I have been very pleased with the recipes in the recent Moosewood cookbook, the 2009 Moosewood Restaurant Cooking for Health. I cannot recommend the publication enough to my epicurean friends.  A dear longtime friend of ours came for dinner earlier this week we prepared a feast for three. This recipe from Moosewood's Cooking for Health was served as a dessert, but can be made for an appetizer, brunch, or buffet. Fresh or dried figs are a nutrient rich fruit, high in calcium, and fiber. Bookmark this recipe the next time you're having a small party. You can easily prepare and stuff the figs in advance and bake them just before serving.

I prefer Calimyrna figs but in a bind I use Black Mission figs. Black mission figs are easier to find. The organic variety is available in the Nature's Marketplace at Giant food stores. In this recipe, the size of the black mission figs is a bonus, they lend themselves nicely to a bite size dessert or appetizer. 

The cookbook author didn't recommend a particular honey, but greek honey is strong and complements the flavors of the citrus zest. If you have it available, use it in place of the traditional clover honey. If greek honey is not available add anise seed as I did to the recipe.

Stuffed Dried Figs with Chèvre, Honey, Anise, and Pistachios
A variation from the Moosewood Restaurant Cooking for Health, 2009, page 315

20 dried figs
1 teaspoon grated orange or lemon zest
1- 4oz package of Chèvre or fresh goat cheese, soft, unflavored
1 1/2 tablespoon creamy honey or greek honey (divided)- I use an opaque, creamy raps flower variety from Germany
1 1/4 tsp whole anise seed (divided)
2 tablespoons pistachios, shelled

Prepare the figs. Remove the tough stem. Slice each fig from the top twice to make an x. Don't cut the entire way through the fig. Open the figs like a flower.

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Prepare a small baking dish by lightly spraying it with olive oil or rubbing a very small amount into the bottom. If you want your figs soft, as I liked them, bake them at 325. If you want them crunchy on the outside, preheat the oven to 400 degrees as the Moosewood authors recommend.

Place the cheese in a small mixing bowl. Mix the lemon zest, half of the honey, half of the anise seed into the cheese and mix together. Place into the refrigerator to allow the cheese to become firm if it is too soft to stuff the figs.

Open each fig and place a generous teaspoon of cheese into the middle of each fig flower. Line the figs into the baking dish. Place the pistachios on top, and drizzle with the remaining honey. Sprinkle the remaining anise seed on top. I often rub the anise seed in my hands as I sprinkle to release a pleasant aroma. Place into the oven and bake for 15 mins, or until hot, soft, and aromatic. Serve immediately or at room temperature.

Früchtebrot is a holiday fruit and nut bread, sliced into rounds into bite size pieces. It's not overly sweet or salty. The flavors of fruits, nuts, and cognac meld together to form a perfect holiday loaf. It makes three logs which can be sliced into rounds. Wrap logs in parchment paper and string for a homemade holiday gift. This recipe is from Essen und Trinken, a great website for recipes. You'll notice in this recipe grams are not converted to cups. Thanks to a colleague and friend of mine, I received a kitchen scale for Christmas. For those without a kitchen scale, try using the cooking conversion calculator from Gourmet Sleuth.  I've had success using this online converter.

Früchtebrot
Recipe from Essen & Trinken
Makes roughly 3- 12" logs

Note: the original recipe called for equal amounts of dried apricots, plums, apples and figs. In place of 100 g dried apples, I added an additional 50 g dried apricots and 50 g chopped dates. Any variety of dried fruit will work well in this recipe.

100 g dried plums (roughly 11 plums), chopped
100 g dried figs, chopped
150 g dried apricots, chopped
50 g dried dates, chopped
50 ml cognac (equivalent to a trial size bottle- the original recipe calls for whisky)
50 g pine nuts
50 g flaked almonds, divided in half
50 g pistachios, peeled
1 Tablespoon of allspice
1 Tablespoon of dry yeast
100 g all purpose flour
1/3 cup of water in a small bowl and a pastry brush, set aside

Marinate dried fruit with cognac in a medium size bowl for approximately 30 minutes. The dried fruit will soak up the liquid.

Meanwhile, chop the pine nuts with pistachios. Add one portion of the flaked almonds to the nut mixture. In a separate bowl, combine flour, yeast, and allspice. Combine half of the nut mixture with the flour and yeast. Knead in the dried fruit mixture. Knead thoroughly. Form into three separate logs of equal length approximately 12" long and 1 1/5" wide. Spread the remaining flaked almonds on a sheet of parchment paper. Brush each log with water that has been set to the side. Roll each log into the flaked almond mixture. Let each log rest for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees while the logs rest. Bake for 25 minutes or until lightly golden brown. Cool completely before slicing into 1 cm thick rounds. Line rounds onto a sheet of parchment paper or sandwich paper, roll, and tie each end with string to give as a gift over the holidays.

    

Today is Mary Jo's birthday, and I've crossed my fingers to hope that she'll like these cookies. If not, I've played it a little safe and have dried fruit/nut friendship bars, ready to go as an alternative.

Instead of working with a recipe as a base and modifying it, I decided to go back to step 1, assess what spices, dried fruits, and flours I have in the pantry and see what happens.  I enjoy figs, have been baking with amaranth powder frequently, and like the taste of anise. Figs and anise are a common combination.  I had moist almond meal readily available, but it was left over from a successful first attempt at making my own almond milk. That's not something I have ready to use on a frequent basis, but a good way to use the leftover meal.

These are soft on the inside, dotted with figs, anise flavors, rolled in granulated sugar. Just sweet enough to eat another! If you try them, let me know!

Amaranth Fig Cookies with Anise

1 cup moist almond meal/flour
1/2 cup amaranth flour
1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/4 cup all purpose flour

1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground anise seed
a sprinkling of whole anise seed

10-12 black mission figs, chopped finely
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt

6 tablespoons softened butter
2/3 cup demerera raw sugar
3 drops of amaretto flavoring

Granulated sugar, for coating.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix flours, baking soda, baking powder,  salt and spices together in a large bowl. Add the finely chopped figs to the flour and spices. In a separate small bowl, cream the butter and sugar together using an electric mixer. Make a small well in the batter and pour the creamed butter mixture into the dry batter. Knead, making sure all the flour has been absorbed. Roll batter into small 1" balls and coat in granulated sugar.

Place balls onto cookie sheet and gently flatten with a spoon or bottom of a small jar. Bake, rotating if necessary, 15 mins.

Yield: 3 dozen, 36 small, 1" round cookies.