Fig-Lemon Spiced Jam with Agave, Honey or Sugar
Fig-Lemon Spiced Jam with Agave, Honey, or Sugar is a low-sweetener cooked jam made with Pomona’s Universal Pectin and contributed by Karen Killebrew. Pomona’s Pectin contains no sugar or preservatives and jells reliably with low amounts of any sweetener. Karen says: “I just converted this favorite recipe over to Pomona’s. I won a Blue Ribbon at the Gold Country Fair in Auburn, CA for this jam a number of years ago, but my fig supply has been inconsistent for a few years. A friend’s tree is coming of age, and she just gave me over 6 pounds, so I revised the recipe for Pomona’s Universal Pectin and made a double batch today. Hope your followers like it!”Karen used 1 cup of agave as the sweetener in this recipe. We used 1 cup of coconut sugar.
Servings 5 cups
Ingredients
- 2½ pounds figs finely chopped and mashed
- 2 lemons
- ¼ cup plus 2 Tablespoons lemon juice either fresh or bottled
- 4 teaspoons calcium water see step #1
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon ground
- ¼ teaspoon cloves ground
- ½ cup up to 1 cup light agave syrup See note
- 3 teaspoons Pomona’s Pectin mixed with sweetener
Instructions
- Before you begin, prepare calcium water.To do this, combine ½ teaspoon calcium powder (in the small packet in your box of Pomona’s pectin) with ½ cup water in a small, clear jar with a lid. Shake well.Extra calcium water should be stored in the refrigerator for future use.
- Prepare boiling water canner. Heat jars in simmering water until ready for use. Wash lids and bands and set aside.
- Wash, stem, chop, and mash figs. If figs are too firm for mashing, bring to boil in sauce pan with ½ cup of water and simmer 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and mash.
- Measure 4 cups of mashed fig and set aside. Save any extra for another use.
- Wash the 2 lemons. Using a vegetable peeler, remove thin pieces of the yellow exterior of the peel from both lemons. Avoid taking the inner white pith. Then chop the peel into small bits. Put the peel in a sauce pan with ½ cup of water, bring to a boil, turn heat down, cover, and simmer for about 15 minutes until peel is soft. Check regularly and add more water if necessary. It’s okay if there is some water left with the peel after simmering.
- Add 4 cups of mashed fig to the softened peel in the sauce pan.
- Using a paring knife, remove all of the white pith from both of the lemons. Then slice the lemons thinly and remove seeds. Finely chop lemons taking care to keep all the lemon juice. Add chopped lemon pulp and juice to sauce pan with mashed fig and peel.
- Add additional lemon juice, calcium water, cinnamon, and cloves to the sauce pan, and mix well.
- Measure sweetener into a bowl. Thoroughly mix pectin powder into sweetener. Set aside.
- Bring fruit mixture to a full boil. Add pectin-sweetener mixture, stirring vigorously for 1 to 2 minutes to dissolve the pectin while the jam comes back up to a boil. Once the jam returns to a full boil, remove it from the heat.
- Remove hot jars from canner and fill jars with (marmalade/jam/jelly), leaving ¼ inch of headspace. Remove trapped air bubbles, wipe rims and put on lids and screw bands, tightening bands only to “fingertip tight” (until resistance is met, and then just the tiniest bit more).
- Place jars in the hot water, on the rack inside the canner. (Make sure jars are upright, not touching each other or the sides of the canner, and are covered with at least 1-2 inches of water). Place the lid on the canner, bring the canner to a rolling boil, and boil for 10 minutes. (Add 1 minute additional processing time for every 1000 feet above sea level.)
- Turn off heat and allow canner and jars to sit for 5 minutes. Then, remove jars from canner. Allow jars to cool undisturbed for 12-24 hours. Then, confirm that jars have sealed, then store properly. Eat within 1 year. Lasts 3 weeks once opened.
Notes
Options: Honey can be substituted for the agave. 1 to 2 cups of sugar can be substituted for the agave.