FIG FRUIT BARS RECIPES

Steps:

• Make the dough: In a large bowl, stir together flours, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, and kosher salt until well combined. In a medium bowl, whisk together sugar, honey, ginger, orange zest, egg, butter, and oil until smooth. Pour wet ingredients into flour mixture and fold until a cohesive dough forms. Halve dough and place each half between two pieces of parchment paper. Using a rolling pin, roll each dough into a 15”-x-5” rectangle, about ?”-thick. Leave dough between parchment, layer on a baking sheet and refrigerate, 1 hour.  Meanwhile, make the filling: In a medium pot over medium heat, combine figs, dates, orange juice, water, butter, and rum (if using). Bring to a boil and cook, stirring occasionally, until liquid is syrupy and mostly absorbed, 4 to 5 minutes. Let cool completely.  Transfer fig mixture to a food processor, add vanilla and zests, then process until smooth. Working with one sheet of dough at a time, peel off top layer of parchment. Using an offset spatula or spoon, spread half the fig filling in a 2”-wide strip down the length of the dough. Use bottom layer of parchment to help bring naked edges of dough to meet over and enclose the filling, pressing down the seam to seal. Gently press cookies into a 2”-wide bar. Repeat with remaining dough and filling. Transfer both bars to the freezer until firm, at least 15 minutes and up to overnight. Preheat oven to 350°. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Remove cookie bars from the freezer. Using a sharp knife, cut each bar into ten 1½” pieces and place on prepared sheet, about 1” apart. Bake until bottoms are deeply golden and tops look dry, 13 to 15 minutes.  Let cool completely. Fig bars will keep, in an airtight container at room temperature, up to 3 days, or longer if refrigerated or frozen.

Steps:

• Dice the figs and soak them in apple juice, salt, and lemon juice mixture for 1 hour.
• Cook the ingredients in a pot on medium heat until a thin, jam-like consistency is achieved. Set aside to cool, then transfer to a pastry bag.
• In a mixing bowl, cream together butter and light brown sugar until fluffy. Then, beat in the egg, milk/cream, and vanilla. You may do this on a stand mixer, food processor, or by hand.
• Add the dry ingredients and mix well until fully incorporated. Form it into a dough ball and wrap using plastic wrap. Place in the fridge for 1 hour to set.
• Take the dough out of the fridge and divide it into 6 portions.
• Form each portion into a log. In between two sheets of parchment paper, use a rolling pin and flatten to ? inch rectangles, about 10 inches long and 4 inches wide. Cut off excess dough to achieve these dimensions.
• Pipe a straight line of fig filling in the middle of the rectangular dough sheet. Using the parchment paper as leverage, lift one side of the dough to cover the filling. Gently flatten the dough, and do the same on the other side until the fig filling is fully covered. The end result should be a flattened rectangular log. Repeat until all six dough portions are used up. You might need to refrigerate the other pieces of dough while doing this.
• Cut the cookie logs into 2-inch squares and lay them on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet.
• Bake the fig newtons in a preheated oven at 350 degrees F in the middle rack for 10 to 10 minutes or until the bottom crust is golden brown.
• Let the fig cookies rest for 5 minutes. After that, transfer them to a cooling rack to cool completely.
• Store the cookies in an airtight container lined with a paper towel at the bottom and on top.