When Life Gives You Figs

Make fig bars!

His Lordship’s father has quite the green thumb, and grows a variety of fruit in a backyard micro-orchard.  Each fall, he has a bumper crop of figs, which he painstakingly stems, halves, and dries.  Since fig season immediately precedes His Lordship’s birthday, around this time each year we receive a care package bearing a card and a gift, plus many zip-top bags full of beautifully jade-and-tan seedy little hemispheres.

They are delicious, completely organic, better than any you could get in a store, and utterly free.  They are also so copious that we always end up putting the half-full box on top of the fridge before Thanksgiving, and there they’ll remain in suspended animation until we remember they exist, probably shortly before the next batch is due.

Vowing to do better this year, I seized one of the bags for immediate use in baking.  After the success of the granola bars, I aimed for a not-too-sweet cookie that leaned toward a breakfast bar and could be snarfed between classes.  The need for portability meant that instead of my usual press-in-the-pan layered approach, I would have to go to the extra effort of rolling out dough to fully enclose the sticky figgy filling.  I also wanted to make it a little healthier by using whole wheat pastry flour in addition to all-purpose.

Since the interwebs didn’t offer any one recipe for a fig cookie or filled cereal bar that seemed to fit all my needs, I ended up combining elements from around five different recipes in addition to my own ideas, and am quite pleased with the outcome.  Flavoring the figs with orange and just a hint of cardamom gave them a boost without detracting from their essential figgyness, and the whole wheat pastry flour added a nutty roundness that supported the homey and crackly filling without making the cookies punitively cardboardy, as whole wheat pastries can sometimes be.

These bars have a just-sweet-enough, not-too-rich quasi-cakey wholesomeness that is just right for this time of year and perfect with a cup of tea.  Since I think my father-in-law would approve, and in keeping with the tradition whereby Fig Newtons got their name, I’m naming these after the California birthplace of the figs.

Fig bar assembly

Incidentally, His Lordship’s family is also an excellent source of lemons, which I certainly would never dream of complaining about.  When we still lived in the vicinity, I used to bring home huge grocery bags full of regular and my best-beloved Meyer lemons from each gathering of the in-laws.  Now that we’re back on the same coast, I fully intend to haul back as much as I can from our holiday visit.

Fig Fremont Bars
Makes 40-50 1-inch bars

Dough:
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1 tablespoon cream cheese, softened
2/3 cup brown sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Filling:
2 cups halved dried green figs
1 teaspoon dried orange rind or 1 tablespoon grated fresh orange zest
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 cups orange juice
2 cups water
1/8 teaspoon ground cardamom
2 pinches salt

Raw sugar for sprinkling

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter, cream cheese and sugar until fluffy.  Add eggs one at a time, beating well between additions, then beat in the vanilla.

In another bowl, whisk together the flours, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.  Add the dry ingredients to the mixer, and combine well.  (Since these will be rolled out and do need some tensile strength, for once you don’t have to be too paranoid about over-mixing, but don’t walk away from the mixer either.)  Divide dough in half and place each half in its own quart-sized zip-top bag, patting and squishing into an even, flat square.  Chill dough for at least an hour.

While the dough is chilling, place the figs, orange rind or zest, sugar, juice and water in a small saucepan.  Bring to a boil, lower heat and simmer until the figs are very tender, 30-40 minutes.  If necessary, cover the pan halfway through to prevent the liquid from evaporating completely.

When the figs are tender, remove from the heat and blend with an immersion blender (or in a food processor or blender) until smooth.  Stir in the cardamom and salt, and set aside to cool completely.

Preheat oven to 350 F.  Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Using scissors, trim the top and sides off the first bag of dough, flip the bag open, and turn the dough gently out onto another sheet of parchment.  Cover the dough with either the cut-open bag or more parchment to prevent it sticking to the rolling pin, and roll into a long rectangle approximately 18 inches by 6 inches, squaring off the edges with a pizza cutter or sharp knife if needed.

Spread half the filling lengthwise down the center third of the dough, leaving space at the top and bottom for proper sealing.  Brush the exposed dough with water, then use the parchment to flip each edge lengthwise over the filling, overlapping slightly in the middle.  Press the edges together gently to seal.

Turn the roll onto the baking sheet on the diagonal, seam side down.  Brush the top of the roll with water and sprinkle liberally with raw sugar.

Bake 20-25 minutes, until golden brown and beginning to crack slightly along the top.  Remove from oven and set on a wire rack to cool while repeating the process with the remainind dough and filling.

When the rolls are mostly or completely cooled, slice into inch-wide bars with a serrated knife.

Notes:

The small amount of cream cheese adds both flavor and flexibility to the dough, a trick I picked up from (big surprise) Cook’s Illustrated’s holiday all-in-one cookie dough recipe.  You could leave it out, if you prefer not to open a new container of cream cheese for just one tablespoon.

If these aren’t sweet enough for you, you could glaze the bars with a simple icing of powdered sugar thinned with milk or more orange juice to a drizzling consistency.

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A Cookie Long Overdue

It recently occurred to me that although I’ve made plenty of cookies with chocolate, including several takes on chocolate chunk biscotti, I have never actually put up a recipe for plain old American chocolate chip cookies.  It’s about time I rectified that.

These are not my trademark chocolate chip cookies, which are a kitchen-sink affair involving a number of extra ingredients I don’t currently have on hand.  Instead, I looked at the four different versions in my temporarily reduced cookbook collection and decided on the one in Entertaining for a Veggie Planet, because I can’t use Cook’s Illustrated every single time, and Didi Emmons has never failed to exceed expectations.  Her recipes always look deceptively simple, yet are supremely doable and yield huge taste dividends.

I made a few changes to the recipe, starting by doubling it to ensure I’d have enough to share.  I also added the hazelnuts from the deconstructed trail mix whence came the cashews for the granola bars, and supplemented them with walnuts because I didn’t have enough of either for the doubled amount.  Finally, I changed the method a little bit, and most importantly, aged the dough overnight.

Aging the batter overnight is not absolutely essential, but it does make a difference and is worth doing if you can. I discovered this inadvertently years ago when I was routinely too time-pressed or lazy to bake all the dough on a single day, and eventually realized that the next-day batch was always better than the first day’s.  Apparently this is because the flour has more time to fully hydrate, as the New York Times recently reported, setting off a blogstorm of cookie baking with the Jacques Torres-inspired recipe that accompanied the article.  It’s nice to know that the wages of sloth are chewy, buttery, and chocolatey.

The appropriately aged cookies were a little flatter than I would like but were quite tasty, especially with a tiny sprinkling of extra sea salt on top, as suggested by the NYT.  In the future, I would bump up the quantity of nuts for a little more structure, and probably just use hazelnuts if possible, since hazelnuts do not get enough cookie love outside Italy, in my biased opinion.

These are not a replacement for my trademark version, which I still (immodestly) think are close to perfect, but there’s nothing wrong with a perfectly respectable second place.

Chocolate Chip Cookies with Walnuts and Hazelnuts
(Adapted from Didi Emmons’ Entertaining for a Veggie Planet)
Makes 6-7 dozen

1 cup each chopped walnuts and skinned or blanched hazelnuts
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (2 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
2 large eggs
12 ounces semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 F.  Spread the nuts on a baking sheet and toast until golden, approximately 5 minutes.  Remove and let cool.

In the bowl of stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugars until very light and fluffy.   Scrape down the sides and beat in the salt and vanilla.  Beat in the eggs one at a time, incorporating the first fully before adding the second.

In a small bowl, whisk together the flour and baking soda.  With the mixer on low, stir in the flour and soda until just incorporated, then repeat with the nuts and chocolate.  Cover tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight, and preferably 24 hours.

Preheat the oven to 350 F again, and line two or more baking sheets with parchment paper.  Scoop rounded tablespoons of the dough with a cookie scoop or large spoon onto the sheets, spacing at least 2 inches apart.  If desired, sprinkle lightly with additional sea salt.  Bake each batch 8 minutes, until golden, then cool on the sheet for 5 minutes.  Remove to a wire rack to cool.

Store in an airtight container.

Notes:

I like Ghirardelli double chocolate chips, which at 60% cacao solids are darker and deeper than regular semisweet chips.  Guittard’s chips are also good.  Naturally, if you want to go with Valrhona or Callebaut or another premium selection, I wouldn’t dream of stopping you, although in my experience there’s a point of diminishing returns with chocolate chip cookies.

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Soup for a Blustery Day

Despite my love of fall produce, especially cranberries, for some reason I’m not quite ready for autumn just yet.  Ready or not, the temperatures are dropping, the rain and wind have definitely arrived, and so have the seasonal offerings at the market.

Since I can’t hold it back, this rich, just barely gingery bisque of kabocha squash is a great start toward embracing the inevitable.  I roasted the diced squash first for extra depth, and separately toasted the seeds with butter and five-spice powder for a crunchy garnish.  Apple cider mixed with the vegetable stock and diced apples in the garnish added a hint of sweetness and brought out even more of the squash flavor.

Although it was the backbone of a very casual rainy-day dinner tonight, the smooth simplicity and seasonally-appropriate colors of this soup would make it a great first course for your Thanksgiving dinner.

Roasted Kabocha Squash Soup with Apple and Five-Spice Seeds
Serves 4

1 small (2-lb) kabocha squash
2 tablespoons canola oil
1 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon Chinese five-spice powder
1 tablespoon each unsalted butter and olive oil
1 medium onion, diced
3 stalks celery, diced
2 cups vegetable stock
1 cup apple cider
2 tsp grated fresh ginger
Salt and pepper
1 eating apple (preferably Honeycrisp or Fuji)
Juice of 1/2 lemon

Preheat oven to 400 F.  Line two baking sheets with foil.

Peel and empty out the squash, reserving the seeds.  Chop the peeled squash into 1-inch dice and toss with canola oil, then spread onto sheet in single layer.  Bake until tender and beginning to brown at the edges, 30-35 minutes, stirring once or twice.  Remove from oven and reduce oven temperature to 375 F.

Remove the seeds from the squash pulp, clean well in a bowl of water, and pat dry between paper towels.  Stir the salt and five-spice powder into the melted butter, add to the cleaned seeds, and toss to combine.  Spread onto the second sheet and roast until golden and crisp.  Set aside to cool.

Heat the butter and olive oil in a heavy stock pot over medium heat.  Saute the onion and celery until translucent, then add roasted squash and ginger cook a few minutes more.  Add stock, cider, salt and pepper.  Bring to a boil, then cover and lower heat, simmering for 30 minutes.

Using an immersion or regular blender, puree the soup until smooth. Taste and correct with additional salt and pepper as needed.

Peel and dice the apple, tossing with the lemon juice, then mix with the roasted seeds. Ladle the soup into bowls and top with the seed and apple garnish.

Notes:

Any orange squash, from butternut to pumpkin, could be substituted here, although pumpkin seeds are tougher and more fibrous than kabocha.  In that case, I would use toasted pecans in the garnish instead, as I did when I first made this soup with sweet potatoes, which was also great.

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Breakfast on the Run and on the Cheap

You’d think I’d have more time on my hands now that I’m a student, but if the past two weeks are any indication, you’d be wrong.  I’d forgotten how students don’t really have down time, how you’re constantly shuttling between campus and off-campus, and how all off-campus time is time that could and ideally should be devoted to studying.  I’m not complaining; this is what I wanted, and it’s also going to be over sooner than I think.  It does two things simultaneously, though.  Contrary to my usual breakfast-denying norm, it makes me actually want to have breakfast before morning classes so I can have the energy to think my way through to lunch, and it also cuts the amount of time I have available for fixing and having breakfast.

This means dealing with the problem of the easy-to-grab, on-the-go breakfast I haven’t had to face since my 45-minute commute days.  In those days, it was usually a fancy cereal bar and a latte from the Starbucks on the ground floor of my office building, but I’m also on a student budget now, and more creative and frugal thinking is required here.  What can I make that’s inexpensive, nutritious, portable, and forgiving of being forgotten on the countertop in my rush to catch the bus?

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