Mission Fig Jam

I am having guests over for Christmas appies, and am doing a cheese plate.  I wanted to have some kind of jam for it.  I had bought some dried apricots and Mission figs and discovered a recipe for a quick and easy jam!  I was excited and decided to try it and made my own edits to it.  I added in a good dash of balsamic vinegar as well.

• 8 ounces dried Mission figs
• 1/2 cup sugar (the figs were really sweet)
• 1 cup water
• Juice from one lemon 
• 1 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract 

I put all the ingredients in a saucepan except for the vanilla.  I brought this to a boil.  I simmered until it thickened slightly and as the recipe said, turned a "rosy, golden shade".  That took about 15 minutes for me.

I took it off the heat and stirred in the vanilla extract.  I let it cool for 10 minutes and then used my immersion blender to puree it until smooth.  I thought the taste was very good.  Not too sweet and I was very happy with it.  I wished I had some blue cheese to try it on!  It felt good to know what was in the ingredients, even if it had sugar. 

I put in an airtight container, in the fridge.  The recipe said it would keep for a week.