juice (and splash lemon juice because I didn't have apple cider)
1 C White sugar
3/4 C Dark corn syrup
1 C Brown sugar
3 Cinnamon sticks
1 TBS cloves
I peeled and cored the apples. Then I chopped them roughly. I placed all the apples, apple juice, lemon juice and the spices in a large pot and let them cook on low till the apples are tender stirring frequently. This took awhile (approximately 2 hours) because I was not only letting the apples cook but also letting all the water evaporate. If you want to strain the liquid out like most recipes calls for, feel free. When all the apples are tender and mashed up to a paste consistency, pick the cinnamon sticks and cloves out and add the sugars and syrup to sweeten and taste. Let it cook to a spread consistency (very thick). Can or freeze. I will not include canning instructions but it is easy to find those online. Good Luck!

Amish Friendship Waffles

These waffles are delicious and also a great way to use up your starter if you end up with too many. I have a lot of starter bags in my freezer. What I learned from a friend is that you can take your starter bag straight out of your freezer and bake what you want instead of waiting 10 days. So, that's just what I've done here. I took a starter bag out of my freezer the night before and made these in the morning. My starter bag had 2 cups in it, so if you only have a cup in yours, you'll need two.

Here is the easy recipe I got from Armchair.


Combine in large bowl:
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda

Combine in smaller bowl:
1/4 C oil
2 cups Amish batter
1/2 cup milk
1 egg

Add ingredients of smaller bowl to ingredients of large bowl and mix on medium speed.
Spoon batter onto greased waffle maker. Enjoy!

Monkey Bread

Have you heard of Monkey Bread before? I haven't until I started my current job a few years back. It is so easy to make yet yummy. If you like Cinabon or Cinnamon rolls, you'll love this. It's great for breakfast but good all day long as well. This is the best when you first take it out of the oven and eat while it's still hot. My friend Becky from work gave me her recipe verbally and i modified it just a tiny bit from what I remember. Here is a super easy Monkey Bread recipe that you may add to your sweet recipes collection:

3 regular size biscuit tubes
1 stick butter
1 Cup brown Sugar
1 tsp Vanilla
1/3 C sugar, approximate
2 tsp cinnamon, approximate

Pre heat oven to 350 degree C.

Biscuits.












Quarter each biscuits.












Melt butter and brown sugar in a pan over medium heat.











Mix sugar and cinnamon.











Toss biscuits in sugar and cinnamon mixture in a bowl till well coated.









Put the biscuits in a greased Bundt pan.










Pour in the butter brown sugar sauce. Stick it in the oven for 30 min@ 350.









Enjoy!!!

Amish Friendship Pancakes

So, most of us know Armish people make good food..very good food that we love. Anyway, I am not sure when and why started this, but I brought home an Armish friendship bread starter and baking every ten day ever since and haven't stopped even though I have had more than enough Armish friendship bread in the last month or so both at home and at work. If you don't know what I am talking about, go ahead and read closer...I'll try to explain the story of THE ARMISH BREAD and how it's not going away! Let's start with the starter. You can make the bread starter with this recipe or buy online or you may get it from a friend..hence the name Friendship bread :). I got mine from a friend. Once you have the starter bag, follow
these easy instructions. Just remember it takes 10 day till the baking day.I will talk about many variations I've tried with this starter, but I will share the recipe for the pancakes in this post because they are absolutly delicious. Also, if you end up with too much starter in hand, this is a good way to get rid of it because the recipe calls for 2 cups of the starter. The recipe I used is below:

Combine in large bowl:
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda

Combine in smaller bowl:
2 TBS oil
2 cups Amish batter (batter from day 10)
3/4 cup milk
1 egg

Add ingredients of smaller bowl to ingredients of large bowl and mix on medium speed.
Spoon batter onto greased griddle.

Chocolate Croissants

I joined the wonderful iheartcookingclubs. It is so much fun and they are friendly. They have a theme each week and they pick one chef and cook his/her recipes for 6 months. Members are free to pick the featured chefs recipes according to the theme. This weeks theme is Budgets and bargains and we are cooking with Niegella Lawson. So, I made something under $5.00 for breakfast. I got the recipe from here.
It was easy and good.