Fig Newtons (Homemade)

Spyder-man's Note:

Make your own version of these tasty cake/cookies

• Total Time: 2 hrs
• Prep Time: 1 hrs 30 mins
• Cook Time: 30 mins

Ingredients:

Serves: 12

Yield: 1.0 dozen

• 1 lb dried figs or 2 lbs fresh figs
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup water (1 c. for dried figs, 1/2 c. for fresh)
• ½ cup butter , room temp
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 tablespoon cream or 1 tablespoon milk
• ½ teaspoon vanilla
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 ¾ cups flour

Directions:

1. Dice figs, soak in water 1 hour.
2. Add sugar & cook on medium heat until of thin jam consistency.
3. Beat sugar, butter, egg, milk & vanilla until well blended.
4. Add dry ingredients.
5. Mix well and refrigerate for 1 hour.
6. Place 1/2 on well floured dough cloth; knead about 6 times.
7. Roll out to 1/4" thick. Line 13 x 9" glass baking dish; cover with figs.
8. Roll remaining dough, cover figs. Cook at 350° for 30 minutes.
9. Let cool and cut into squares. Depending on the size you cut you can get a couple dozen cookies.

Reviews

[Happy Hobbit]

Very tasty (please see how I rate)! The dough was difficult to work with (like working with wet sand), and reminded me of a crumbly pie crust dough. Chilling the dough helped, and I think a tad more flour would help even more (like 2 cups total). What worked best for me was to divide the batch into four pieces and roll out each piece with lots of flour on a piece of parchment paper, while keeping the rest in the refrigerator. I decided to make strudel shaped cookies: I rolled out a rectangle, spooned the filling down the center and lifted the sides of the rectangle to cover the center (using the paper base came in handy). I placed the shaped logs in the freezer and when firm enough transfered to the baking pan seam side down. Also, I would suggest working with relatively narrow dough rectangles (ca. 3 inches) as the logs flattened and expanded while baking. Two pounds of fresh figs made a lot of filling, way too much than for the strudel shaped cookies, maybe layering like in the recipe would use up more filling, but it still seems that there is A LOT of fig preserve (which will be great for breakfast!).

[evewitch]

These turned out pretty well. Yes, the jam does get thick. Yes the dough is a bit difficult to work with. I haven't a pastry cloth, so I patted half the crust in the bottom of the pan, and attempted to roll the other half between 2 sheets of plastic. I wasn't able to get it to completely cover, but it still worked out ok. I chilled for more than 1 hour, which really made the dough too stiff. Everyone who ate them enjoyed them, but not everyone agreed that they tasted like commercial fig newtons. I sprayed the pan with Baker's Joy, which is essential to keep the figs from sticking. (Regular PAM or oil would probably have been fine.)

[spanglish]

We loved the fig bars. I did, however, make a couple of changes. I used dried figs and did not add any extra sugar to them - just ran them through the food processor. I used a half cup of white sugar and a fourth cup of brown sugar in the crust and upped the amount of flour to two cups of mixed white and whole wheat flour. The bottom crust I just patted into the pan. I chilled the upper crust and rolled it out between two pieces of parchment. I'll definitely be making this recipe again!!