Homemade Fig Newtons

Written by Chrissy on January 16th, 2010 | Print this recipe

Homemade Fig Newtons!

Today is National Fig Newton Day, and what better way to celebrate than to make your own?

I was pretty excited to try this recipe, because I really like Fig Newtons, but also because I’m kinda curious about figs. I’ve never actually eaten one before. Or even really seen one in real life, except for once at Palazzo Giuseppe in downtown San Luis Obispo, when my sister’s meal came adorned with fig slices, and we eyed them suspiciously.

This recipe was meant to be used with fresh figs, but as it turns out, January is not fig season. So I bought some dried figs at Vons and tried to rehydrate them. I poured boiling water over them and kept them covered for about an hour. I should have soaked the figs overnight, because not all of the figs plumped up as much as they probably should have.

And the recipe goes on to tell you how to make a jam out of your figs, but my partially rehydrated figs did not cooperate. At first I was disappointed that what was supposed to be jam filling turned out more like seedy brown mush, but then I realized that’s pretty much what the inside of a Fig Newton looks like. So, my filling was just more authentically Newton-y than it was supposed to be.

The “cookie” part is more of a super flaky crust; it’s not sweet at all. But the cream cheese in the dough goes well with the figgy filling. Don’t skimp on the filling, by the way — I spread it a little thin in some parts, and you can hardly taste the fig. Trust me, you want to taste the fig.

Recipe: Homemade Fig Newtons

Adapted from Big City, Little Kitchen

Pastry:

2 cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon salt
2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, room-temperature
1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, room-temperature
Cinnamon sugar

Filling:

2 pounds dried figs, rehydrated (or fresh figs if in season)
¼ cup sugar
Juice of half a lemon

To make the pastry: In a medium bowl, whisk together flour and salt. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the butter and cream cheese. Add the flour mixture and beat until a sticky dough forms. Wrap the dough in plastic film and flatten it slightly into a disk shape. Let the dough chill in refrigerator while you make the filling.
To make the filling: Chop up the rehydrated figs. Combine figs with sugar and lemon juice in a medium saucepan, and mash the mixture a little with a potato masher or fork. Cook mixture over medium-high heat until bubbling and sugar has dissolved; reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 30 minutes. (The original recipe says to cook the fig mixture until it has reduced by about one-third and is beginning to gel, but that didn’t happen with my rehydrated figs; I just stopped cooking them after 30 minutes without any sign of gelling.) Set aside until completely cool.
Preheat oven to 350˚F. Cut dough into four pieces. On a well-floured surface, roll the first piece out to about 12 inches by 6 inches. Place on baking sheet.
Spread about ¼ cup of the cooled filling along half of the sheet of pastry, lengthwise, leaving a ½-inch border along the edges. Fold the other, fig-free side of the pastry over the figgy side, and press down on edges to seal. Use a knife to cut small slits in the top of the pastry, about 2 inches apart, to allow air to escape while baking. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.
Repeat with the other three sections of dough, ending with 2 pastries on each cookie sheet. Bake for 25 minutes, or until pastry is just beginning to turn golden.
Let cool on baking sheets for 10 minutes before slicing into bars. For Fig Newton-size bars, cut each section of pastry length-wise, then make 2-inch cuts horizontally.