Homemade Fig Butter

Did you know it takes anywhere from 50 – 120 days for figs to ripen once they’ve formed on the tree?? Figs really take their time to reach perfection, and it can feel like an extremely long time to wait for such a small fruit. But once they’re ready, it starts to happen fast – and before you know it, you’ve got piles of fruit that need to be used right away.

That’s when it’s time to make homemade Fig Butter. Making your own fig butter is an easy way to use up an excess of figs. All you need to do is cook them on the stove with sugar and a few other ingredients to bring out their best flavor until they become a thick, spreadable paste. 

You can easily double or triple this recipe if you’ve got a big fig tree that’s putting out a ton of fruit, but note that this recipe is for refrigerator or freezer fruit butter and does not have instructions for canning.

If you make this fig butter, I highly recommend using it to fill these delicious Fig & Brie Cinnamon Rolls!

Recipe highlights

• The easiest way to make use of excess figs. If you’re abundant in figs, there’s no easier way to use them up than making a big batch of fig butter.
• Perfectly spiced. Cooking the figs with a whole cinnamon stick, a pinch of salt, and a little fresh lemon juice & zest elevates the natural flavor of the figs beautifully.
• Low on sugar. This recipe is WAY less sweet than store-bought fig jams and butters. Of course, you can always sweeten it more to taste.

How to tell when figs are ripe

Figs are ripe when they’re extremely soft and a bit fragrant. If you give them a light squeeze, you should feel some give. They may feel a bit swollen, like a water balloon.

They will also change colors as they ripen, but this color will vary depending on the variety. Black and brown varieties of figs will become a dark purplish color, and green figs will become a lighter, more yellow shade.

Tips for making fig butter

Use any variety of figs. It really doesn’t matter what type of figs you use for homemade fig butter. Use whatever is growing in your garden or what’s available at your local grocery store or farmers market.

It will help to taste the figs by themselves before cooking with them. Some varieties of figs will be naturally sweeter than others. It’s helpful to know how sweet your figs are before adding sweetener to your mixture.

Remove the stems! Be sure to remove the fig stems before cooking with them. I also like to cut the figs into quarters so they break down faster.

Cook fig butter at a simmer. You don’t want to boil the mixture, as the heat is a bit too intense and can cause sticking to the bottom of the pan. A nice gentle simmer is perfect here. Be sure to stir frequently to prevent scorching!

Use a heavy-bottomed pan. Because fruit butters require a rather long cooking time and most of the water will get cooked out, it’s best to use a stainless steel pan with a thick bottom so your mixture doesn’t burn.

Know when it’s ready. The goal is to cook the mixture until all the water has evaporated out, the figs are completely broken down, and the butter is thick but spreadable. It should hold its shape on a spoon.

Variations & substitutions

Use this recipe as a jumping-off point, but feel free to change it up as you see fit. Here are some variations you might want to try:

Spices. If you like a spicier fig butter, feel free to add an extra cinnamon stick. You could also add ground or whole nutmeg, cardamom, ginger, allspice and/or cloves. Just remember to remove any whole spices after cooking before you puree the mixture!

I recommend adding a small amount of spice at first and tasting the batch before adding more. Sometimes, a little goes a long way!

Additional flavorings. You could opt to skip the lemon juice and zest or try replacing it with fresh orange instead. 

Another idea for flavoring would be to add a whole vanilla bean to the mixture while cooking. Slice the vanilla bean in half lengthwise and scrape out the seeds with the back of a knife. Add in the seeds and whole vanilla pod to the saucepot with the figs, water, and other flavorings. Follow the rest of the recipe instructions, removing the vanilla pod after cooking.

Sweetener. I used coconut sugar for my fig butter because I like the darker flavor of this sweetener. It’s also a bit less sweet than granulated sugar and has a lower glycemic index. However, you could substitute this for regular white or brown sugar instead.

Feel free to add more sugar to reach the level of sweetness that you prefer. This can also depend greatly on how naturally sweet your figs are.

Fig butter recipe ideas

So now you’ve made fig butter, but what do you use it for? Here are just a few ideas to get your creative juices flowing:

• Use it to fill Fig & Brie Cinnamon Rolls (pictured above)
• Add it to a charcuterie board
• Spread it on toast in the morning
• Layer it between cakes
• Add it to trifles 
• Swirl it into bread recipes (try substituting it for the raspberry jam in this no-knead focaccia recipe)
• Dollop it on top of pancakes or waffles