It's stone fruit season!
My favorite stone fruit is apricots, but while visiting my mom and stepdad for Father's Day, my mom gave me a huge bag of dark purple plums.
Mmmmmm...
But what am I supposed to do with 40 ripe and juicy plums?
Jam. I remember growing up and making jellies and jams out of fresh strawberries and delicious pomegranates. I'll be honest though, I think most of the pomegranate seeds just ended up in my mouth!
But jam is time consuming, and really really high in processed sugar, even homemade jams. One of my jobs was always to measure the sugar in 1/2 cups. I would move spoons from one pile to another so I wouldn't lose track of how many 1/2 cups I had put in. It was a pretty big pile of spoons.
So although I know how to can jam, and probably will later this summer, I needed a way to make jam that didn't require me purchasing a bunch of mason jars and setting aside a Saturday to stand over a hot stove.
So what's the lazy woman's way of making jam?
Chia seeds.
I love chia, great in smoothies, oatmeal, granola, power bars, basically wherever you want to add a little boost of super nutrition and your essential omega 3 fatty acids. But they also do this funny thing in liquid; they become super gelatinous.
Pour 1/2 a cup of chia seeds into 1 cup of coconut milk, seal the jar, put it in the fridge, and in the morning, you have super healthy, delicious vegan pudding. Why can't the same apply for jam?
Well it does.
Adding chia seeds to puréed fruit and letting it sit in a sealed container in the fridge for 1 hour gives you the fastest homemade jam you never thought was possible. And it's freaking amazing! You can add fresh herbs and spices to give it super complex flavors, vanilla extract or maple syrup for added sweetness, or if you like white refined sugar, you could add that too. I might never purchase jam again. Just remember that there are no preservatives in this jam, and it hasn't been sealed like it is when you can jams and jellies, so it goes bad quickly. Make small batches to use that day or the next. Or make larger batches and freeze it in small containers, so you can pull out just what you need. Fresh, real food has an expiration date.
But homemade jam, even fast 1 hour jam, really deserves fresh homemade bread to go with it.
Here's a little known fact about me, unless of course you've ever lived with me. I love to bake.
When I was going to community college and living at home, I wanted to go to culinary school just for a baking and pastry degree. I used to bake these awesome chocolate cookies with peppermint chips, and of course jelly sandwich cookies, but my favorite thing to make was pie. My brother still asks me to come back home just because he wants me to make pie.
I still love pie, and I still love to bake, from scratch of course. But being healthy and baking don't exactly go hand in hand. Lately I've been experimenting with gluten free baking and I'll be honest I've had more fails than successes. There are just so many rules when it comes to gluten free baking, you have to have the right blend of flours and it's all so confusing, especially when it has to be vegan on top of everything. But if you really want to give it a shot, I suggest Bob's Red Mill All Purpose Gluten Free Flour and making a quick bread.
Quick bread are the ones you make in small loaf pan, requires no yeast, and only takes about 45 minutes to bake. I've made a lot of spice breads this way, but with some zucchinis that had been in my fridge for too long, I thought it was time to try my hand at Zucchini Bread.
Oh my god. Amazing.
Gluten free breads can be a little flakier than ones made with wheat flour and personally I thought that made this perfect.
So here's my recipes for Gluten Free Zucchini Bread and Quick Chia Plum and Fig Jam. They're such versatile recipes. You could easily take out the zucchini and add bananas for Banana Bread, or use strawberries or blackberries for the jam instead.
Gluten Free Zucchini Bread
Ingredients
2 Cups of Bob's Red Mill All Purpose Gluten Free Flour
1 TSP of Baking Powder
1/2 TSP of Baking Soda
1/2 TSP of Salt
1 Cup of Grated Zucchini
1/2 Cup of Coconut Sugar
1/2 Cup of Coconut Oil
1/8 Cup of Agave Nectar
1 TSP of Vanilla Extract
1/2 TSP of Allspice
1/2 TBSP of Flaxmeal
1 TBSP of Water
Directions
1. Mix flour, baking powder, baking
soda, salt, and allspice together in a large bowl.
2. Mix
flaxmeal and water together and let sit for 2 minutes until it becomes goopy.
3. Mix
zucchini, coconut sugar, coconut oil, agave, and vanilla together until
combined. Add “flax-egg” and mix well.
4. Pour
liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix with a spatula until
completely combined.
5. Pour into
a loaf pan and bake at 350° for 45 minutes. Let cool before enjoying.
Chia Plum and Fig Jam
Ingredients
10 Plums
4 Figs
Juice of 1
Lemon
2 TBSP of
Agave Nectar
1/4 TSP of
Ground Cloves
1/2 Cup of Chia
Seeds
Directions
1. Separate plums from pits. This is
the hardest and messiest part. Just use your hands.
2. De-stem
your figs.
3. Put plums
and figs into a blender or food processor and mix until smooth. Doing this
allows you to keep the skins of both fruit adding extra important nutrients.
4. Add the
rest of the ingredients to the blended fruit and mix well to combine.
5. Place
inside an airtight sealed container, like a mason jar, and refrigerate for at
least one hour.
6. Enjoy on
homemade bread or with crackers!
And don't worry, now that I've been talking about pie, I think I might see some healthy vegan pies and tarts coming in the near future! But for now you could always try out my
Strawberry Rhubarb Pie before strawberry season is over!
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