T&W's food stylist Jono Fleming has created a mouth-watering and indulgent breakfast inspired by the authentic French-made Laguiole tableware. This fig and rosemary jam will have you literally spreading the joys of the new season...  

Autumn is here, and it's time to fill the home with delicious scents and flavours that make you just want to curl up while the rainy days start to pour down. It's also a great time to make the most of seasonal fruits and vegetables such as pears, pumpkin, and one of my personal favourites - figs. Figs are a fantastic fruit and are a really versatile ingredient. You can use them in savoury and sweet dishes and they're a great fruit to make jam out of. This jam recipe is a real winner and can be stored for the coming months. Making your own jam is much simpler than you think. The best part is that almost any fruit can be used and, much like this recipe, you can use different herbs and spices to spike the flavour to give it your own twist.



The Laguiole range of cutlery has a really beautiful, rustic, elegant appeal. The vibrant red colours of this range really inspired me to cook up something that complemented the rich colour. It's a bit of a decadent breakfast recipe but sometimes that's just what you need on a rainy Saturday morning.



Ingredients (serves 2-4):
French Toast
Serves 4 (or 2 if you're being bad)
A thick crusty white loaf (I used a sourdough)
1 tub of mascarpone
3 eggs
1 tsp of vanilla bean paste

Jam
3 cups of chopped figs
1 cup caster sugar
2 tbs lemon juice
¼ cup water
4 sprigs of rosemary

Preparation:
In a mixing bowl, combine the chopped figs, caster sugar and lemon juice and let that sit for about 30 minutes.

After the figs have been soaking up all that flavour, transfer them to a saucepan and add the water and rosemary. Bring to the boil and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Lower the heat and simmer until the jam is nice and thick, depending on the consistency you like. If it's a bit too thick, add a tablespoon of water to get it to your ideal consistency. Transfer it to a sterilised jam jar and let it cool completely before popping on the lid. The jam should be able to be kept in the fridge for about 2 months.

Slice up the bread into thick 1.5 cm slices. In a bowl, beat the eggs and the vanilla bean paste then transfer to a shallow plate. Place one side of the bread down and let it soak up the egg mixture for a few minutes. On the side with no egg, spread a generous amount of mascarpone. In a fry pan, pop in some butter on at a medium heat and when the butter starts to bubble place the bread in, egg side down. This cooks quite quickly so it should be done in about 2 minutes. Then flip it over and after about 10 seconds place it on a plate, again, egg side down. What this does is melt the mascarpone so it becomes gooey and creamy. Pour some of the jam on top and voila! A really simple but luscious Autumn breaky!