Homemade Fig Newtons
Delicious, nutritious treats the whole family will love… and all your friends too!
The hit treat at our house is currently homemade fig newtons.
It’s not only our favorite family treat, but every friend who has tried them asks for “more please!”.
One kid stuffed his pockets full at the end of a play date. It was great! I love seeing kids get excited about healthier treats.
Now before we just dive into mundane baking details about the 1-2-3 steps of what to do, let’s discuss figs a bit…
Ficus carica – the common fig.
Fertility, protection, luck, restful sleep, aphrodisiac, abundance, adoration, happiness…
Figs historically have so much meaning and lore associated to them. As food and as medicine, figs are divine!
Chinese Medicine says figs are ‘sweet’ in taste and energetically ‘cool’.
Figs can be used medicinally if you have one of the following health challenges: asthma or other lung issues such as a dry cough, chronic fatigue, constipation or diarrhea (if your bowels need help – try adding figs to your diet), hemorrhoids, indigestion, nose and throat infections, prostate enlargement,ulcers in the mouth or stomach.
Figs are also useful when applied cosmetically as an emollient and in cleansing masks. They can be used as a poultice for swellings, sores or a dental abscess (use the soft inner part mashed up). The milky stalk juice can help remove warts when applied directly on them.
Nutritionally, figs are a good source of fiber (1 fig = 6% of DV) and vitamin B6 (1 fig = 4% of DV).
Figs are soulfully nourishing and the sweet nature is calming to your nerves.
If we could have an orchard of fig trees, oh what heaven that would be! For us and the birds!
We could drink Sycites (fig wine) at night fall under the stars.
Though, since you need wasps to properly pollinate the fig trees, so fruit production can occur, maybe having a fig orchard is not the greatest idea for us right now. I am not a fan of wasps…
Luckily for us, our local farmer’s market has an organic stand that has figs fresh when in season and unsulfured dried figs all year long!
During fig season, a fresh basket of figs has about half a days shelf life here – hahaha. Unless I snack on them on the way home from the local farmers market, I won’t get one once they make it to the kitchen.
Luckily, organic figs are a fruit that once properly dried (unsulfured), still have an abundance of awesome options for all year round cooking and eating.
Today we will discuss homemade fig newtons!
To Make Fig Preserve – the filling
- 1 lb. organic unsulfured dried figs – we are using Mission Figs
- pinch of cinnamon powder
- splash of fresh lemon juice
Pop the stems off the tops of the figs, then put the figs (1 lb.) into a glass storage container. Fill with filtered water. All figs should be just covered, not drenched in water. Let them sit overnight in fridge or for 3 days max.
Once all figs seem soft to have softened up, pour off the water – now ‘fig water’ – into a cup and place figs into blender. Blend. Add splash of fresh squeezed lemon juice and pinch of cinnamon powder. Blend. Taste. Not fully blended? Add some of the fig water into the blender. Blend… Keep doing this until figs are smooth and thick like a preserve ought to be..
If it tastes good – it is done!
To Make the Dough – the cookie part
- 1 teaspoon of organic pure vanilla extract
- 1 organic pastured egg at room temperature (whites � yolk)
- 1 stick (4 oz.) of grass-fed butter at room temperature
- 1/2 teaspoon of ground sea salt
- 1/2 cup organic raw sugar
- 1 cup of organic non-bleached whole wheat flour or flour substitute
Instructions
Place ingredients 1 – 5 into a mixer. Mix till smooth.
Then slowly add in the flour. Mix it in until the batter is smooth and consistent. Put in fridge. Let it sit till dough is firm (about an hour).
Once firm, pull dough out of fridge and let sit a bit at room temperature.
Flour up a spot where you can roll out your dough. Do not be shy with your flour coverage.
Flour your hands and your roller too.
Make either one large ball of dough or two smaller balls.
Roll out evenly. The goal is to roll the dough out into a rectangular shape. Don’t roll too thin – you want your dough around 1/8” thick.
Cut sections of about 4” in width. If your heights vary… it is ok, no one will know or care when they are enjoying this fig newton treat!
Re-roll cut off dough into a ball and start the roll out process all over. Repeat this until all dough is used.
If you have a small amount of dough left, no fear… if you get a tear later down the way, use this left over dough to patch up the tear. The more generous you are with your fig preserve filling, the more prone to tears your cookies will be. But that is a-o-k!
Fill center with fig preserve. Around 1 – 1 ½” length and about 1” deep of delicious fig filling down the center of the section.
Fold the sides of the dough up. They should touch in the middle but preferably overlap a bit. Gently press the edges sealing them together. A nice cookie hug around the delicious fig filling!
Take a sharp object (I use the flat edge of my stainless steel spatula) and cut pieces about ½ – 1” in length.
Cover cookie sheet with parchment paper and pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F.
Place fig newtons upside down – seam side down – and place them on the parchment paper not touching each other.
Once your oven has reached 350 degrees F, place the cookie sheet in to cook for approximately 15 – 20 minutes. You will want to pull them out once the bottoms start to brown.
Let them cool on a cookie stone or a wire rack just enough to avoid burning your tongue, then… bon appétit!!!
References
- How are figs pollinated?
- The Tao of Nutrition by Maoshing Ni Ph.D., C.A. with Cathy McNease, B.S., M.H.
- Cunningham’s Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs – Llewellyn’s Sourcebook Series
- Jeanne Rose’s Herbal Body Book
- http://www.rawguru.com/toxic-food-preservatives-sulphur-dioxide-and-sulfites.html
- http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7426352
- http://www.botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/f/figcom12.html
- http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/fruits-and-fruit-juices/1884/2
- http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=24