Learn how to make Honey-Sweetened Cardamom Fig Butter. A combination of cinnamon and cardamom works so well with the earthy flavors of figs to make this heavenly, delicious, & silky-smooth fig butter. A huge dallop of it smeared on toasted cinnamon bread makes the most decadent & tasty autumn breakfast.

I LOVE figs. They are my favorite fruit. At our previous home, we planted THREE fig trees (this despite all the info I read online saying that a family of five will be drowning in figs from just one tree). Tragically, however, the land at our last place was in a bad place (I talk about it in the intro of my How to Grow Figs article). So despite my hard work, the fig trees there just didn’t thrive. They didn’t die but they also didn’t grow. 

I tried to salvage them by moving all three fig trees to our new (and current) property. However, in the first year, the deer ate them down to nubs (so we put up deer fence). In the second year, we were away for a whole month in the summer and there were record high-temps and zero rainfall for the entire time, so the fig trees weren’t happy. This year, I gave them all the loving that I could in order to make up for their non-thriving past (including the best companion plants for a fruit orchard). Unfortunately, they still aren’t growing, so I think it’s time to start again with new fig trees. So I’ll be starting three new fig trees this fall when it’s time to plant orchard trees. 

In the meantime, I’ve been blessed with a wonderful friend who also planted multiple fig trees and is practically begging friends to take her fig harvests. I was fortunate to come home with almost 3 pounds of fresh figs and I knew that I wanted to make fig butter with them.

I’m a big fan of the texture of fruit butters (here’s my recipe for honey-sweetened cinnamon apple butter) because I love the decadent silky texture. Honestly though, I love all-things-figs so I’ll probably share many more fig recipes here in the future. 

I also prefer using honey to sweeten my recipes instead of white sugar, so I searched carefully for a honey fruit butter recipe. I came across this Fig Honey Butter recipe from one of my fave bloggers Grow Forage Cook Ferment. She uses cinnamon, allspice, and cloves for her spices. I don’t care for cloves and I’m obsessed with cardamom so I saved my recipe here since I altered it and I wanted to remember the exact ratios that I used. 

I think the earthy flavor of cardamom works really nicely with the earthy flavors of figs, but if you aren’t a fan, you can use allspice and/or extra cinnamon instead. 

A lot of fig jam and preserve recipes, especially if you’re canning them, call for pretty long simmering times. This is a busy time of year for me and figs don’t keep very well long-term, so I needed a recipe that wouldn’t take all day in the kitchen. Fortunately, this fig butter recipe takes less than an hour to make.

Honey-Sweetened Cardamom Fig Butter Recipe

Makes 4 half-pint or 2 pint jars of fig butter

Ingredients:

• 2.5 – 3 pounds fresh figs
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 Tbsp. lemon juice (see notes)
• 1 Tbsp. lemon zest
• 3/4 – 1 cup honey (see notes)
• 1 – 2 tsp. cinnamon (see notes)
• 1/2 – 1 tsp. ground cardamom (see notes) 
• 1/4 tsp. salt

Instructions:

1. Cut off the stems on your figs and halve or quarter them. (No need for perfection here).
2. Put the fig pieces in a large pot. Add 1/2 cup water, 2 Tbsp. lemon juice, and 1 Tbsp. lemon zest to the pot as well. Bring to a boil, and then put the heat on low so the fig butter is simmering.
3. Add 3/4 cup of honey, 1 tsp. cinnamon, 1/2 tsp. cardamom, and 1/4 tsp. salt. Simmer on low and stir occasionally for 30 minutes.
4. After the 30 minutes is up, turn off the heat and let it slightly cool down for approximately 5 minutes (the cooldown time is so it won’t burn your skin if it splatters in the next step).
5. Use an immersion blender (like this one) to make the fig butter smooth and silky.
6. Continue cooking on low for another 13 minutes (or until it reaches preferred consistency). During this part of the cooking, occasionally take out a little bit to taste and adjust the flavoring to your liking (see notes). 
7. Once you’re in love with the texture and taste of your fig butter, remove the pot from the heat and let it cool down completely. Then transfer to clean jars.
8. This is not a canning recipe. You can store it in the refrigerator for up to 3 weeks and in the freezer for up to six months.

Notes:

• I’m a bold-flavor kind of gal, so the amount of flavorings I put in my fig butter might be too strong for normal folks. Start with the smaller amounts in the ingredient list (as mentioned already in step 3) and wait until step 6 to decide if you need more honey, cinnamon, and/or cardamom. Add a little bit at a time and keep tasting until it’s perfect for your taste buds. If you accidentally add a bit too much honey or spices, add a few splashes of lemon juice to brighten up the flavors, wait a few minutes, and then taste again.
• If you don’t like cardamom, you can use allspice instead or add extra cinnamon.
• The longer you let the fig butter simmer (in step 6), the silkier and smoother it will get. If you prefer a bit more texture to your fig butter, only use the immersion blender briefly (step 5) and also lower the amount of time it simmers in step 6.
• My favorite way to eat fig butter is by smearing it on toasted cinnamon bread. My hubby loves a big spoonful of it with his yogurt for breakfast. You can also find quick bread recipes that use fruit butter (or muffins, cookies, etc.). 

Honey-Sweetened Cardamom Fig Butter Recipe

Yield: 4 half pints

Learn how to make Honey-Sweetened Cardamom Fig Butter. A combination of cinnamon and cardamom works so well with the earthy flavors of figs to make this heavenly, delicious, & silky-smooth fig butter. A huge dallop of it smeared on toasted cinnamon bread makes the most decadent autumn breakfast.

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Ingredients

• 2.5 – 3 pounds fresh figs
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 Tbsp. lemon juice (see notes)
• 1 Tbsp. lemon zest
• 3/4 – 1 cup honey (see notes)
• 1 – 2 tsp. cinnamon (see notes)
• 1/2 – 1 tsp. ground cardamom (see notes)
• 1/4 tsp. salt

Instructions

1. Cut off the stems on your figs and halve or quarter them. (No need for perfection here).
2. Put the fig pieces in a large pot. Add 1/2 cup water, 2 Tbsp. lemon juice, and 1 Tbsp. lemon zest to the pot as well. Bring to a boil, and then put the heat on low so the fig butter is simmering.
3. Add 3/4 cup of honey, 1 tsp. cinnamon, 1/2 tsp. cardamom, and 1/4 tsp. salt. Simmer on low and stir occasionally for 30 minutes.
4. After the 30 minutes is up, turn off the heat and let it slightly cool down for approximately 5 minutes (the cooldown time is so it won’t burn your skin if it splatters in the next step).
5. Use an immersion blender to make the fig butter smooth and silky.
6. Continue cooking on low for another 13 minutes (or until it reaches preferred consistency). During this part of the cooking, occasionally take out a little bit to taste and adjust the flavoring to your liking (see notes). 
7. Once you’re in love with the texture and taste of your fig butter, remove the pot from the heat and let it cool down completely. Then transfer to clean jars.
8. This is not a canning recipe. You can store it in the refrigerator for up to 3 weeks and in the freezer for up to six months.

Notes

• I’m a bold-flavor kind of gal, so the amount of flavorings I put in my fig butter might be too strong for normal folks. Start with the smaller amounts in the ingredient list (as mentioned already in step 3) and wait until step 6 to decide if you need more honey, cinnamon, and/or cardamom. Add a little bit at a time and keep tasting until it’s perfect for your taste buds. If you accidentally add a bit too much honey or spices, add a few splashes of lemon juice to brighten up the flavors, wait a few minutes, and then taste again.

• If you don’t like cardamom, you can use allspice instead or add extra cinnamon.

• The longer you let the fig butter simmer (in step 6), the silkier and smoother it will get. If you prefer a bit more texture to your fig butter, only use the immersion blender briefly (step 5) and also lower the amount of time it simmers in step 6.

• My favorite way to eat fig butter is by smearing it on toasted cinnamon bread. My hubby loves a big spoonful of it with his yogurt for breakfast. You can also find quick bread recipes that use fruit butter (or muffins, cookies, etc.). 

Love honey? Here’s a list of my other honey-sweetened recipes:

• Honey-Sweetened Cinnamon Apple Butter Recipe
• How to Make Goldenrod Honey
• Crockpot Peach Butter with Honey
• Honey-Sweetened Strawberry Chia Seed Jam Recipe
• How to Make Elderberry Syrup
• Honey-Sweetened Lemon Balm Lemonade