Okay, I realize that this is not a food blog but it’s summer and great fresh food is everywhere and it’s just so inspiring that I’m going crazy. We picked our first cucumbers and our first tomato from our garden the other day. The little yellow thing is a lemon cucumber and it tastes a bit sweeter than a normal cucumber.
My friend Anne gave me a whole bag of fresh figs from her tree so I decided to make fig newtons. I found a recipe on line here, the only problem was that it called for dried figs. So I improvised. I cut up my figs into small pieces, put them in a saucepan with some water, grated orange peel, and sugar and cooked them on low for about an hour and a half until they were really cooked down and thick. I followed the online recipe for the dough and it worked great. They taste terrific, just like store bought only better.
More baking was called for because it’s peach season and so time for a peach pie. I used a dough from a very old issue of Cook’s Illustrated that has a little sour cream in the dough. It’s a bit hardier than regular pie dough and so stands up to the juiciness of a peach pie. The filling is peaches, sugar, flour, a pinch of mace and some lemon juice. Yum Yum.
Fruit and dough equals breakfast don’t you think?
4 Comments
wow lee… i am impressed. you made your own fig newtons? and i love the rustic tart idea… have you seen rustic fruit desserts by julie richardson and cory shrieber? julie is from baker and spice, our local bakery where we get our croissants… don’t tell me that you made those too!
I love Baker and Spice and I’ve had many of their delicious pastries. But no, I have not attempted croisants yet. Maybe one day.
Can’t wait for the next crop of figs at the end of the month so I can try this recipe….Mark can’t wait either!
I stumbled in here… somehow… can’t remember how now because your mention of figs sent me off in search of this recipe…
http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20090721/LIFESTYLE/907209952?Title=Natural-buzz
It’s also LOTS easier to make, I’d think, than homemade Fig Newtons(TM) — “the cookie that thinks it’s a fruit!” Then again, a bowl of vanilla ice cream with rosemary honey accompanied by homemade fig-cake cookies might be just shy of Heaven.