My work colleague who has a large fig tree in her yard generously invited me back to pick figs this year; I was prepared and had a fig recipe picked out in advance. Last year, I made a tart with my fig bounty, so I wanted to try something different this year (although I was tempted by two other fig tart recipes from the Los Angeles Times, a Fig Tart with Marscapone Cream and a Fig Frangipane Tart). I decided that the Homemade Fig Newton recipe from Joanne Chang's Flour looked quite promising, so it was my choice for this year's fig supply.
I am not actually a fan of the Nabisco Fig Newton; I don't think that the filling tastes much like figs, which are one of my favorite fruits. But Chang's version includes homemade fig jam, so I knew it would have to be better. The fig jam is made by cooking quartered figs, a chopped orange, lemon zest, brown sugar, and salt, until the figs have softened and lost their shape, when you add in a little vanilla. The recipe says that this should take about 40 minutes. I cooked my figs for about 1 hour, and the figs softened but never fully lost their shape (I'm attributing this to the fact that I used green figs, instead of the black mission figs specified in the recipe), so I just ran them through the food processor, and I ended up with perfect fig jam.
The cookie portion of the fig newton is a shortbread dough, which is quite similar to the shortbread base in Chang's Raspberry Crumb Bars. It's made in a stand mixer from room temperature butter, sugar, powdered sugar, egg yolk, vanilla, all-purpose flour, cake flour, baking powder, and salt. You are supposed to chill the dough for at least 30 minutes before rolling it out, but the recipe says you can keep it in the fridge for up for 5 days or in the freeze for up to a month; I left mine in the fridge for 24 hours before making the cookies.
To make the newtons, you roll out the dough into a long rectangle, lay a strip of jam down the middle, fold over the edges of the dough so that they meet in the middle, and pinch the edges of the dough together. Before baking, you turn the roll over so that the seam side faces down. I had some issues with the dough cracking, so I after I rolled it out into a rough rectangle, I trimmed it with it a knife to get straight edges, and I used the trimmed scraps as spackle to patch any cracks and also to seal the seam closed. This technique worked pretty well for me, and the spackle work was invisible after baking.
After the cookie rolls are baked and cooled, you cut them into strips. The recipe says it yields 12 cookies, 5-inches long by 1-inch wide. This yield seems a little silly, to go to this much trouble to make only a dozen very large cookies (it's also reminiscent of the huge serving size/very low yield for Chang's Raspberry's Crumb Bars recipe, which indicates that a 9-inch by 13-inch pan of bars should be cut into only 9 servings). I made a double batch of newtons, and I ended up with 36 cookies that were three and a half inches long, and an inch and a quarter wide -- which I thought was a more-than-adequate serving size.
These homemade fig newtons are truly delightful. The cookie portion, like the shortbread base in the Raspberry Crumb Bars, is light and delicate, and melts in your mouth. It's a particularly nice contrast to the cookie portion of the real Fig Newton, which is more bready and chewy. And the fig filling. Oh, the fig filling! The citrus components of the fig jam make the filling incredibly bright and fresh tasting. Biting into one of these is like eating figs and sunshine. The only downside to these cookies is that fig season is so fleeting... and once you're tried these, there's no way you'll settle for the grocery store version in the off-season!
Recipe: "Homemade Fig Newtons" from Flour: Spectacular Recipes from Boston's Flour Bakery + Cafe, by Joanne Chang.
Previous Post: "Oh Bring Us a Figgy Tart!: Fig and Almond Tart," August 16, 2010.
I am not actually a fan of the Nabisco Fig Newton; I don't think that the filling tastes much like figs, which are one of my favorite fruits. But Chang's version includes homemade fig jam, so I knew it would have to be better. The fig jam is made by cooking quartered figs, a chopped orange, lemon zest, brown sugar, and salt, until the figs have softened and lost their shape, when you add in a little vanilla. The recipe says that this should take about 40 minutes. I cooked my figs for about 1 hour, and the figs softened but never fully lost their shape (I'm attributing this to the fact that I used green figs, instead of the black mission figs specified in the recipe), so I just ran them through the food processor, and I ended up with perfect fig jam.
The cookie portion of the fig newton is a shortbread dough, which is quite similar to the shortbread base in Chang's Raspberry Crumb Bars. It's made in a stand mixer from room temperature butter, sugar, powdered sugar, egg yolk, vanilla, all-purpose flour, cake flour, baking powder, and salt. You are supposed to chill the dough for at least 30 minutes before rolling it out, but the recipe says you can keep it in the fridge for up for 5 days or in the freeze for up to a month; I left mine in the fridge for 24 hours before making the cookies.
To make the newtons, you roll out the dough into a long rectangle, lay a strip of jam down the middle, fold over the edges of the dough so that they meet in the middle, and pinch the edges of the dough together. Before baking, you turn the roll over so that the seam side faces down. I had some issues with the dough cracking, so I after I rolled it out into a rough rectangle, I trimmed it with it a knife to get straight edges, and I used the trimmed scraps as spackle to patch any cracks and also to seal the seam closed. This technique worked pretty well for me, and the spackle work was invisible after baking.
These homemade fig newtons are truly delightful. The cookie portion, like the shortbread base in the Raspberry Crumb Bars, is light and delicate, and melts in your mouth. It's a particularly nice contrast to the cookie portion of the real Fig Newton, which is more bready and chewy. And the fig filling. Oh, the fig filling! The citrus components of the fig jam make the filling incredibly bright and fresh tasting. Biting into one of these is like eating figs and sunshine. The only downside to these cookies is that fig season is so fleeting... and once you're tried these, there's no way you'll settle for the grocery store version in the off-season!
Recipe: "Homemade Fig Newtons" from Flour: Spectacular Recipes from Boston's Flour Bakery + Cafe, by Joanne Chang.
Previous Post: "Oh Bring Us a Figgy Tart!: Fig and Almond Tart," August 16, 2010.
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