Fig preserves with vanilla

Here's the recipe for the fig preserves I made this weekend. This is from Christine Ferber's Mes Confitures. I'm giving you the proportions for a full batch -- I did a half batch, because that's how many figs I had. I did mine by eye rather than thermometer and they came out on the runny side; that's fine by me, but be forewarned that it's possible that this is simply the nature of the fruit and the recipe (are figs particularly pectin-y? surely not).

FIG PRESERVES

2 1/4 lbs (1 kg) fresh black figs
3 3/4 cups (800 g) granulated white sugar
Juice of 1 lemon
2 vanilla beans

1. Rinse figs in cold water and wipe dry with a clean towel. Remove the stems and quarter the figs. If they're particularly large, cut them into eighths. Split the vanilla beans lengthwise

2. Combine the figs, sugar, lemon juice, and vanilla beans in a non-reactive bowl. Cover, ideally with a piece of crumpled, damp parchment paper. Set aside to macerate for an hour.

3. Pour the contents of the bowl into your preserving pan and bring them to a simmer. Return them to the bowl and cover again. Put this into the refrigerator for at least eight hours, or overnight.

4. Prepare your jars for canning.

5. Again return the fruit mixture to the pan. Bring it to a full boil. Skim off the foam if you care about that sort of thing. Continue cooking until the mixture comes up to 221° F (105° C) -- about 5 to 10 minutes. Remove the vanilla beans near the end of the process. Stir gently as it cooks.

6. Pour the jam into jars and seal.

Comments

[lindy (aka Mum)]

Yum. I wish for figs.

You may find your jam gets more jelled as it sits on the shelf a few weeks. This has happened with several of mine, though sadly, mostly with those which were jelled enough already, and not with the yummy, but runny strawberries.

[holly]

thanks so much for posting this recipe! now i have 2 canning projects for this week...fig preserves and raspberry jam!

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[Matt]

A very timely posting. I've seen a lot on preserving figs, but even one that seems to "candy" them... http://www.culiblog.org/