A wonderful Dried Fig Jam recipe. This is a thicker and heartier treat than your traditional fig jam recipe. This sweet and savory Meyer Lemon and Dried Fig Conserve, enhanced with wine, honey, and walnuts is a lovely savory and sweet appetizer pairing, ideal for your meat & cheese tray or as a topping to goat cheese or brie. This Fig Conserve is also a great preserve for canning.
I guess I’m a little predictable. When the weather starts to cool, I am ready to bring out my canning gear and spend time putting up preserves, stocks, and soups for our enjoyment as well as for gifting. This Dried Fig Jam is always a big hit on our charcuterie board, over brie, over goat cheese or just on its own!
I’ve been asked the question about the differences between a fig jam recipe and a fig conserve. A fig conserve is just a fig jam recipe with a thicker, chunkier texture often including dried fruit and nuts.
For this delectable fig conserve recipe, I used a bag of dried figs, a luscious and sunny Meyer lemon, and a few pears.
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With figs being a low acid fruit, I am not comfortable totally ‘winging’ a recipe. As such, I used the Fig Preserves recipe in the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving as a reference, making adjustments but assuring that I kept the Ph low with lemon, lemon juice, white wine, and vinegar.
This was also the first time I have canned with Weck jars and very much enjoyed the process. They are more expensive, but there is no guessing about whether or not you have the lids screwed on too tight or too loose. Plus, they are really pretty and I am a sucker for pretty storage things.
I used my jar lifter for my Ball/Kerr jars but just ordered The Weck Jar Lifter…I was worried that my Ball/Kerr jar lifter was going to pop the metal brackets off of the Weck jars.
These are the tools that I regularly use for all my canning recipes:
That Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving is my bible. Even if I think I could make the recipe in my sleep, I double-check myself against the Ball Book…that whole botulism thing. If you are new to canning, it should be your very first purchase. My cookbook library inventory recently expanded with the addition of The All New Ball Book Of Canning And Preserving: Over 350 of the Best Canned, Jammed, Pickled, and Preserved Recipes!
So…this dried fig conserve…a turbocharged fig jam recipe with lots of goodies packed inside!
I found myself eating it by the spoonful….please don’t judge.
Let me see if I can put the taste into words (hold on a second, I and need to get a jar and a spoon to be as accurate as possible)
OK…I’m back. Wow! If you love a good fig jam recipe, you’re gonna love this. So…in each bite there’s clearly the fig and yummy morsels of nuts and honey, but it’s also accompanied by the sublime flavor of the Meyer lemon rind which gives it just a little tang. Don’t try to substitute a regular lemon…you really do need a Meyer Lemon. Not only is the rind of the Meyer edible on its own, but its flavor just can’t be replicated with a regular lemon.
(Wait a minute, I need another bite) And then there’s the earthy crunch of the walnuts! The Balsamic vinegar is barely there, just enough to offset the sweetness from the honey and sugar.
There’s no overt taste of rosemary, it’s very subtle, in the back.
So, you’ve made your Dried Fig Conserve and after you’ve given one to your mom (because she birthed you after all…it’s the least you can do) and you ate one full jar (because you lack self-restraint), what is the best way to enjoy this deliciousness?
Now, before you start making these, I want to tell you one of my favorite useful lifehacks. Before measuring the honey, coat your measuring spoon with oil which will make the honey slide right out without leaving any residue on the spoon!
A Meyer Lemon and Dried Fig Conserve made with honey, pears and walnuts. Perfect with your favorite cheese or on your morning toast. This Fig Conserve is basically a chunky fig jam recipe using dried fruit and nuts.
This recipe assumes some knowledge of proper and safe canning techniques. Please see the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving for guidance.
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Bookmark this page or pin the following image to refer back to this Chunky Fig Jam Recipe in the future. And, while you’re at it, check out this honeyed fruit and nuts recipe for a similar, but different recipe.
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Until next time…
Hugs,
Design by Themeshift.
Beth
January 10, 2018 at 5:09 pmThis recipe sounds delish and I would like to print the recipe, but can’t get the print link to work in be post. Could it be, the problem is on my end? Thanks!
Barbara Juneau
January 10, 2018 at 10:48 pmLove figs and will keep this one for the next “indoor day” to give it a try!
lynn
January 12, 2018 at 7:34 amOh Barbara…it is heavenly. My struggle is that I am eating it straight from the jar!
Claudia Carlin
January 18, 2018 at 5:22 pmJust finished making this recipe, of course doing the taste test as the batch was ready to go into the jars. It is just out of this world delicious! We really love it. 1 change I had to do in this recipe was substitute Splenda for the sugar for dietary reasons, but did use the honey. The base wine was a Sauvignon Blanc. I was really curious how this recipe could ever come together with this variety of ingredients, but it sure did, very impressed.
lynn
January 19, 2018 at 8:53 amOh Claudia, I am so glad you are enjoying as much as we do! My challenge is keeping my spoon out of the jar…it is so delicious just by the spoonful. Don’t say I didn’t warn you!
Thank you so much for taking a few minutes to share your thoughts.
Please know they are so very appreciated.
Happy Noshing my friend.
Hugs,
Lynn
Beth Trice
October 8, 2019 at 4:16 amCan’t wait to try this jam recipe, it sounds and looks delicious!! Thanks for sharing.
lynn
October 14, 2019 at 10:17 amHi Beth, I am slowly getting my canner busy. Canned some this weekend, with several more recipes in the queue. I hope you enjoy this one as much as we do.
Hugs,
Lynn
Olga
August 28, 2020 at 8:22 pmHi Lynn, do you think this recipe can be made with fresh figs?
If so, what kind of adjustment may be necessary?
Our tree is super charged this year so I’m trying all things fig 🙂
Thank you!
lynn
August 31, 2020 at 6:47 amGood Morning Olga!
How lucky that you have such a fig abundance. The birds seem to find ours before we do!
In all honesty, this conserve really gets its texture and body from dried figs. It would entirely change the water content of the finished product with fresh figs. May I suggest trying to dehydrate some of your figs? There are many ways to do it, with or without a food dehydrator. Check out this site for suggestions…
https://www.dryingallfoods.com/drying-figs/
Please let me know what you decide to do…I’m curious (and a tad jealous of your predicament!)
Hugs,
Lynn
Olga
August 31, 2020 at 1:40 pmHi Lynn, thanks for your response! We ended up ordering the dehydrator machine a few days ago as our persimmon tree is also charged this year, so we felt getting the machine is justified now that our trees are older and producing a lot. So I’ll try dehydrating some figs and will definitely test out this recipe. Will send an update later 🙂
lynn
September 4, 2020 at 7:29 pmI am so jealous! Supercharged figs AND persimmons! What a fantastic problem to have. Enjoy your dehydrating and canning.
Hugs,
Lynn