Glyko Sykalaki kai Marmelada Syko (Fig Spoon Sweet and Jam)

These two recipes cannot be made during the same period as the spoon sweet is made when the figs are still green and the jam is made when figs are ripe.

Actually these ripe fis were not intended to become a fig jam but as I said yesterday, when I went to the farmers’ market I bought tons of fruit, amongst other two kinds of figs: black figs and royal figs.

The only ones in the family eating figs is my elder son and me. We ate a few but since I had bought so many other fruit, after a few days later I saw that they were becoming soft and if I didn’t do anything quick, I would have to throw them away.

So the first thing that came to my mind was to preserve them. I peeled them, weighed them (i just guessed about the sugar as I was not following any recipe) and added sugar and brandy. I put them on the heat stirring until the sugar dissolved and when they began to boil, I lowered the heat and simmered them for 15 minutes. I added the lemon juice and removed them from the heat. I let it cool down and stored the jam in the refrigerator until I had time to think what to do with it.

When it cooled down I tried it and could not stop eating. It was so addictive, I could eat it all at once. When I made it I didn’t add too much sugar as I wanted to use it right away and not to preserve it as a proper jam, so if you’re thinking of preserving it, add more sugar. A few days later I searched for recipes in the internet and decided to make one. It was a disaster but I will talk about this and what I eventually made in another post.

Fig Jam, Recipe by Ivy

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 15 minutes

Yields: 3 cups

• 700 grams of figs (after being peeled) (I used black figs and royal figs)
• 300 grams of sugar (I would say add 400 – 500 grams)
• 2 tablespoons of lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons of brandy

Directions:

1. Peel figs and cut into 4. Add sugar, lemon juice and brandy and put on heat stirring and pressing them with the spoon to release their juice.
2. When they boil, lower heat and simmer for fifteen minutes, mixing constantly.
3. Allow to cool before using or placing into clean jars.

2010 Update:

Rum and Cinnamon Fig Jam

This year I decided to make something different.  It was ready in less than half an hour.

Fig Jam with Lemon, Rum and Cinnamon, Recipe by Ivy

Ingredients:

• 10 medium black figs
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/5 cup lemon juice
• 1/5 cup dark rum
• zest of 1 lemon
• 1 stick cinnamon

Directions:

Peel the figs and cut them into small pieces.   Put them in a saucepan together with all the other ingredients and with a wooden spoon, press to mash them.  As soon as they begin boiling, reduce heat and keep mixing for about 15 – 20 minutes, until it begins to thicken.

Allow to cool before storing into clean sterilized  jars.

I just loved the combination of lemon with cinnamon!!

Fig Spoon Sweet

In order to preserve figs, they should not be ripe.  

In Greece figs are ripe around August, so we make the preserve around end April – early May.  The amount of sugar depends on the weight of the figs.  Weigh the figs after peeling them and add the same amount of sugar.   Also see note below.

Ingredients:

• 50 unripe figs
• 1 ½ kilos sugar
• 1 cup of cooking quick pickling lime
• 3 cups of water
• ½ cup of lemon juice
• Cloves and/or vanilla
• 50 blanched and roasted almonds (optional) or use 25 and split them into two pieces
• 2 tablespoons of lemon juice.

Peal off a thin layer of skin from the figs (use gloves to protect yourself from the latex oozing out of the figs). Place them in a big pot with the water and quick lime for 1 hour.

Rinse the figs thoroughly and return to pot, cover with water and bring them to boil. Use a skewer or a knitting needle to poke them and when the fall off the skewer you will know that they are cooked.

Remove from the heat, drain them and use fresh water to cover them and add the lemon juice. Let them soak for one hour.

Meantime blanche and roast the almonds and after the one hour drain them again and insert one almond in each. Push it from underneath.

Put them back to the pan, cover with sugar and the 3 cups of water and let them rest for ½ an hour.

Put them back on the heat and bring them to boil, reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes.

Leave them in the pot all night and the following day bring them to boil again until syrup is thick. When they are done, add 2 tablespoons of lemon juice and the vanilla.

Remove from heat and they should cool down before placing them into sterilized jars.

Note:  Next time I will make them I will double the amount of sugar and water, as they absorb a lot of syrup and was not enough left to fill the jars and preserve the spoon sweet.

Update:  1 May 2013

If the figs are very small, there is no need to peel them.

This year they were very small.  1 kilo figs  were 137 figs.

I did not poke them.  I just cut the tip on top and removed  the hard end, on the other side,  with a sharp knife.

After boiling and changing the water twice, I let them drain the water but as I was adding a clove on top and the almond on the hole, below, as I squeezed them, a lot of water came out, so I did this to all the figs.  They looked very wrinkled but when boiling them again with the sugar, the syrup was penetrated through, so they get their shape again.

As I mentioned above, I double the amount of sugar and water.

I did not use pickling lime.

Related Posts

Other recipes you might enjoy:

About Spoon sweets
How do we know if syrup is ready?
How to fix spoon sweets
Cherries
Water melon
Bitter oranges
Bergamot
Sour cherries
Apples
Karydaki (green (immature) walnuts)
Lemon Marmalade
Strawberry Jam

Kopiaste and Kali Orexi,

Tags: fig jam, fig preserve, Fig spoon sweet, figs, glyko syko, Jams and preserves, marmelada syko, Spoon Sweets, sykalaki