So you’ve made plum jam. What can you do with it? Besides slathering it on bread and peanut butter, that is…
Here’s a recipe that I adapted from “Cinnamon and Apricot Buns” in Linda Doeser’s The Bread Machine Cookbook, this recipe uses almost no added sugar. The way I make them, each bun has about 1/2 tsp of fructose and 1 tsp barley malt. For those of us who can’t (or shouldn’t) eat sugar, this is a rare treat.
1 cup warm milk
1 slightly beaten egg
2 cups white flour
1-3/4 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 cup fructose or sugar
4 Tbs butter, softened
1 tsp yeast
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2 tsp butter, melted
about 1/2 cup plum jam
about 1/4 cup chopped pecans or walnuts
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3 Tbs water
4 Tbs barley malt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp lemon juice
1/4 tsp salt
Set your bread machine to the dough cycle. Add the first set of ingredients, starting with the liquid ingredients, then the dry ingredients, adding the yeast last. Start the dough cycle. Adjust the texture of the dough by adding flour or water if necessary– it should be a nice, soft dough ball.
When the dough cycle finishes, flour a baking sheet. Gently press or roll the dough out to fill the baking sheet. Brush the surface with melted butter, leaving about an inch of dough unbuttered along the edges. Then spread plum jam over the buttered area, again leaving a one-inch border. Finally, sprinkle the pecans over the jam. Then roll the dough across the long axis with the filling in the middle. Gently seal the edges and ends. Gently remove the dough roll from the baking sheet and flour the baking sheet again. Slice the roll into 12 slices. Place the slices cut side up on the cookie sheet, spacing them evenly.
Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place for 45 minutes. Preheat the oven to 400.
Remove the plastic wrap. Bake the buns at 400 degrees until lightly browned, about 20 minutes. Remove them from the oven and let them cool in the pan for 5 minutes. Then remove to a wire rack for further cooling.
While the buns cool, make the glaze: combine the third set of ingredients in a small saucepan. Stir over low heat until the barley malt dissolves. Let it come to a boil, reducing the heat if necessary, and let it simmer about 2 minutes until it thickens. Then brush the tops of the pastries with the glaze.
These buns can be served hot or cold, but they’re especially good served warm with lots of butter!
