When we moved back to the San Francisco Bay Area from Seattle in 2010, we had a months long search for the perfect home. Not just any home, but an Eichler. Not just any Eichler, but one with an atrium, a larger floor plan, a good backyard, and good school system. After many slipped through our fingers, we managed to get one that met all our requirements. When we moved in, we had a lot of work to do, including chopping through the jungle of a backyard. Imagine a scene where someone placed every plant they liked in every open space in the ground that they could find. Imagine they didn't maintain it for many years. That was our backyard. We cleared out much of it in the course of a few attempts. As we were making decisions on the final trees to clear, one was close to making the list: a sad looking mangle of branches that looked like it would be on the set of a Tim Burton movie. It didn't even look like a tree, but a deformed, oversized bush with no leaves. Something compelled us to see what would become of it in the Spring before digging it out. Spring came, leaves bloomed. Still ugly, but, along with the leaves, some little green knobs emerged. And, oh my, they looked like figs! Fast forward to the late Summer/early Fall, and they were figs! About 80 pounds worth of the biggest, most delicious figs I have ever seen or tasted. Of course, we decided to keep the ugly tree after all.
Some facts about figs:
- Figs are actually flowers, not fruit.
- People will be nicer to you immediately upon learning you have a fig tree.
- Squirrels, birds, and other creatures of the night love figs, and will even risk life and limb to get to them.
- Fig jam makes good gifts.
- 80 pounds of figs over the course of 2.5 months are way too many figs.
Given that figs that are not even as nice those from our tree are sold for around $8/pound, I find myself doing my best to ensure no fig goes wasted. I make jams, cakes, muffins, dried figs, dried figs stuffed with pistachio marzipan, dried figs dipped in chocolate, fig ice cream, grilled figs... you get the point. One thing I have yet to make in all the years I have had this tree is Fig Newtons. I grew up loving them, so I decided to give them a try using a Bon Appetit recipe for my first attempt. I had everything I needed, but orange juice. So I decided to pick up a small bottle at the farmers market, since I could buy a small amount, and it is nice to support local. Well, I thought it was nice until the lady told me this tiny bottle was $6! I initially had a plain orange in hand, until I learned the price. I decided to switch it out for Blood Orange, which was the same price. At least I felt then I was paying for a slightly rarer orange.
Cooking two pounds of fresh fruit, juice, and honey cook down to a thick jam took about 35 minutes, and the dough prep was super fast. I decided to double the batch of dough so I could freeze extras to make on-demand. Letting the dough refrigerate overnight, I followed the assembly instructions as written. They are not kidding when they say the dough gets soft and sticky very fast. I even tried rolling on a super cold surface, and the dough was almost unworkable after 30 seconds. I had to aggressively flour, and found myself complaining way too much as I was messing around with the dough. It took several attempts to work up a decently folded row. For what it is worth, I was able to use the filling I made for two batches of dough, and had extra to spare. I let the rows freeze, cut enough cookies for a single sheet, and wrapped up the remaining for future use.
The verdict. As annoying as the dough is to work--but they warned me--these homemade Fig Newtons are ridiculously tasty and worth the frustration.
