Homemade fig jam

How to prepare a fig jam .

One of the recommendations that I tell you the most is to eat vegetables and fruits in season , since we will take better advantage of their qualities, they will have a better flavor and texture, in addition to being cheaper.

This premise is essential if we are talking about figs , a fruit that we can only enjoy fresh for just 3 months, coinciding with summer. Its season in Spain coincides approximately with the months of August and September.

This period can extend a little more in the north of Spain, as in my land Galicia , where they take a little longer to mature and there are figs until October.

From there, some beautiful figs have come to me, which I have been eating fresh at home, but now, with those that are already quite ripe, I have prepared a rich fig jam , which I assure you is “delicious”. I don’t know if you know that fig trees yield two harvests. In the first, the coveted figs emerge, and the figs are the fruit of the second harvest.

Figs are highly digestive and one of its main components is fiber. They are a very nutritious and also caloric fruit, with a great presence of carbohydrates and sugars in their composition. When we go to buy them, they must have a good consistency and a soft touch .

The presence of their wrinkled or open skin indicates that they are at their optimum point of consumption. So we must bear in mind that after that they will only last us 2-3 days at home in good condition.

Containing so much sugar content, they ripen very quickly. In my pantry there is never a small jar of this jam, one of my favorites with orange marmalade and cherry jam.

Every September I bring a few kilos of figs from Galicia and with which I don’t eat, I prepare a lot of jars of jam. So I have provisions for the rest of the year, it is also perfect to give away. Do not stop preparing homemade jams.

Before making the jam. Figs

1. Being a very sweet fruit I will use a lower percentage of sugar than with other fruit jams.
2. Lemon juice will help us enhance the flavor and will also help us preserve the jam.
3. Before you start making the jam, you should think about where and how you are going to keep it.
4. With a kilo of figs we will have for about 3-4 glass jars, medium size. It is important that before filling them with jam they are perfectly sterilized, as are their lids.
5. This process can be done directly by washing them in the dishwasher, or else put them in a pot with boiling water for 10-15 minutes.
6. Then we remove them, dry and reserve until it is time to fill them.

Preparation of fig jam

1. We carefully clean the figs with kitchen paper. We remove the top tail and peel them, those that are left … Some will be quite mature and it is better to leave them as is, a little of their skin will not hurt the jam.
2. We cut them into quarters and put them in a saucepan. Add the juice of one lemon and the sugar.
3. Mix and put on medium-high heat. When it begins to boil, lower the heat to low and cook for about 30 minutes.
4. The total time will also depend on the ripening point of the figs. If they are less ripe, they will need more cooking minutes.
5. Little by little, the fruit will unravel and the jam will take on the texture that we want, more or less thick.
6. Occasionally, we stir it to break the larger pieces of fig.
7. The end point of the jam can be adapted to your liking, with more or less fruit stumbles.
8. If you want it more homogeneous, give it a touch of a mixer or pass it through a Chinese.

You can see all the step-by-step photos of the homemade fig jam recipe  in this album.

Tips for a fluffy fig jam

• ¿ And what is the optimal point of jam ? For this we must take into account that although we see it “loose”, then with the cold of the refrigerator it will thicken a lot, acquiring the texture that we are used to seeing in jams.
• A trick that you can use is to take a little jam (once the cooking time has passed) with a teaspoon, and pour it on a cold plate. If after a while, when it cools down, the jam becomes thick, it means that it is in the optimal moment.
• This jam is very simple to make. With minimal ingredients and a few steps, we will have a delicious jam ready. We will keep it in airtight glass jars to have it available throughout the year.
• The first idea that comes to mind is to taste it in a good breakfast , in freshly made toast, but it is perfect for all kinds of desserts, to accompany grilled or grilled meats, and also combined with different types of cheese.

Preserving the jam

• With the lids and cans well cleaned and sterilized, we fill them hot, cover them and turn them over. We leave them face down for several hours.
• In this way, with the internal heat and the weight of the jam. This will create a vacuum to achieve conservation. With this method they will last you several months in good condition.
• Another more durable method is to put the jars into a large pot of boiling water. We keep them in the “bain marie” for 25-30 minutes, and then let them cool down in the water.
• A good trick is to place a rag at the bottom of the pan so that they sit on the bottom, and the jars do not move during the process. So we can keep them for a year and even more.
• Either way, it is good to put a label / sticker on them indicating the type of jam and the date of production. To avoid later consuming them well past the date.