This Fresh Fig Jam Recipe is one of my favourite recipes and the fig jam is for sure very liked in our family. I’m sure that it is also lovely for many of you.
Fig is a sweet fruit that in our country grows as a wild tree and a cultivated one in many varieties that matured during the summer and autumn. From the fruits of the wild fig, we can prepare delicious Gliko. The fresh common figs that we can buy in the market, we consume as fruit or conserve them in jam, or dried fruit to consume and use all year. The fig is very sweet comparing with other seasonal fruits, and for this, we can prepare fig jams using less sugar then usually we do. But, the fact that it is a very sweet fruit, make it to use in a limited way by everyone that can’t manage his glycemic value or his weight.
The fig fruit is a good source of dietary fibres that our organism needs for the best function of our digestional track.
The fresh fig is mainly water, about 79%, carbohydrates 19%, and the other part made by proteins and fat. When we consume 100 g of fresh figs, we can secure 14% of our dietary fibre daily value. If you prefer mostly the dried fig fruit, you must know that consuming 100 g of it, you can secure more then 20% of your daily value that your body needs in dietary fibres. I want to highlight that in dry fruit, we can get about 249 calories for each 100 g of it comparing with fresh fig fruit that the calories that we can get are only 74 for each 100 g. The dried fig is riched in minerals like iron, calcium, potassium, magnesium, and a good source of our daily value of manganese, about 26% of it consuming 100 g of dried figs.
In this period of the year, we can find the sweetest and well-matured figs, and with a low cost. For this reason, I consider that it is the time to conserve as jam or dried fruit.
The fig jam is good food for our breakfast meals, and at the same time, we can prepare with it delicious tarts and cakes, to enjoy in every season.
If you prefer to cook a fig jam with not too much sugar, then it is necessary to choose well-matured figs and if you can, it is better to buy them from organic farms. For a delicate taste, we recommend peeling figs before cooking the jam. If you like to prepare fig jam without cutting the entire fruit, then it is better to choose small or medium figs fruit and the fruit to be not damaged. We can prepare a fig jam using less sugar, but in this case, it is better to cook longer the jam, to evaporate water and the jam to be thicker, from the fig fructose. Anyway, if you prefer to cook jams without or with only a little sugar, you must know that these kinds of jams must be consumed in a short period and not to conserve for a long period like we do when we use the right dosage of the sugar.
Ingredients
- 1 kg of peeled fig
- 350-400 g of sugar
- 1 lemon (juice and zest)
- Cinnamon (optional)
Directions
- First, we peel all the figs, clean them from tails, and cut in a quarter, and put in a non- sticky casserole.
- We wash the lemon, which is an organic one, peel it and keep apart the juice. Add to the casserole all the lemon zest and lemon juice and put it to medium heat to boil figs for a few minutes with lemon juice. You will notice that fig fruits with start to release the fruit liquids.
- Add the sugar, keeping a part 2-3 tbsp of sugar, adding if it is necessary later. If the figs are very sweet, you may avoid adding the rest of the sugar.
- We cook the jam in low heat for about 1 hour, until too thick. If you want a thick jam, then you can cook it a little longer. Keep in mind to mix anytime the jam, and in the last part of cooking it, we need to mix very often, to not let it to burn.
- We let the jam to cool to see how thick it is because the jam will get thicker while it is cooling.
- In the end, if you prefer, you can add a little cinnamon or any other herbs to season the jam. The lemon zest will give it a very nice taste.
- To storage the jam, we keep cleaned and sterilized jars. We can fill them with cold jam, close well and make all the jars to boil to close properly. Another way is to fill with hot jam, close and let the jars cool upside down. We don’t move the jar until it cools completely.
- We can note the date of jam-packed and keep it in a dry and cool place in our home. After opening a jar, we keep it in the refrigerator and consume it in a short period of time.
Bon Appetit!
Thank you for visiting this recipe. You are welcome to leave your comments if you try it.