Fig Preserves & Focaccia Bread
The air is thick with the rich syrupy sweetness of ripening fruit, a bit cooler and fragrant from a sudden summer rain. Fall is almost upon us. The winding down of summer always stirs in me a desire to harvest the herbs & fruits for our medicine cabinet and pantry shelves. I'm sharing today the easiest focaccia bread recipe to enjoy along side an assortment of figs and perhaps a glass of red wine. Pictured above is one of our favorite fig varieties, Violette de Bordeaux.
Take a gander at all the luscious varieties we are growing and get them started in your garden this fall. It's the perfect time of year for planting as the weather is cooler so roots can establish before the cold of winter sets in.
Focaccia Bread
Here is an easy bread recipe to enjoy with your favorite wine.
In a large mixing bowl combine 4 cups flour, 2 teaspoons of salt and 2 teaspoons yeast. Pour 2 cups of hot water over top of this and mix well. Drizzle a good amount of olive oil over the top, cover with a towel and let rise for two hours.
Oil your baking dish.
Separate the dough into two ceramic pie dishes (that's what I do). If you have a larger rectangle pan place all the dough into that.
Spread out the dough with your fingers, stretching it to the edges of the pan and let that rise for 20 minutes while the oven is preheating to 420 degrees.
After this second rise, use your fingers to dimple the dough and sprinkle with salt. We use this recipe for our pizza as well, placing pesto, cheese, meats after dimpling.
Bake for 20 minutes. Bake a few additional minutes if you have a thick layer of toppings.
Enjoy!
Fig Preserves
Chop up roughly 16 cups (or two gallon size freezer bags) of ripe figs with skins and place in large pot on medium heat. Mash with a potato masher till the figs are well mashed.
While that's cooking down, start boiling a large pot of water for the water bath.
Now back to the preserves.
Add a tablespoon of vanilla and 2 cup of sugar to the figs on medium/low heat. Let that cook till sugar has dissolved. Once the jam sticks well to the back of a spoon it's ready to bottle up. Spoon fig preserves into sanitized mason jars. Wipe edges of jar so they are free from any jam. After placing lid and ring on jars, place in water bath for 10 minutes. Because of this process you do not need to refrigerate till after opening jar.
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