It finally happened… the figs on our monster fig tree started to ripen! I tried two new recipes this year with figs that both turned out fantastic.

Fig and Blueberry Crisp

I basically followed this Food Network recipe with some slight modifications:

• I used 3 cups blueberries and 3 cups figs and added a bit of lemon zest to the fruit mixture
• I did not add nutmeg or pecans
• I did add some ground ginger, probably about 1/2 teaspoon

Fruit mixture and topping:

The final, delicious product:

Fig Cookie Bars

While the crisp was super easy to throw together, fig cookies bars (also called fig newtons) required more work, spread across two days for me. For the cookie part, I mostly followed this Fresh Fig Newtons recipe from Sugar Dish Me. For the jam in the middle, I looked around at a number of recipes and ended up using:

• 2 lbs fresh figs, chopped
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup honey
• Juice from 1 lemon

Put all ingredients in a saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring frequently. After the boil starts, reduce to a simmer and continue to stir / mash from time to time. After 45 min or so, the jam should be thickened.

Note: this jam did turn out quite sweet, so next time I’d reduce the sugar to 3/4 cup probably.

For the cookie part, I changed the Sugar Dish Me recipe by:

• Reducing the butter – I used 1/2 cup butter and 1/4 cup applesauce
• Omitting the orange zest – I didn’t have an orange and wasn’t sold on this anyhow.

The bars were a huge hit. If only they weren’t so much work!

Making jam:

Finished jam:

Finished cookie bar sheet:

Mmmm… delicious!