Whether made from black or green figs, fig jam is a delicacy to be enjoyed all winter long. It is perfect for filling cakes or biscuits, to accompany a cheese platter, to give an extra touch to your spoon cakes, or simply to add a twist to your breakfast. It can be made with all types of figs: with the fioroni which ripen at the end of June, or with figs from mid-July until the end of September.
Fig jam: sugar yes or no?
Figs have always been considered sugar-rich fruits: but is it true? In actual fact they are 80% water and 12% sugar. So not a problem for the figure and when you decide to make a jam with figs, behave as if you were making it with any other fruit. Consider 40-60% sugar for a kg of figs, depending on how sweet you want it.
All the combinations to enhance the taste of figs
There are many ingredients that can be added to fig jam to enhance or balance its sweetness. All need to be added at the end of cooking however, before pouring the jam into jars. Among the spices used are cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla, and the dried fruits are walnuts, almonds, pine nuts and sultanas. These are the most suitable combinations to enrich the flavors of your fig jam. It isn’t necessary to toast the walnuts and almonds, you can simply add after shelling them, directly into the pot with the cooked figs. If on the other hand, you want to add a touch of spicy freshness to your jam, grate a little bit of fresh ginger, making it perfect to enjoy with well matured cheeses.
Sterilizing the jars
Always a very important step. Enjoying homemade preserves must be a "safe" pleasure, without any health risks. So, first take your jars and put them in a pot full of water. Make sure they are completely submerged, bring to the boil, and let them sterilize for 1 hour. Then remove them from the water and fill them with the freshly made jam, leaving 1 cm from the top. Close each jar with a new cap.
Fig jam recipe
Take 1 kg of figs, wash them, dry them with a cloth and cut them into segments. You can peel them or leave them intact, as you prefer. Put them in a bowl, add the juice of a lemon and 400 g of brown sugar. Mix, cover with a cloth and leave to rest overnight. After this time, put everything in a pot, cook for about an hour on a low heat, skimming the top from time to time with a skimmer. When the mixture has reached the desired consistency, turn off the heat, add the zest of a lemon, and pour into jars that you have previously sterilized. Fill up to 1 cm from the edge, to prevent mold from forming, then close and turn the jars upside down. Leave to cool like this and then check that the vacuum has formed correctly. If you don’t feel the classic "click-clack" at this point, put the jars in a pot with plenty of water to cover them up to half way, then bring to the boil and cook for about an hour and let cool in the pot. Once they are cold, dry them and put them in the pantry. Let it rest for 1 month before consuming.