glittyknittykitty

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November 13, 2007

Fig and Vanilla Jam

Jammy breakfast

I have a bit of a thing for making jam. I derive great satisfaction from it,it doesn't take long, and it makes the house smell great. I have had previous great success with blackberry jelly, seville marmalade and strawberry, but a few weeks ago it was fresh fig season and I felt the urge to experiment. I'd heard about plum and vanilla jam, using the seeds and the pod, and keeping both in the jar on sealing and thought that it would work well with fig.

1.5 kg fresh figs
750 g granulated sugar (I didn't bother with 'jam sugar')
1 vanilla pod

Put your oven to 100C and put your intended jars and lids in for 15 minutes. Turn the oven off and leave standing in the warm oven.

Cover the figs with the sugar, slit your vanilla pod, and scrape seeds in to the pan also, plus add the empty pod and leave to marinate for at least 30 minutes. The sugar will draw out the figs' moisture, which means that it is then much easier to squish them down to a pulp- use a potato masher or a sturdy fork. Once mashed, mix well and warm slowly, stirring regularly, until the sugar and figs have melted down and the sugar dissolved entirely.

Bring to the boil (I'd recommend using a proper 'preserving' pan- it does help) and cook for 10 minutes or so. Test the setting point (to see whether it is going to set in to jam or whether it needs more cooking time) by putting a little dollop on a cold plate, then replace in the fridge for a few minutes. Take the pan off the heat whilst you do this. I like my jam on the runny side, so if the dollop shows even the slightest hint of wrinkle, I take that as done.

Take out the still warm jars, fill with jam (be careful, hot jam scalds!), and add either the whole vanilla pod (if a big jar) or cut in to several pieces and put a piece in each jar. Seal and leave to cool.

Posted by scumkitten at November 13, 2007 02:12 PM