A few years ago during one summer holiday in the Lake Balaton area of Hungary, one of our neighbours, Sara, showed me how she makes pasta squares with a dried prune filling. Lekvár (Hungarian: jam) is an extremely thick prune purée and very versatile: use it as a filling for cakes, steamed dumplings (serve with homemade vanilla sauce) or spread it onto buttered, freshly baked bread.
This recipe is taken from the blog: http://attheveryyeast.com/2009/03/lekvar-filling-made-from-dried-prunes/
Ingredients to yield about 2.5 cups:
1 1/2 cups dried prunes, pitted and roughly chopped
2/3 cups water
1 tsp grated orange rind
3 tbsp orange juice
1/3 cup brown sugar
How to make it on the hob:
Put all ingredients except brown sugar into a saucepan. Bring mixture to near boil. Reduce heat, cover pot and simmer for about 30 minutes. The prunes will become very soft and most of the water will evaporate. Uncover the last few minutes if needed to evaporate any remaining water. Remove from the heat and mash. Stir in the brown sugar. Put in a container and refrigerate until ready to use.
How to make it in the Thermomix:
Add all the ingredients except the brown sugar into the Thermomix. Bring up to 100C and then reduce temperature to 90C and cook for 30 minutes. Check the consistency. If there is still too much water, you’ll need to cook it at 90C for a few minutes more. Give the mixture a quick whizz to break up any bits and then add brown sugar and mix well. Pour into a container, allow to cool and store in the fridge until ready to use.
The original recipe says it keeps in the fridge for at least a week but we’ve found that if you remove enough water, it keeps a VERY long time.
Remove from the fridge 30 minutes before using if you want a spreadable filling. I use it cold from the fridge when I roll it into balls to fill steamed yeast dumplings.
Scribblings from a chaotic kitchen 