The Honey & Fig Incident

A neighbour of my grandparents stopped my Grandpa on one of his daily walks one fine summer evening and offered him some figs off of her tree. He took a few and my Grandma sent him back for more with a basket teasing him about "going to Grandmother's house" and to make sure she didn't have a long furry nose and sharp teeth. Anyway, he brought back a few pounds or so and my Grandma washed them and ran them through her ancient grinder. She scooped some out for me once we found this recipe for honey & fig cookies.

Since our figs were fresh, we figured maybe a cup and a half to two cups and I think I added almost two cups to the batter. The batter ended up being almost too loose for cookies, so we decided to bake it in an 8"x8" pan lined with parchment paper. That dang cake baked for one hour and ten minutes and it was still a tad doughy in the center but we pulled it out anyway. It turned out very dense and chewy but not bad at all. I also added the rest of the figs I had scooped out on top about halfway through baking so they would caramelize on top and not seem so plain. I'm weird like that.

Recipe taken from 80 Breakfasts.

1¾ C flour
½ tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
pinch of nutmeg
pinch of ground cloves
¾ C honey
¼ C butter
2 eggs
1 cup dried figs, soaked in hot water and coarsely chopped
1⅓ walnuts, coarsely chopped

Preheat oven to 350F. Line two cookie sheets with baking paper

Sift together the flour, baking soda, salt, and spices. Set aside.

In a saucepan, heat the honey and butter until the butter melts. Set aside.

Meanwhile, in a bowl whisk the eggs. Pour in the honey mixture (once it’s cooled) and continue to whisk until blended. Stir in the dry ingredients. Lastly, add the figs and the walnuts and stir until just incorporated.

Drop by teaspoonfuls on the prepared cookie sheets, spaced at least 1-inch apart. Bake in the oven for 8-12 minutes, or until the cookies are nicely browned and spring back when gently pressed. Transfer to cooling racks. Cool completely and store in airtight containers.

Modifications
The honey I used was ultra dark. When I say ultra dark, I mean I thought it was molasses when I saw it sitting on the counter.
The fresh figs, of course.
I used about half a cup of walnuts and a little more than half a cup of pecans. Neither were chopped, so i just smashed them with the bowl I used to sift my dry ingredients in their baggies.

Peas & Broccoli!

Today, my grandma had me go out to the garden to pick some peas. I ventured out in my pajamas in the 100˚degree weather we have today, which is absolutely disgusting, by the way. Anyway, she came out a bit later to start picking the broccoli and helped me get some peas I missed. I've yet to try the peas except for popping open the pod and eating them in the garden, but the broccoli was so so so delicious just steamed, then buttered then sprinkled with salt and pepper. It was sweet and far better than any of the broccoli I've eaten ever. I'm half-tempted to even try eating it raw and I normally hate raw broccoli. Anywho, I remembered to take some pictures while I was outside and figured I'd post them here. I also have some lemon-lime-strawberry creamsicles in the freezer waiting to be taste-tested, so there I'll be sure to post about those soon. And hopefully I'll get my act together and remember to bring a half-decent camera over so you don't have to look at my bogus 1.3 megapixel sidekick pictures.



stripped broccoli plants


tasty tasty peas