Bonjour my friends, I'm Frankie and welcome to Club Foody!
When I was a child, my mother always made sure to have cookies in the house. I grew up eating
chocolate chip cookies, oreos, oatmeal cookies, and so on. There's another kind that I really liked and
now I prefer making from scratch so I can enjoy the extra filling compared to the commercial ones...
In today's episode, I'll show you how to make my Fig Newtons Cookies! Mmm! They are so yummy
and taste better than the ones from the store! With a generous filling and a soft cookie dough,
this is a snack that everyone in your family will enjoy... So my friends, let's get cooking!
We'll go ahead and prep our figs so we'll cut our stems off they don't taste very good and discard
them. Then we'll simply quarter them making it easier when it's time to purée. Next, in a medium
saucepan over medium heat, we'll add the figs, a cup of water as well as a cup of orange juice.
We'll give a good stir, bring the mixture to a simmer and cook for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
After half an hour, we should have the liquid almost evaporated barely any at the bottom of
the pan. So we'll remove from the heat and transfer the fig mixture to the bowl of a food processor.
We'll process for about 30 seconds or until we have a nice paste, stopping to clean up the sides
of the bowl if needed. Then we'll transfer the fig mixture to a bowl to cool off.
Meanwhile we'll make the cookie dough... In a large bowl, we'll combine flour, baking powder
and ground sea salt. We'll whisk the ingredients until well blended. Next, in the bowl of a stand mixer,
we'll add butter and brown sugar. With the paddle attachment, we'll process on medium speed
until creamy. To this, we'll add an egg, pure vanilla extract and orange zest. We'll process again on
medium speed until the ingredients are well mixed, another 30 seconds or so. Then we'll add the flour
mixture, reduce the speed to low and process until the dough is formed and this as well
won't take too long, about a minute to a minute and a half. Now we'll transfer the cookie dough onto
a work surface and roll it into a rectangle shape as even as possible. Then we'll divide it in 3
equal pieces and form a ball with each of them. If you do have a kitchen scale, I suggest you use it
so they are equal in size. When we're done, we'll place them in a bowl and transfer to the fridge
for at least 15 minutes. All right! After they have time to cool a little, working one at a time,
we'll place a dough ball on a parchment paper and press it down to a small rectangle.
Then we'll place another parchment paper and flatten it out with a rolling pin - the dimension we
need is about 5 inches wide by 12 inches long and a little less than a 1/4 inch thick. By
the way, it doesn't have to be a perfect rectangle... all right! So now we'll scoop a 1/3 of the fig
paste on the center of the dough, spreading it out evenly and leaving some space around the edges.
When this step is done, we'll bring one side of the cookie dough over the paste using the parchment to
help fold it over and then gently peel it off from the paper - you'll see that it's slightly sticky.
When this side is done, we'll repeat with the other side and taking our time to peel it off.
Well this side came off a lot easier! Next, using a bench scraper, we'll cut the ends to make it
neater but don't throw them away... you can still bake and eat them. Now what I like to do is to
flip the log over on my work surface seam side down and from here, I cut it into squares. So the
width of my log is 1 1/2 inches therefore I'm cutting the pieces 1 1/2 inches long -
cut yours accordingly. We'll then place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, leaving
some space in between, before transferring to a 350ºF/177ºC preheated oven. We'll bake them for 16 to 18
minutes or until golden on the bottom. We'll remove from the heat and place it on a wire rack to cool.
When freshly made, the cookies will be a bit crispy but if you store them in an airtight container,
they will get soft and chewy just like the commercial ones...
And my friends, these are our Fig Newton Cookies! This is a great recipe and it's even better than
the commercial ones! It's freshly made and has no preservatives. These soft and chewy cookies
are amazingly delicious especially with a nice cold glass of milk... I hope you give it a try soon
and be sure to visit clubfoody.com for ingredient amounts, directions and more info...
Until next time my friends, bon appétit!