It’s fig season, and one way to use them up if you have a fig tree in your yard is to make jam. We have a couple of fig trees and my husband has been making jam for the last couple of weeks, but he was out of town and I decided to make my own recipe to try it out. This refrigerator fig jam is easy to make using a crockpot, or you can finish it on the stove to speed up the process.
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How many figs to use.
I used exactly 100 figs for this batch, so I put them in a large crockpot to start with. If you have less, you can use a smaller pot, or just do them on the stovetop from the beginning.
Start by washing the figs thoroughly to get the white sap out of them as much as possible. It’s an irritant, so it can irritate your skin and you should wash it away as much as you can. I wash the figs then soak them in water, then wash them again.
Once they’re all cleaned up, cut them into pieces and put them in the crockpot. You can also just cook them on the stovetop at this point, but the crockpot will soften them up enough for you to mash them up.
I started with exactly 100 figs, cut up into quarters. I didn’t add any water because there’s so much water in the figs themselves, and I was going to cook them down to begin with, as you’ll see in a bit.
For a recipe for pizza using fresh figs, click here.
Add the sugar and spices.
I added the sugar and spices into the crockpot and stirred it into the figs. The spice blend that I used for this batch was:
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 Tbsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp cardamom
- 1/2 tsp cloves
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg
You can also add honey, brown sugar, and any other spices that you think would go well with the figs.
See how to use this jam in fig bar sandwich cookies by clicking here.
Cook the figs.
I put the lid of the crockpot on to begin with and cooked the figs for a couple of hours on high. That heated them up and allowed the moisture in the figs to pool in the crockpot to start making the syrup.
After a couple of hours I mashed them up with a potato masher, and that allowed the sugar and spices to really get mixed in, too. If you want to add more spices in at this point you can do that.
Once they’re really mashed up they’ll be pretty liquidy, and you might be worried, but it’s okay because we’re going to move the figs to the stovetop now.
If you want to leave them in the crockpot, this article will give you the way to do that: Fruit reductions in a crockpot.
Finish cooking on the stove.
After mashing them up, I transferred them to a pan and finished cooking them on the stove. You could leave them in the crockpot and leave the lid off, too. It will take longer but without the lid the moisture in the mix will evaporate and will leave you with a good reduction. For a larger crockpot like the one I was using here, you might need to put the lid on sideway so that it’s covering the middle but it’s not sealing the moisture in. That will help the contents heat up, but the liquid will still be able to evaporate out of the crockpot.
I cooked the fig mixture to around 220F, which is the syrup stage for cooking sugar. Keep stirring it as it’s heating up to avoid any hot spots forming on the bottom of the pan. That will keep it from burning.
If you want to see what sugar syrup looks (and sounds) like when it’s done cooking, watch this video from when I cooked some pears using the same method:
Use an immersion blender for a smoother texture.
If you want to make more of an applesauce consistency, use an immersion blender to really smooth out the texture at this point. Be careful with this, though, because if it’s too smooth it will be more of a fruit puree than a jam. Having some lumps of fruit in the jam will give it some body, so you could just mash it up by hand some more instead.
This is what it looked like after I used the blender on it a little. It wasn’t totally smooth, but it was a lot more like a sauce instead of a jam. This would be good to use on top of ice cream and in smoothies, yum yum.
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How to store the jam.
This type of jam isn’t processed with heat, so it shouldn’t be stored at room temperature. After it cools off and isn’t too hot, you can put it in mason jars or sealable containers that can go in the fridge and freezer. You can freeze it for months to use later. Once you open it up you should keep it in the fridge and use it within a couple of weeks, so putting it in smaller containers is a good idea if you’re going to freeze it. That way you can take it out a little at a time and not feel like you have to eat it all at once!
If you want to give this as gifts, you can get some personalized labels from my Artisan Directory shop on Zazzle:
This is a good spread for eating on toast, and it’s a good way to use up the figs from your trees. You can add any mixture of spices to it depending on what you like, and it’s a good way to start your morning!