Orange Fig Jam – When Life Gives You Figs, Make Fig Jam
This orange fig jam recipes is so incredibly easy to make, requires no pectin and tastes heavenly! I don’t even like figs and I love this jam. Use it on bread, in desserts, but my favorite way is with brie and crackers!
If you’ve been reading my posts for a while, you may recall that I don’t like fresh figs.
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However, I love orange fig jam! I’m going to show you…
How to Make Orange Fig Jam
I wish I did like figs, because they’re insanely good for you, but I just don’t; I can’t lie. However, a few years ago, I was practically force fed an appetizer by a French foodie friend, that had fig jam on top–and well–I loved it! It didn’t taste like figs to me, and the funny thing is that my mother, who ADORES fresh figs, doesn’t like fig jam! She thinks it’s sacrilegious to even think about making fig jam.
Well, I had to disappoint her (again), because at our last Food Bloggers of Los Angeles (FBLA) meeting, the lovely Karla Stockli from the California Fig Advisory Board, Fresh Fig Growers Association and Fig Institute joined us, and brought us all flats of fresh figs (how’s that for alliteration?) At first, I wasn’t going to take one, but then I realized that I could make fig jam.
When I got home, I set out to find a recipe online and came across a Drunken Fig Jam recipe from Bon Appétit, and decided I’d make an orange version of it by replacing the brandy with Grand Marnier. I also swapped half of the lemon zest for orange. As I already commented, I like orange fig jam on top of brie and crackers, but you can use it anyway you like to use any other jam. Put it on bread or toast, in yogurt, with scones, etc. I hope you enjoy my recipe!
(Thank you, Karla! We’ll enjoy those figs well into winter now!)
Orange Fig Jam
adapted from Drunken Fig Jam on Bon Appétit makes about 5 half pint jars
FULL PRINTABLE RECIPE BELOW
Ingredients
- ripe, fresh figs
- zest from a fresh organic orange
- zest from a fresh organic lemon
- sugar
- Grand Marnier
- pinch of salt
Special equipment: glass jars for the jam
Directions to Make Orange Fig Jam
Place the figs in a large pot.
Next, add the orange and lemon zest, sugar, Grand Marnier and pinch of salt into the same pot.
Stir and let stand at room temperature for one hour, stirring occasionally.
After an hour, put the pot on medium high heat and bring to a boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar.
Reduce heat to medium and continue to boil the orange fig jam for approximately half an hour. Stir and mash the figs with a potato masher, to crush the pieces. When it has boiled for half an hour, remove from heat.
Ladle the orange fig jam into rinsed, hot clean jars (rinsed with boiling water), leaving about 1/4″ space at the top, clean the rim and cover with hot lids (also rinsed with boiling water).
Finally, process in a water bath for 10 minutes, or keep refrigerated.
NOTE: when I make jam, I pour the boiling jam into old jam jars. Once the jam cools, the middle of the lids will almost always “pop” meaning the jars have sealed (the center of the jar will also become concave). If they do not “pop”, the jam will definitely spoil (and will be dangerous to ingest) if not refrigerated. I keep the unsealed jars in the fridge.
Cut some pretty fabric and cover the lids, tied with a little ribbon for beautiful gifts.
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Orange Fig Jam
Ingredients
- 4 ½ cups fresh figs (stems removed and cut into 1/2" pieces)
- 1 orange zest organic
- 1 lemon zest organic
- 2 cups sugar
- 4 oz Grand Marnier
- 1 pinch salt
Instructions
- Place the figs in a large pot the add the orange and lemon zest, sugar, Grand Marnier and pinch of salt. Stir and let stand at room temperature for one hour, stirring occasionally.
- After an hour, put the pot on medium high heat and bring to a boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar.
- Reduce heat to medium and continue to boil for approximately half an hour, stirring and mashing the figs with a potato masher, to crush the pieces. Remove from heat.
- Ladle into rinsed, hot clean jars (rinsed with boiling water), leaving about 1/4″ space at the top, clean the rim and cover with hot lids (also rinsed with boiling water) immediately.
- When cool, the lids will "POP" and become concave in the middle. If this does not happen, the seal is not good and you will have to store these jars in the fridge.
Notes
Nutrition
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I grow figs here in Alabama. we love them. have tried strawberry 🍓 fig jam. its anazing!! carefully the strawberries will over power though i use 1/3 strawberry to 3/4 fig & OMG!! I REALLY THINK YOU WILL BE AMAZED!!! hope you try it! Roll Tide!!
Oh that sounds fantastic, David! Thanks for the tip! And my goodness, I know what Roll Tide is because I follow Drew Talbert on Instagram! haha!
If you do not water bathe jam it will grow mold and make your family sick. I’m shocked to learn you do not mention this as a part of your recipe. If in doubt of my info I’m passing to you, Google it. How water bathe for 30-40 minutes.
I’m making this as we speak. I didn’t have Triple Sec or Grand Mariner, so I’m trying a little orange juice, lemon juice, and rosé. I’ll let you know how it turns out!
Sounds good to me! Let me know how it turns out!
Is there a way to make this recipe as a freezer jam?
Hi Mary Lou, I have never made freezer jam, so I’m afraid I would just refer you to google. Sorry!
Well. Putting a little redneck slant in this. Figs are really really ripe. 2 liquor stores in my itty bitty south Alabama town. No Grand Mariner, or coin (can’t spell it) substituting triple Sec for the 4 oz. I also sliced the pith off the back of the peel and tossed the peels into the food processor instead of zesting. Omg. It smells so good, and tastes Devine now. I’ll let you know. No fancy cheeses, just a block of cream cheese and some Ritz crackers. Can’t wait. Thank you!!
You are too funny, Debbie, but I LOVE your work around the ingredients you can’t get! I bet it’s still delicious with Philly and crackers! Let me know, thank you!! :)
Holy crap Batman! This stuff is fine!! I kept eating it while it was cooking. Mine, so, my kids will have to deal. The smell of the orange, lemon, and triple sec was 🤤 this is “company” style, but since I sampled. I’m won’t share. My Buddy did this and she got the GM. We are going to have a tasting party. It has such a smooth citrus, not so figgy taste. I told her that we need to go buy some fancy cheeses and a bottle of wine for this. Thank you for the recipe! Printed and saved. Y’all make it!! North of Mobile, AL
Soooo happy to read this! I love your reviews, Debbie! Keep them comin’! :)
I have made several fig jams with white port, white wine or brandy and they were super delicious! I was excited to try this recipe but felt like the Grand Marnier took over the flavor of the fruit. I think I will try half orange juice and half Grand Marnier next time. I used the green figs which were not as sweet so maybe that was a factor as well…
Good idea, and yes maybe the figs were the reason, too. Good luck 🍀
Cindy, I just did this recipe. I did it with Triple Sec. My friend used the GM. We are having a sampling party, lol. I’ll let you know. It sure is good.
Came across this recipe when trying to find a different recipe for my deluge of figs. I have so many figs that I freeze them. Would thawed figs cause an issue with too much moisture for this recipe. I’m planning on using orange extract and vanilla instead of Grand Marnier. Thanks so much! I love orange so I’m looking forward to this.
Hi Karen, my apologies for the late reply as you wrote this when I left for NYC on my way to Italy for 3 weeks! I just got back last night and hope you tried the recipe. I have made jam from other frozen fruit with no issues, so I would guess that figs would work, too. Did you give it a try? Let me know, and again, sorry for the late response!
Great recipe! I have followed all the instructions but made it in the oven dish and baked it on 150 degrees C for 1 hour. I made it with 4 kg of figs and made one batch exactly following the recipe. In the next batch, in addition to this recipe-I have added 150 grams of dark chocolate, vanilla sugar and amaretto liquor! They both turned exceptionally good. Thanks for sharing your recipe with us!
Wow! Amazing, Ornela! So glad it turned out so well :) Enjoy!