Panela Poached Figs

Yes, another fig recipe. I have to. I have so many of them, I'm turning purple. My favorite part about having so many figs (besides eating them) is that I get to can them and enjoy them in the middle of winter, when I crave them. Canning is so much fun, it's like trapping a season in a jar. While tomatoes don't taste like tomatoes in Winter, you have the real deal sitting on your pantry. I always can figs two ways; I make jam which is great because I can use it in so many ways, not just with bread in the morning. Also, I slowly poach figs in panela and cinnamon for two hours until tender but still keeping them whole.

Poached figs in panela is such a great dessert option. Slightly warm them and they  pair fantastically with ice cream. Also works great with cakes, tarts, panna cotta, the list is endless. Yes, it takes two hours to cook but there isn't much to do while they are poaching, just check them once in a while to make sure they have enough liquid. Also, lets talk about how wonderful your whole house will smell, you will want to poach another batch just to keep the smell going. If you cooked fish that day, that would be the day to poach figs :) 

Ingredients:

1 ½ pounds figs

2 cinnamon sticks

5 cups water

1 lb panela

Jars, I used Ball Jars, 

you can find them HERE

In a pot, place the water, cinnamon sticks and panela. Boil until the panela has dissolved (it shouldn't take long). Continue to boil for ten minutes then add the figs, lower the heat to medium and cook (uncover) for 2 hours. Check occasionally to make sure they have enough liquid. It will thicken when cool so be careful. Ladle hot figs and poaching liquid into sterilized jars and wipe clean the rim of the jars. Close the jars with sterilized lids. Place the the jars into a pot with boiling water (I use a steamer pot)  and boil for 10 minutes.

Click HERE to find a jam recipe.

Homemade Granola with Fig Sauce + A Video

This is one of those recipes I don't understand why it takes me so long to post. This granola recipe is what I've been using ever since I started to eat granola (that's years ago). I love to make my own granola because I have a better control of what goes in it. So far, all of the commercially sold granolas have that one ingredient I don't like or is missing something. Not only that but it's way cheaper. 

This granola recipe never changes around here, what changes are the toppings. We always eat it with yogurt and whatever fruit is in season. Right now our fig tree is at its peek so I made a fig sauce. I just love all these flavors and textures in what feels like dessert for breakfast without the guilt factor. 

Oh yeah, I also made a video :) 

Ingredients:

3 cups old-fashioned oats

1/2 pistachios

1/2 cup almonds 
1/2 cup pumpkin seeds

1 tsp cinnamon

½ tsp salt

⅓ cup honey

⅓ cup canola oil

1 cup dried fruit (I used raisins)

1 cup shredded coconut

1 tsp vanilla extract 

Preheat the oven to 300 ˚F.

In a bowl, combine the honey, oil, vanilla, salt and cinnamon. In a separate bowl, combine the oats, seeds and nuts. Pour the liquids on to the dry ingredients and mix well to combine. Spread the mixture in two-half baking sheets and bake for 45 minutes or until golden, stirring every 10 minutes. After the first 15 minutes, mix in the shredded coconut (half cup on each baking sheet). Let cool completely then mix in the dried fruit.

For the fig sauce:

8oz fresh figs, halved 

1/8 cup of water

3 tbsp honey or maple syrup 

Place all the ingredients in a saucepan and cook for 15 minutes or until the figs are soft, stir occasionally. Use a potato masher to break them down. Let it cool before serving. 

Fig Galette + A New Video

It is finally fig season. I get really excited because I truly love figs and with my generous tree, I get to really experiment and make lots of treats. I already photographed a few recipes and I will be sharing them with you sooner than later, I promise. 

This fig galette was the first recipe I made from the first figs I collected from our tree. This elegant free-form tart, has a really flaky crust and it's the crust I use for most of my tarts and pies recipes, both savory and sweet. The only thing I adjust is the sugar/salt content, depending on the recipe.

This recipe comes with a bonus video :). I can not begin to tell you how much I am loving this video making situation. It's not easy and I am still struggling with some things like lighting. It's definitely harder to set up lighting for a video than it is for a photograph, specially using natural light only. When I made this video, it was more of an experiment and I honestly didn't think I would have something nice to show you. I was really excited to see it come together, I was thinking, "damn, it's not perfect… but it's perfect!!" Do you know what I mean? Just watch the video and you will understand me better! I appreciate your comments and if you have any tips on on how can I improve the lighting, please fill me in! 

Ingrediens:

For the crust, find the recipe HERE

For the Filling:

16 oz figs, tips cut off and quartered

3 tablespoon sugar

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, set aside.

In a mixing bowl, mix together the figs and sugar. Divide the tart crust in half and roll out each half. Equally divide the filling into the rolled out dough, leaving about a 2-inch border along the edges. Fold the outer edge of the dough in toward the center. Place the galette in the prepared baking sheet and wrap them with plastic wrap. Place the galettes in the fridge for half an hour before baking. When ready to bake, brush the galettes with egg wash and sprinkle with muscovado sugar. Bake them in a preheated oven (375˚F) for 35 minutes or until golden brown. Serve with ice cream or whipped cream.

Click HERE to watch my last video

Last Figs of the Season

When deciding what to do with the last figs harvested from our tree, an upside down fig cake seemed like a great idea and, oh boy, was I glad I went for it. Even my husband asked me why I didn't do this cake to begin with, and I simply answered, "I saved the best for last".

A slice of perfection: Moist, tender, sweet and beautiful texture, everything I look for in an upside down cake. I love this cake a little warm and a scoop of vanilla ice cream is always welcome to the party but quite honestly the figs are just so good that they are all I want to taste. 

Ingredients:

For the figs:

1 cup light brown sugar

1 stick of butter (4oz)

9-10 figs  cut lengthwise

9-inch round baking pans

Place the butter and sugar in a skillet, whisk to combine and cook until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture is bubbly which should take about 4 to 5 minutes. Pour the caramel over the cake pan, arrange the figs on top, be very careful as the caramel is super hot. You can even wait a few minutes to let it cool down. Arrange the figs (cut side down) on top of the caramel and let it cool before adding the cake batter.

For the cake:

2 cup flour

1 cup sugar

1 tbsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup butter, room temperature

1 cup milk, room temperature

1 tsp vanilla 

2 Lg eggs, room temperature

Preheat the oven 350 F. Sift together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with paddle attachment, mix the dry ingredients just to blend. Add the butter to the dry ingredients and blend on low speed for 2 to 3 minutes. In a mixing bowl, whisk to blend the milk, vanilla and eggs. On medium speed, slowly add half of the liquid to the dry ingredients and blend well, slowly add the other half and mix until well combined. Turn the speed up and mix for 30 seconds or until batter is smooth. Pour the batter over the caramel and figs and bake for 45 minutes to an hour or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let the cake cool for 10 minutes before inverting onto a serving plate. 

Last Days of Summer Grilling

We don't eat much meat around here but occasionally we like to enjoy a good grilled cut of meat. New York strip is one of my favorite cuts to grill as it has a nice marbling and, properly cooked, it's really tender. But the real star in this recipe is the chimichurri sauce. If you are not familiar with chimichurri, it's an Argentinean sauce (also popular throughout South America) commonly used over grilled meat. It's very simple to make as it requires ingredients that you probably already have on hand. Everybody has their own version, of course, but the usual suspects are parsley, garlic, olive oil and white vinegar. 

Chimichurri also goes great over grilled chicken and vegetables. I particularly love it with roasted potatoes. To change things a bit, I sometimes like to replace half of the parsley with mint, it is really delicious. 

I also made a salad, yes, with figs. I love the combination between figs, blue cheese and honey. This time, I decided to stuff the figs with blue cheese and bake them for 25 minutes then drizzled them with honey. The greens are lightly dressed with olive oil because when you cut into the figs they release a lot of juice and that makes a beautiful "vinaigrette".  

Ingredients: 

Chimichurri Sauce

1 1/2 cup parsley

(or half parsley and half mint)

3 garlic cloves

1/2 cup olive olive

3 tbsp white vinegar

salt and pepper to taste

Combine all the ingredients in a food processor and 

process until smooth. Serve immediately or keep in the 

refrigerator until ready to use just make sure it comes to 

room temperature before serving. 

For the figs

8 figs

2 oz blue cheese, cold

honey 

Preheat the oven to 350 F.

Cored the figs just enough to make room for some blue cheese, we don't

want to get rid of all the seeds. Stuffed them and arrange them on a baking pan.

Roast them for 20 minutes and drizzle them with honey before serving. 

For the salad

Mix greens

Extra virgin olive oil

Pistachios

Blue Cheese

Salt and Pepper

Place the mix greens in a  bowl, drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and 

pepper to taste, toss well. Arrange the salad in plates, top with blue cheese, pistachio and the roasted figs. Serve immediately. 

Fig Birthday Cake and Fig Jam

It has been all about figs in this house lately. This is the point when we are harvesting 5 to 7 figs  per day so it was a no brainer when I was deciding what kind of cake to make for my husband's birthday. 

The day before his birthday I made a badge of fig jam and I used some of it to make  fig swiss meringue buttercream. The actual batter does not have figs since I decided to top the cake with fresh figs. I think It would have been too much. The cake came out really good and moist. This is my go-to recipe that I use over and over for a simple yellow cake. The birthday boy really liked his cake and that was the whole point (and to use up all the fig, shhh… don't tell him)

Happy birthday to you my love!

Ingredients:

For the cake:

2 cup flour

1 cup sugar

1 tbsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup vegetable shortening, room temperature

1 cup milk, room temperature

1 tsp vanilla 

2 Lg eggs, room temperature

Preheat the oven 350 F.  Grease and flour  a 9-inch round baking pans, set aside.

Sift together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with paddle attachment, mix the dry ingredients just to blend. Add the vegetable shortening to the dry ingredients and blend on low speed for 2 to 3 minutes. In a mixing bowl, whisk to blend the milk, vanilla and eggs. On medium speed, slowly add half of the liquid to the dry ingredients and blend well, slowly add the other half and mix until well combined. Turn the speed up and mix for 30 seconds or until batter is smooth. Bake in the prepared pan for 1 hour or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. Let cool on a wire rack completely before adding swiss buttercream.

Fig Swiss Buttercream

1/3 cup fig jam (recipe follow)

5 lg egg whites

1 cup granulated sugar

3 sticks butter

Whip together the sugar and egg whites in a double boiler (I used the bowl of 

my electric mixer over a pot of simmering water) Just make sure the water doesn't touch the bowl, whip until sugar dissolves. Attach the bowl to the mixer and whip  the mixture to soft peaks. Add the butter a tablespoon at a time until all the butter is incorporated and fluffy. At this point, add the fig jam and mix until well combined. 

For the Jam

(makes about 3 cups)

2 lb Figs, halves

1 1/2 cup sugar

2 tbsp lemon juice

In a large heavy-bottomed pot, combine all the ingredients. Simmer over low heat for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the mixture thickens.

Here is my little secret, instead of using a potato masher to break down the figs, I use a hand blender, but be careful not to over blend. A food processor will work too. Fill glass jars with hot fig jam and enjoy.

To assemble the cake:

Carefully cut cake in two layers and spread one third of the swiss buttercream onto the cake and place the second layer on top. Spread the top and the sides with the remaining swiss buttercream. Place slices of fresh figs on top.

Fig Ice Cream

It's fig season!! I've been waiting all summer for this. As I mentioned before, I'm fortunate to have a fig tree in my backyard and I already have been taking advantage of it. We have been eating figs in salads, desserts, and the latest treat, fig ice cream.

Fig ice cream is one of the best ways to enjoy perfectly ripe figs. This recipe makes a creamy, sweet and rich ice cream. I don't break down the figs too much because I love to find pieces of it in my scoop. I also love the texture from the seed of the figs, is that too weird? I love it anyway. 

I hope you like figs because more recipes are coming :). Last year we had so much fig all the way to late October,  I gathered the last bunch from the tree and made a huge batch of fig jam that I ended up giving away. I hope this year will be as good.

Ingredients:

2 cups milk

1 cup heavy cream

2 egg yolk

1/2 cup sugar, divided 

2 cups figs, quartered 

2 tbsp honey 

1/2 tsp vanilla bean extract

In a large saucepan, combine the figs, half of the sugar and honey. Let it macerate at room temperature for 20 minutes. Simmer over low heat for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the mixture thickens. At this point, break down the fig (as much as you like) with a potato masher, cook for 3 minutes more. Let it cool completely, cover and refrigerate it for a couple of hours  until well chill. In a mixing bowl, whisk together the rest of the sugar and egg yolks until pale yellow. In another saucepan, combine milk, heavy cream and the vanilla bean. Heat the mixture until just begin to boil (but don't let it boil) Temper the milk mixture over the eggs, mix well and return the saucepan to the heat. Cook for three minutes more stirring well. Don't let the mixture come to boil. Let it cool completely, cover and refrigerate it for a couple of hours  until well chill. When ready, combine well the figs and the milk mixture and pour it into an ice cream maker and follow manufacture's instructions.