Fresh Fig Newtons
These homemade Fresh Fig Newtons use fresh figs and a cookie dough that has just a hint of orange-- just like the store-bought cookie. Soft and full of fruit.
These cookies were a happy accident. And YES. Fig Newtons ARE cookies in my world. Not cake.
Soft orangey shortbread wrapped around figgy jam... oh man Fig Newtons are good.
I will readily admit that if I am left unattended with a book and that bright yellow package I am likely to mindlessly eat every single one. Well maybe I would leave a couple. But only so no one would blame me for eating the last cookie.
We stopped by a local produce stand that sits just around the corner from us; I've been trying to get there for a while.
They sell plants, and fresh vegetables, and nuts by the pound. There are flowers, and wind chimes, and handcrafted cedar Adirondack chairs. This place is right up my alley.
I grinned at Chad while I loaded the back seat of our car with hanging baskets, oregano plants, and a six pack of jubilee watermelons that are already bearing tiny little fruits. He humors my slight obsession with buying plant life every time I see it. I think it's so I don't roll my eyes at the amount of money he spends on parts for his remote controlled randomness.
The owners were a friendly couple eager to help us, and we fell into a lengthy conversation about this and that.
Chit chat finally landed on the figs they had for sale that no one knew what to do with. The fig tree is yielding at an alarming rate and the fruit is ripening faster than anyone can eat the fresh figs. They told us they thought they would sell more figs if people had ideas about what to do with them. AND THEN they gifted us a whole basket to experiment with!
I returned home happy, HAPPY, HAPPY because not only did I acquire a carload of plants to fuss with, I got myself a kitchen project, too!
I'll be honest ... I've never made anything with figs.
I spent a few hours surfing around with my laptop finding gorgeous fig salads with goat cheese and delicate fig tarts. And while those fig recipes are beautiful and definitely have a tasty place in this world, that place IS NOT HERE in the land of fried chicken, pinto beans, and Sundrop.
So I settled on cookies. More specifically, Fig Newtons. From Scratch.
Everyone likes cookies, right?
If you don't like cookies I'm not sure we can be friends anymore. Sorry bout that.
So I sliced up the figs and put them into a heavy-bottomed saucepan with some brown sugar, lemon zest, and vanilla.
After 40 or 50 minutes of simmering and a little bit of stirring/smashing the larger pieces with the back of a fork, my fresh figs turned into a gooey jam that was deliciously sticky and sweet. I had to talk myself out of smearing it on toast.
Twice.
I stowed the jam away in a jar while I worked on my cookie crust. The jam can be made ahead. It will keep in the fridge for 3-ish days. Less if you make toast.
The dough gets divided; half is pressed into the pan to bake and half is pressed or rolled out and set aside in the freezer while it waits its turn. I pressed mine out in between two generously buttered pieces of foil. Parchment paper IS DEFINITELY better, but you hafta work with what you've got. Am I right?
When the baked bottom layer comes out of the oven, spread the fig filling evenly across it. Then lick the spoon.
Go get the top layer of pressed out cookie dough from the freezer. Carefully peel it from between the foil or parchment paper.
As you can see, my dough is very ugly and broke apart in places.
That's because this is real life.
And it's cool. Because when it bakes, it all melts together. No one will ever know it wasn't perfect.
Except in the case of mine because I published my imperfections on the internet.
After baking and cooling completely, I lifted the foil out and sliced my Newtons into little cookie-sized bars. You see? No evidence of the uncooperative cookie dough anywhere.
Of course we promptly returned to the produce stand with a bag full of these cookies and a copy of the recipe. I hope they enjoyed them. We didn't wanna be creepy and make them try the cookies while we stood there to judge the reaction.
But my verdict is: WIN!!!
I absolutely love them. You will, too.
Other Fig Recipes to Love
- Bacon Wrapped Figs are an appetizer favorite. Seriously so simple and great for feeding a crowd.
- Feels Fancy Figgy Chicken is SO EASY, but it's a recipe that feels fancy. Great for dinner parties or impressing a date.
Fresh Fig Newtons
Fresh Fig Newton are a homemade version of the popular store bought cookies, made with fresh figs!
Ingredients
Filling
- 16 fresh figs; washed, dried, and quartered
- ½ cup packed brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon lemon zest
- ¼ teaspoon coarse salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
Cookie Crust
- 1 ½ cups all purpose flour
- 1 cup whole wheat flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¾ cup butter, at room temperature (12 tablespoons)
- 1 ½ cups brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon orange zest
- 2 eggs
- 4 teaspoons vanilla
Instructions
- In a medium-sized, heavy-bottomed saucepan, make the filling. Bring the figs, ½ cup brown sugar, lemon zest, and 1 teaspoon vanilla to a low boil, stirring as needed.
- Reduce the heat and simmer for 40-50 minutes, occasionally smashing the larger pieces with the back of a fork and stirring. They will cook down and thicken with a jam-like consistency.
- Remove the filling from the heat and cool completely. See Note**
- Preheat the oven to 350. Butter a 9 X 13 baking dish, then line with parchment paper or foil then butter the parchment or foil. Use plenty of butter.
- In a medium sized bowl whisk together the flours, baking powder, and salt.
- In a large bowl, beat the butter and 1 ½ cups brown sugar until it’s fluffy. Add the orange zest and eggs. Beat on medium until the dough comes together. Then stir in the vanilla.
- Gradually incorporate the flour mixture with the mixer on low. The dough will be sticky.
- Butter two “pan-sized” pieces of foil or parchment paper, measure 1 ½ cups of the dough out, and roll or press the dough in between the pieces. This will be your top crust, so get it into a rectangle-ish shape if you can. Put it in the freezer.
- Press the remaining dough into the prepared baking dish and bake for about 20 minutes. It will be pretty and golden brown.
- Spread the fig filling across the baked crust and then get the top crust out of the freezer.
- Gently peel the foil or paper away from the frozen cookie crust and then place it over the top of the fig filling. Pat any stray crust pieces into place.
- Bake for another 20-25 minutes. Watch it closely! The top will turn a nice golden color.
- Let the whole thing cool completely in the pan, on a wire rack if you have one. Once cooled, lift the parchment (or foil) out of the pan and slice into squares.
Notes
- The fig filling can be made ahead stored in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
Recommended Products
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Viking Contemporary 3-Ply Stainless Steel Saucepan with Lid, 2.4 Quart -
Emile Henry Made In France HR Modern Classics Large Rectangular Baker, 13 x 9", Blue -
200 Count Precut Parchment Baking Paper - Unbleached Parchment Paper for Baking, Half Sheet Pans - Non-Stick Baking Parchment Sheets, Brown, 12 x 16 Inches
Nutrition Information:
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 0Cholesterol: 0mgSodium: 0mgCarbohydrates: 0gFiber: 0gSugar: 0gProtein: 0g
(adapted from Tracey's Culinary Adventures HERE and HERE, and then I referenced about 351 more fig newton recipes, including Fig Squares from my fave kitchen bible, Cook's Illustrated The New Best Recipe.)
Origins
Are you still with me allllll the way down here? If yes, then I'll take this time to share a little more with you about this recipe.
It was originally published in June of 2012. This was my very first time working with fresh figs. I've made this recipe many MANY times since I originally published, and many of you have made it, too. It has gotten pretty rave reviews from the makers AND the eaters.
Fresh Fig Newtons are very old fashioned. This isn't a quick recipe but it will sooooo not disappoint. I edited this post in August 2018 with some new photos, and I touched up the directions to make the language more concise. There were pieces that seemed confusing, and I had more than one reader be extra confused about the original measurement of "6 fresh figs". That should have been 16 - I'm sorry! Typos are the worst. You can actually get away with around 12-14 figs here, and pro tip: If the filling seems too thick, add a dash more lemon juice.
I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as we do!
I have a fig tree and my figs are small, so I measure 2/1/4 cup after cooking the fig for about 15 minutes I put them in my small food processor, back in the pan cook it for another 15 minutes it was great. I did had to read direction over and over. I was not to sure but it came out perfect.
Love it I know that I will make it again. Thank for a great fig cookies.
@Betty Roman, This is so helpful and just in time! I’m making my first batch today. I could not understand how the quartered figs ( especially the skin) would break down enough for the jam. I wonder why we can’t just rough chop the figs in the food processor prior to cooking?
@Betty Roman,
And for others who like me are starting with homegrown brown turkey figs, about 3 1/2 cups from the tree seems to make the 2 1/2 puréed after the first 15 minutes of cooking. Thanks for your tip. BTW, this filling also strikes me it could be used between cake layers.
@Betty Roman, yes, I used 16 of my own figs and I it only made about 1/3 cup of the filling so I could have used 4 times as many figs!
@Winnie,
Thank you very much for this tip!
These were sooooooo good! We just moved and now have a fig tree. Have been trying appetizers, but have harvested so many figs (even sharing with deer, squirrels, and mockingbirds) that I decided to branch out and try the Fig Newtons. Yes, time intensive, but so worth it! The best was warm out of the oven; yuuuuuuum!!! Will be making more soon, and there goes the COVID diet! Been cooking and eating way too much!?
Do you know if it would be ok to make the fig filling and freeze it to be used later on? I have so many figs on my tree right now that I'm looking for ways to store them for use later in the year. It would be great to make these cookies later in the fall and winter when we need a pick me up, but not sure if the mixture would be suitable for freezing. I'm thinking it would be since I've read that other jams can often be frozen. Just curious if you or anyone else has tried this option yet.
@CindyH, Why not just freeze the figs and then prepare the filling in the fall or whenever?
@CindyH, I made several batches of these bars last year and froze them. They were great warmed up in the microwave as a wintertime treat.
@CindyH,
Figs freeze beautifully, whole or chopped.
@Suz, I've made the filling, and then leave it in a jar in the fridge. If there's any left within the week so I can make the cookies, I do. Can also just toss in the freezer, all ready to go
Fig Jan too sloppy and it made the cookie soft. How do I improve this please ?
@Maggie, perhaps add a bit more sugar and just simmer for longer?
Do you have to use whole wheat pastry flour. Can you just use all purpose flour
@Trish, my guess would be that it depends what texture you want. I think with all purpose they would come out a bit more like shortbread and less nutty.
@Victoria, I used plain flour and cornflour and the pastry turned out divine!
Such a great recipe! I didn’t have any orange or lemon zest, but I squeezed some fresh lemon juice in the jam. They still came out great, perfect chewy texture without being too sweet.
Thank you so much, Jai!
What is the weight of 16 figs? I have some figs from a friend and they are huuuuge. So need to estimate.
I made these for the 4th of July with fresh figs from my tree. To say they were a huge hit would be an understatement. My family devoured them and declared them to be a new family favorite. They took a little bit of extra effort to make, but well worth it after the rave reviews. Thanks for sharing such a great recipe. I see many more batches in our future during fig season!
Thank you so much, Rebecca! Happy 4th!
Love this recipe, these taste so delicious! We have a fig tree in our backyard that gives us tons of figs every year and we are planning on making this many more times throughout the summer!
Thank you so much, Courtney!
Hello.
So I made the recipe and it took like an hour and 15 minutes to cook. It is a very good recipe and was easy to follow. Would make them again.
I've made this recipe many times. These bars are so delicious!
Love this recipe!! Thank you so much! We have a Turkey fig tree that produces a very generous number of GIANT tasty figs, so we're always trying to fig-ure out what to do with them. I've made this recipe twice (have to estimate the number of figs needed because ours are so large). The first time I made them, I think there was too much jam - maybe too moist as well - and the top part of the cookie was a bit mushy. Very tasty though. The 2nd time I did things a little differently and it seems to have worked well. For the cookie part, we went gluten free this time so I used a mix of almond flour and gluten free flour mix. Used 2 instead of 4 teaspoons of vanilla. For the fat I used a mix of butter, coconut oil and some Miyakos vegan butter (because that's all I had) and the batter turned out a bit soft - too soft to roll out. I spread all of the batter out on a large sheet pan (using a well-oiled parchment paper). Baked that for about 18 minutes. Then sliced it in half (cut the parchment in half with scissors, so I could move the cookie without breaking it) and gently laid one half into a 9x11 pan for the bottom (with oiled parchment), spooned the jam on it, laid the other half on top. Baked some more. It seemed to work well and I didn't have to roll out/freeze part of the dough. Also - there was plenty of the filling leftover for a couple small jars of fig jam. I will make these every fig season!! (P.S. to commenter Barb, I put the coarse salt in the jam - used Himalayan pink salt - the jam seemed to taste fine).
I have made the fig newtons and the recipe is a keeper . My problem is that I made the fig filling and keep in the refrigerator for two weeks not for the three days. It smells fine do you think it will be safe? I feel that it is similar to jam. What do you think.
so where does the coarse salt go? You have it listed in the filling ingreds, but not in the instructions. You have salt in the crust ingreds as well. Guess I'm omitting since I'm making them now.
I found your recipe while looking for something to do with the multitude of figs on my neighbors tree. It seems another 50 or so ripen every day, and I hate seeing them fall on the ground, so I have been making fig preserves....now that I have more than enough preserves, I thought I would move on! I made these yesterday, and they were a BIG HIT with my adult sons, and me! I didn't have whole wheat flour on hand, so I used all white flour, they were still great. Wheat flour next time! One thing that came to mind is that I would love to be able to make these in the winter, so I am going to try making batches of the filling and freezing them. I don't know why it wouldn't work. I love the idea of fresh fig cookies for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter! Making summer last all year long <3. Thanks for the great recipe!
Thank you, Janet!I am so glad you enjoyed these!