November 6, 2011
Fig & orange muffins

On my weekly visit to our local market held every Friday and Saturday in Guildford I decided to buy a tray of fresh figs. This was partly because of the lack of a fig tree in the garden of our Spanish villa this summer. This is the first time we have done a rental in this part of the world that didn't include one of these luscious treats in the garden. Eating figs straight from the tree with some local jamon iberico is a real treat. The lack of them this summer inspired me to buy them and of course also because the season is coming to an end.

On arriving home it was clear that they needed to be used up quickly as they were beautifully ripe. So after having a gorgeous fig, beetroot, salad leaf and goats cheese salad on Friday night the rest had to be put to good use while they were in peak condition.

I was having some friends round for tea so I used some of the figs up in these delicious fig & orange muffins. Eaten warm the hint of orange sets off the delicate flavours of the fig perfectly. You can view the recipe below or download it here

I still had some figs left and they were destined to become part of my Christmas present collection. When I make jam I make small batches as it stress free and cooks really quickly and when I am busy with just small pockets of time its a perfect way to spend half an hour. This is a prime example of ratio cooking. However much fruit you have weigh it and then add the same amount of sugar. This is for a traditional style jam, if I want to make something less sugary I use half but you must keep it in the fridge and use it up within a month. The high sugar stuff will keep for months providing you have used clean sterilised jars. I covered the figs with some orange juice and then poured in the sugar. You just bring it to the boil and then let it cook on a rolling boil for 15 - 20 minutes until the water has cooked up and you have a syrupy fruity mixture in the pan. Heat the jars up in a baking tray with some water in the base at no more than 100 degrees C until they are way too hot to touch and remove from the oven. Fill the jars with hot jam and cover (I use clean paper towels) until they are cool then add wax circles and tightly screw on the lids).

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