Italian Fig Cookies

Last year, our first year in our house, I was pregnant and did not have the ambition to plant a garden.  But I am now planning what we will be planting in the spring, including some fruit trees.  One of the trees I noticed that we could plant is a dwarf fig tree.  When I mentioned it to Hey, Babe, his asked, "Do we even like fresh figs? Have we ever actually tried them?"  And I admitted we haven't.  So, he picked some up at the farmers market the following week.  I didn't really care for them eaten out of hand.  Perhaps they weren't quite ripe enough, or perhaps they were a bit too ripe, I really haven't the faintest idea.  But now, with almost a pound of fresh figs to use, I needed a recipe.  And that is where these come in.  They seemed like the perfect cookie to audition for a place on the Christmas Cookie platter.

This recipe comes from Gourmet December 2002.  All of the reviews said it smelled and tasted like Christmas, and from my understanding it is a traditional Italian Christmas cookie.  It originally called for dried figs, but I used my pound of fresh figs.  I pureed all the filling ingredients except the nuts together and let it simmer on the stove until it was thick and jammy.  Then I put it into the fridge to chill and got sidetracked by the kids.  It wasn't until several days later that I was able to make the dough.

 

  
By the time the dough had chilled and it was time to assemble I totally forgot about the nuts called for and the chocolate other reviewers had recommended.  It is a shame that I did because these cookies weren't quite what I was expecting.  I had hoped to be making a Christmasy Fig Newton, but what I got was a spice cookie that had enough strength to completely overwhelm the Figs, but then not enough strength left afterward to stand on their own.  Perhaps it was because I forgot the nuts and chocolate or because I used fresh figs instead of dried, whatever the reason is I will not make these the same way next time.  I am thinking that next time I will either leave out the orange zest and most if not all the spices and attempt to get more of a plain Fig Newton.  Either that or I will skip out on the Figs altogether and instead go with a Raspberry and Chocolate filling.  The crust was fine the way it was.  Overall these weren't bad, but they weren't shining stars either.

[edited to add:  okay, that was my impression the night they were cooked.  They were still very warm and I guess the flavors had not finished melding because I just tasted one this morning and it tastes totally different.  Soo much better!  I like a cookie that you can make ahead and it gets better instead of just stale.  I will still experiment with the fillings, but that is just because I can't leave well enough alone. ]

[an update here.]

Italian Fig Cookies

Ingredients

For filling:
1 cup packed soft dried Mission figs (8 oz), hard tips discarded
3/4 cup raisins (3 3/4 oz)
3/4 cup mild honey
1/4 cup brandy
1 1/2 teaspoons finely grated fresh orange zest
1 teaspoon finely grated fresh lemon zest
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
3/4 cup whole almonds (4 oz), toasted and coarsely chopped
3/4 cup walnuts (3 oz), toasted and coarsely chopped

For pastry dough:
4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 sticks (1 cup) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
2 large eggs lightly beaten
1/2 cup whole milk
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1 teaspoon finely grated fresh orange or lemon zest 

Instructions 

Make filling:
Pulse figs and raisins in a food processor until finely chopped, then stir together with remaining filling ingredients in a bowl. Chill, covered, at least 8 hours.

Make dough:
Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. Add butter and blend with your fingertips or a pastry blender (or pulse in a food processor) just until most of mixture resembles coarse meal with some small (roughly pea-size) butter lumps. Add eggs, milk, vanilla, and zest and stir with a fork until a soft dough forms. Halve dough and gather each half into a ball, then flatten each half into a rough 6- by 4-inch rectangle between sheets of plastic wrap. Chill until firm, at least 8 hours. (I spread all the dough as flat as I could in a jelly roll pan between two sheets of parchment paper.)

Form cookies:
Preheat oven to 350°F.

Roll out 1/2 of the dough (keep remaining dough chilled) into a 13- by 10-inch rectangle between two sheets of parchment paper.  If the dough becomes too warm or soft to work with, return it to the fridge and start on the other half.   Cut into 2 (10- by 6 1/2-inch) strips. Arrange 1/4 of the filling in a log lengthwise down half of each strip, then fold the other half of each strip up over filling to enclose it, pinching edges together to seal.  Put the filled logs into the fridge for 15-20 minutes to reset while you work on the other half of dough.  This will make it easier to remove the parchment paper.  Repeat with the other half of dough. 

Remove the first log from the fridge and carefully loosen it from the parchment paper.  If it is sticking and tearing return it to the fridge to chill some more.  After the log has been completely loosened from the parchment paper, cut it crosswise with a floured knife into 1 1/2-inch-wide slices and arrange 1/2 inch apart on a large baking sheets. Make more cookies in same manner with remaining chilled logs.

Bake cookies in batches in middle of oven until golden around edges, 16 to 20 minutes. Transfer cookies to racks and cool until warm, about 10 minutes.

 Check out what some other people are baking up!


Week 3 Twelve Weeks of Christmas: