Hey there Bass how are you ?
Thanks for sharing the recipe.

Perfect timing Bass. Now, I have a new salad dish for dinner. Yesterday, wife bought a packet of dried Kalamata figs from Greece. Already told her about your recipe. By the way, I also like to lightly BBQ figs.  They taste awesome. The figs I used for BBQ are Latarrula. I pick them when they are not fully ripen - soft to the touch, slice them in half & put them in the pre-heated BBQ for 5 minutes.

Hi Martin, I'm good.

Hi Bass:

Happy New year!

Just curious where you got this recipe from?

Is it an Italian recipe or Middle Eastern?

I have another one that is from Italy and I will post the recipe soon.

Take care, Leon

Hi Leon, This is a Turkish recipe...

My personal opinion fig newton's should be banned from mention on this forum.
There gross to put it mildly.  ; )

Martin,

Fig Newtons have their place.  When people tell me they don't like figs (or they are just okay) because they have eaten one, I explain it this way: 

"Think about a Fig Newton as a Yugo with two bad cylinders and a flat tire.  A fresh fig is a Ferrari."

just got 2 large bags of BM figs from Costco...will try your recipe Bass.  thanks!

Bass, I am so glad you posted the stuffed fig recipe here!  You should post your "better than fig newton" recipe too when you post the photos.  I like to make "thumbprint" cookies and fill them with fig preserves.

Paully, you should drizzle those figs with some good balsamic before you grill them and pop a scoop of goat cheese  on them as you remove them from the grill....nirvana!  And when you said you BBQ figs, I was imagining the figs with BBQ sauce on them.  LOL

A couple of years ago I bought a book on Amazon.com called FIG HEAVEN. It is a cook book on figs. I haven't tried any of the recipes, yet, and forgot all about the book until seeing this recipe. It has some interesting stuff in it.

Made a dozen of these tonight, used BM and Calimyrna. The last five minutes of baking, I drizzled half of them with honey, to see how they would turn out.  Fabulous either way.    Husband and son went to DQ after supper and I enjoyed a couple figs.  Now, I am stuffed!!   Will incorporate some into my lunch salad tomorrow, thinking about enjoying them chopped and added to greek yogurt in the morning.  So easy, so tasty.  Who needs candy when you can have these?!!

Hello Sara,  your suggestion is so tasty. Literally I could smell & taste its yummieness as I am typing. You bet, I will try it.  Fresh fig withdrawals is bad enough but the delicious description at this time of the year up North especially after dinner is driving me crazy. Got to go & get a few dried Kalamata figs and visit my few cuttings rooting in my aquarium green house upstair.

James you have a valid point they have there place and in my opinion same place as white figs.   ; )

LOL Martin... While I too have dark figs as my favorites, I've had several light figs are not too far down the list.  Perhaps you should put yourself through a blind taste test to see if your bias against white figs is strictly visual.

At a holiday party a couple of weeks ago, I had a date pinwheel cookie that was quite good.  I'm sure dried figs could be substituted for the dates with equally good results.  I'll try to find the recipe.  I frequently (as in almost always) substitute raisins for figs, dates or dried sour cherries in my cooking.

~james

Here's a recipe I located recently. It is not real user-friendly for most of us (What the heck is non-dairy milk, for instance), but I imagine it could be adapted by the intrepid among us. It sounds like it's hard to go wrong.
 http://tessadomesticdiva.blogspot.com/2012/01/gluten-free-vegan-fig-newtons.html

Dale...non-dairy milk is a "milk" such as soymilk, coconut milk, almond milk, hemp milk, and rice milk.  I think I have captured all the non-dairy milks.  And that recipe has potential...I am already plotting the ingredients.

I stumbled across another recipe today.  It can be found at allrecipes.com

"This recipe has been handed down through my mother's family for years. My

grandmother brought it with her from Italy in the early 1900's. My mom taught me the

recipe this year. Now I am the designated person in our family to make the Fig Cookies.

This is a very high honor. So they must be as good as my Grandmothers' cookies.

Some call them Homemade Fig Newtons. They are a tradition at Christmas and are

wonderful with a hot cup of coffee. They are lot of work. I make them in stages. First the

dough, then a few days later the figs, and finally I will make the cookies. The dough and

the figs keep well in the refrigerator and the cookies freeze very well."

Submitted By: Mary Jo

Photo By: Doughgirl8

Servings: 60

2 cups shortening

3 cups white sugar

6 eggs

8 cups all-purpose flour

7 teaspoons baking powder

2 tablespoons vanilla extract

1 pinch salt

2 cups whole milk

4 pounds dried figs

1 pound raisins

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/2 cup white sugar

1 whole orange, with peel

1 small apple

1 1/2 cups chopped pecans

1 cup water (optional)

1. To Make Dough: Cream sugar and shortening. Add eggs, vanilla, and salt. Blend in

flour and baking powder by hand. Knead dough until smooth and workable. Add milk

to reach workable consistency. (This takes a while and you will get a workout, but

you'll know when it's right.)

2. To Make Filling: Cut up figs, orange, and apple into small pieces. (It is easier to grind

this way). Grind figs, raisins, orange, and apple. If the mixture is too dry or thick, mix

in up to 1 cup of water, if desired. (I do not use the water, the juice from the apple

and orange are enough). The spices and chopped nuts are added to the ground fig

mixture. After the fig mixture is ground, I sprinkle them in over the mixture and mix

(knead) it in by hand. STICKY! But good.

3. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).

4. Roll out some dough. (should be kind of thin). Put fig mixture in a line. Wrap dough

over mixture, sealing figs inside dough. Trim to desired length, using a diagonal cut.

Make small diagonal slits in the sides of the cookies. Bake on ungreased cookie

sheet for 10-15 minutes. (Dough makes good cookies without the filling also).

Wonderful with coffee.

Jon is talking about new forum software and one person said they like to see all the threads together.  I disagree and would like to see a few categories, but not too many.  One category should be for recipes so I don't need to search as much as I did for this one.  Call me lazy if you want.... :)

Or just combine all the threads on recipes and make it a stick?  This thread already has three recipes in it.  I don't like it when forums that have a bunch of sticky threads.

@Harvey - great idea for the recipe sticky

Hey Bass, I made your fig and walnut jam yesterday for the first time.  Man ole Man, I love that recipe!  I made it again last night.  This time I doubled the recipe and cut the sesame seeds in half!  Today, it is one of my favorite jams!  I ended up with 8 pint size jars.  Very rich jam!  thanks for the recipe!

I copied and pasted the recipe for this into my recipe file.  However!!  I think you should stuff with pecans!!  A far better choice!  And a fresh leaf of rosemary or thyme.  But a pecan is the nut of choice!  Maybe sage, pecans!  I'm giving away my era, but I like tweaking recipes!!

Your friend,

Suzi

Hmmmmm, I'm the chef at home but my wife can still out cook me!  Now that the holidays are here, I want to try a new recipe.  I'm going to taking a roll of those cresent rolls and adding a 1/2 teaspoon of Bass's fig and walnut jam inside?  To get them crispy on the outside, brush on some melted butter and sprinkle with Tb sugar!  I'm gonna have to try that out this weekend. 

I also like Suzi's idea with the pecans so I may try making up a batch with toasted pecans instead of walnuts and use a roll of the pizza crust as my base or phylla dough.  I got one of those fancy indended tart pans.  This is going to be good!  Thanks for the ideas!

Green Pecans come in June, and there is a celebration in Italy.  Wonder if we could kick that up with our figs.  Hmmmmmmmmmm  I have a ton of green pecans preserved in 100 proof alcohol.  But I make the drink.  Adding figs.  Wonder what I could ferment?

I need contacts for green pecans in exchange for cuttings.

NOCINO

This is Lukra Mariani's recipe for walnut liqueur, by way of his granddaughter-in-law, Georgie Mariani.

INGREDIENTS:

8 green walnuts

1 quart vodka

8 lemon leaves, quartered

4 orange leaves, quartered

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

INSTRUCTIONS:

Use unripe walnuts (late spring when kernel is just starting to harden). Wash walnuts and cut into quarters or sixths. Using a food mill, hand grinder or food processor, grind walnuts, including hulls. Wash lemon and orange leaves. Mix together ingredients and cover. Let stand in sun for 40 days and nights. If there is too much evaporation, add simple syrup (see accompanying recipe).

When steeping is complete, strain liqueur through a fine mesh sieve through several layers of cheesecloth, then discard nuts and leaves. Decant into bottles and seal.

Makes about 1 quart Nocino.

OR

3 C. Sugar

50 Green Pecans, quartered, or 25 Green Walnuts

8 lemon leaves

4 orange leaves

4 cloves

1 stick cinnamon

1 split vanilla bean

Make a syrup with 1 C sugar and one cup water and bring to a boil.  Boil for 5 minutes.  Remove from heat and store in the refrigerator for topping up the Nocino as needed.   

In a large clean jar, mix the quartered nuts, 1 quart vodka, 8 lemon leaves, 4 orange leaves, 4 cloves, 1 stick cinnamon, 1 vanilla bean split with seeds exposed, and 2 cups of sugar.  Close the jar and sit in the sun for 60 days.  Keep the steeping nuts covered with the syrup, adding as needed.  If you need more syrup, make additional, but don’t exceed ½ cup.  At the end of 60 days add any remaining syrup then strain liquid through fine cheesecloth lined sieve.   Bottle and seal.   

 Suzi

Maybe my neighbor wanted to make Nocino last summer:


Neighbor:  "Oh, look....pecans"   [reaches for pecans growing on my tree]

Me:  "Please don't pick the pecans, they aren't ripe and won't ripen if you pick them; I will be glad to give you plenty of ripe pecans later this year"

Neighbor:  Ignores me, pulls off several pecans and begins peeling them, gets dark brown dye all over her hands. Goes into house to wash hands.  A while later she returns....


Neighbor:  "I can't get this dye off of my hands although I have scrubbed and scrubbed them."

Me:  "Yes, immature pecan husks hold a pretty strong dye, it might take you a week or more for the dye to come off"

Neighbor:  "A WEEK??  Why didn't you tell me?"


Me:  "I asked you not to pick the pecans (which are on MY tree) in the first place....wasn't that enough???"