More Figs!

29 September 2012

Having been at work Monday through Thursday, by today (Friday) the fig tree was laden with fruit. I picked about 12-13 lbs (6 kilos). About half of them went into the food dehydrator last night - which reminds me, I need to package those up now that they are cool.

The other half went into the pot to become jam. I cut them up into pieces, ending up with about 4 cups of cut fruit.

 To the fruit I added about 3/4 cup of sugar and a cup of lemon juice and then simmered for about half an hour, stirring often. I didn't measure, but added them little by little until it was to my taste, as I prefer jam to be slightly tart. The recipe for fig jam in the pectin box called for NINE cups of sugar for this much fruit, ugh! I ended up not using pectin at all because it seemed thick enough and will probably firm up a bit as it cools.

Once the figs were really soft, I used a potato masher to "puree" the fruit, being too lazy to get the food processor dirty. It worked well and left the little seeds intact, which looked pretty in the jars, as you see below. This was only my second attempt at canning. so I hope the seals will hold.

Since those were yesterday's figs, I picked a few more today. I saw a recipe on the Food Network site for baked figs with mascarpone, honey, and pistachios. I adapted it a bit by omitting the honey and using toasted walnuts.

 The mascarpone takes a little practice to handle. It took me a few tries before I could get it off the spoon without making a total disaster, and also, by the time I got them all done, the first ones were starting to melt like butter. It would have been better to wait until the figs had cooled completely before adding the toppings.

Although the baked figs were good, the flavors were somewhat bland. Just for curiosity's sake, I made one up with a fresh uncooked fig, and we decided that the three flavors were much clearer. Next time I would not bother to bake them.