Thyme Prostratus
Thymus serpyllum 'Prostratus'
The original prostrate thyme! It has attractive shiny green foliage and makes a great foil when planted with other, more showy, varieties of creeping thyme. Originally grown for our landscaping customers, it has proved to be very popular as a culinary herb — truly multipurpose.
This is an ideal thyme for a mixed planting of creeping thymes. It is slightly taller than some other varieties and gives a good contrast in heights within a thyme path or lawn. Its dark glossy foliage is a perfect foil to the other thymes as they flower. The dark pink flowers, which are produced a little later in the summer than some other varieties, extend the flowering season and are also large and attractive in their own right.
Like all thymes it needs to be trimmed back hard after flowering to maintain strong bushy growth and to stop it getting straggly. Have a look at our growing ideas article about 'Prostrate herbs' for some ideas!
This is a fine thyme for growing in a container — the arching stems trail over and soften the edges. As a vigorous grower it is ideal in a mixed container as it is not easily overshadowed by other larger herbs.
As a culinary herb, it's easy to use — large rounded leaves and light lemony scent make it great to use with poultry and fish, and in both fruit and traditional vegetable salads. If using uncooked then be sure to pick the leaves at the tips of the plant as these will be the most tender. Also this will be a great help in keeping the plant in shape and promoting bushy growth.
Thyme makes a great addition to sweet recipes as well as savoury. These muffins are delicious and may well disappear before they are even cold!
Lime and Thyme flavoured Muffins, with Vodka Lime syrup
Makes about 12 – 14 muffins.
The quantities can easily be halved, and they freeze well if you make a large batch.
- 140 g (5 oz) butter — softened at room temperature
- 2 tsp fresh lime juice
- 280 g (10 oz) sugar
- 6 eggs — at room temperature
- 280 g (10 oz) plain flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp salt
- 3 tbs lime zest
- 1½ tbs finely chopped thyme leaves
For the syrup
- 50 g (2 oz) sugar
- 50 ml lime juice
- 50 ml vodka
Preheat the oven to: 160C, 140C fan, 325F, or Gas 3.
In a large mixing bowl beat together the butter, sugar and lemon juice until the mixture is pale and fluffy.
An electric mixer is a great help.
Gradually beat in the eggs, one at a time, making sure that each is well mixed in before you add the next.
In another bowl mix together the remaining dry ingredients for the muffins.
Add this a little at a time to the whisked butter and egg mix until everything is well combined.
Check your beater blades when you have finished as, if your zest is in longish strips,
then some may well have wound themselves around the blades and will need to be scraped off back into the muffin mix.
Spoon the muffin mix into paper muffin cases in a muffin tin, filling each about ¾ full as they will rise when baked.
Bake for 30 minutes until golden brown.
TIP — The muffin cases are best if baked in a muffin tin as this prevents the cases from spreading during baking. If you don't have a deep muffin tin then use an ordinary shallower bun tin and use double muffin cases to give a bit more support.
Whilst the muffins are baking make the syrup.
Heat the ingredients in a small saucepan until boiling, stirring to dissolve the sugar.
Boil gently until the syrup reduced a little. Keep warm until the muffins are ready.
Whilst the muffins are hot, brush the tops repeatedly with warm syrup to flavour and glaze them.
Cool and serve!