Fig Preserves with Lemon
Do you love figs? Or do you have a fig tree and wonder what to do with ALL THESE FIGS? Thankfully I have a generous neighbor with a beautiful fig tree! And she is so kind to share with me. A few years ago, I stumbled across the most wonderful recipe for Fig Preserves with Lemon. Now if you keep thinking of the old fig newtons we were given as kids…just blot that memory from your mind. These preserves are so fragrant and delicious. My personal preference is to eat them on an equally delicious aged cheese with crackers. You can also use this in a baked cheese recipe like my recipe Ultimate Valentines Dinner In: Baked Camembert. (you can use Brie here as well)
The recipe is actually quite simple with just 4 ingredients and time. It takes almost 4 hours to slow roast the figs and lemon in the oven. The slow roasting gives them time to develop a wonderful caramel color and thick syrup.
The canning of the Fig Preserves with Lemon is simple as well. If you have never canned anything before there are just a few rules to remember.
Canning Rules for Safety
- Clean and sterilize your Jars. You can wash them by hand and boil in water on the stove if you want. Use a jar lifter to remove from hot water to keep from burning yourself.
- Use new/unused lids to insure a good seal on your jars. Heat these in hot water as well. Remove from hot water with magnet lid remover.
- Fill hot jars with hot filling (figs), clean rim of jar to ensure good seal, use hot lid and screw on ring finger tight.
- Listen for “Pop” that indicates seal.
- When all jars are completely cool check all lids for a seal. If any “Seal” when you check them that doesn’t count as sealed. Keep these jars in the refrigerator. Store sealed jars in cool, dry place for 1 year.
I prefer Ball canning products myself. I use a set of their canning tools as well to remove the hot jars from boiling water and hot lids from hot water. Granite Ware has a Canning Tool Set on Amazon that has all of the tools you need in one pack. This makes life so much easier! For this recipe you will want Ball half pint (8 ounce) jars. I also used a few Ball 4 ounce jars to give away as gifts. Canning Jars are in high demand right now. So if you want them and find them I recommend you buy them. I will link some here to help. Maybe Amazon will have them.
I love old recipes. And this version of an old French recipe for roasted figs. I hope you fall in love…I know I did!
Fig Preserves with Lemon
Equipment
- Pint cannings jars
Ingredients
- 1 lemon quartered and thinly sliced
- 3 pounds ripe figs rinsed, and quartered
- 1 ½ cups sugar
- 1 cup water
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 300 degrees.
- Spray 9×13 casserole pan with non-stick spray
- Scatter sliced lemon in bottom of pan. Follow with sliced figs.
- Pour sugar over the figs and drizzle water over entire pan.
- Cover pan with aluminum foil and bake for 2 hours.
- After 2 hours uncover pan and stir.
- Return pan to oven and increase oven temperature to 400 degrees.
- Bake for additional 1 ½ hours.
- Pour hot fig preserves into prepared half pint jars.
- Jars must be hot & sterile and your lids must be new and hot to seal.
- If your jars seal with a “pop” preserves will last one year.
