They are traditional Sicilian Fig biscuits that are great for the coming Christmas season.
When I first saw the recipe, I fell in love with its combination of figs, sultana and dark chocolate and I would think my family will love it. Interestingly, being individuals, we can have such a dramatic difference in term of taste even within the same family. Just like me, my son loves these biscuits so much that I got to hide these biscuits away to stop him from eating too much. My husband, on the other hand refused to have a second piece. "I don't like fig!" and that is all his reason...
This recipe is so easy that I made the filling and pastry on separate days, stored them in fridge or freezer (not for the filling because I don't prefer to freeze chocolate) and can assemble them whenever I want...It works well for me.
Here's the recipe from the supplement issue of Better Home and gardens, Better Basic with fast ed (2010)
200g dried figs, chopped
75g walnuts, toasted, chopped
75g silvered almond, toasted, chopped
80g sultana
75g dark chocolate, chopped
50g honey
2 lemon, zested
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
400g plain flour
125g caster sugar
1 tsp baking powder
125g unsalted butter, cold, diced
1/2 cup milk
extra flour for kneading
icing sugar for dusting
Preheat oven to 180ºC. Line oven tray with baking paper
Put figs in a bowl of boiling water and set aside for 10 min then drain
Put figs, nuts, sultanas, choc, honey, zest and spices in a food processor and pulse until smooth. set a aside.
Put flour, sugar, baking powder and butter in food processor and pulse until coarse crumb forms. with motor running, add milk and process until dough forms.
Turn out dough into lightly floured surface. Roll out to form a 10 cm wide rectangle, then trim long edges and cut into 6 cm wide strips. Put 1 tbsp of filling along center and fold over each piece of pastry.
Press to seal, then snip flat edge in parallel cuts. Put on trays and bend a little to exposure filling.
Bake 20-25 min or until golden. Cool completely on wire rack. Dust with icing sugar and serve.
I used half the ingredients and made 14.
200g dried figs, chopped
75g walnuts, toasted, chopped
75g silvered almond, toasted, chopped
80g sultana
75g dark chocolate, chopped
50g honey
2 lemon, zested
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
400g plain flour
125g caster sugar
1 tsp baking powder
125g unsalted butter, cold, diced
1/2 cup milk
extra flour for kneading
icing sugar for dusting
Preheat oven to 180ºC. Line oven tray with baking paper
Put figs in a bowl of boiling water and set aside for 10 min then drain
Put figs, nuts, sultanas, choc, honey, zest and spices in a food processor and pulse until smooth. set a aside.
Put flour, sugar, baking powder and butter in food processor and pulse until coarse crumb forms. with motor running, add milk and process until dough forms.
Turn out dough into lightly floured surface. Roll out to form a 10 cm wide rectangle, then trim long edges and cut into 6 cm wide strips. Put 1 tbsp of filling along center and fold over each piece of pastry.
Press to seal, then snip flat edge in parallel cuts. Put on trays and bend a little to exposure filling.
Bake 20-25 min or until golden. Cool completely on wire rack. Dust with icing sugar and serve.
I used half the ingredients and made 14.
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My Italian grandmother calls this something different, but I LOVE them. No chocolate involved, but alot of it looks similar. Apparently they are quite hard to make and they are not very generous in handing them out. LOL
ReplyDeleteyours look very beautiful and I may have to give them a try. I am sooooo soooo bad with any dough that involves rolling out though. :)
Figs are so delicious and these look to good to pass up. I will put them on my baking list of things I need to bake.
ReplyDeletethis screams christmas! it reminds me of those fruit pillows i used to eat when i was little. i'm guessing you could do the same with this recipe if you change how you cut the pastry
ReplyDeleteI can imagine how good this would taste. I think I would like to try out this recipe for Xmas. Have bookmarked it. Keeping my fingers crossed that I will be able to make this. Have to look out for figs :) Thanks Zoe for sharing this delectable silician fig biscuits :)
ReplyDeleteIt looks so pretty. Love the combinations of the dried fruits, nuts and dark chocolate - bet it is very tasty.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing.
These look so good...I've had similar things before but never knew what they were called. So dramatic-looking, too! :o)
ReplyDeleteI really can't say what ingredient I don't like in this beautiful treat ...It sounds and looks fantastic! I am addictive to food blogs:))
ReplyDeleteThey look so cute! I'm not a fig fan, but I suppose you can substitute with other dried fruits as well. I like the last picture and the plate .... stoneware?
ReplyDeleteI like the shape of your biscuits, it looks so pretty!
ReplyDeleteLooks so pretty :)
ReplyDeleteHaven't eat this before,but i could imagine sure it taste delicious.
ReplyDeleteSoooo tempting cuddureddi..looks cute.
ReplyDeleteI really like their shape. It is so unusual plus chocolate and figs which are very dear to me.
ReplyDeleteThis looks good! Wonder if I have time to bake this for Christmas this year... Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteI like the look of this cuddureddi dun let him eat too much ya.
ReplyDeleteI've never seen these before, but they look beautiful and sound delicious. Great job on them :)
ReplyDeletethis looks wonderful and so pretty
ReplyDeletei'm not sure if i love to eat this..thinking of the figs but i must tell you that looking at the photos, they look simply gorgeous!
ReplyDeleteThese cookies look so neat and I just love the taste of figs. Thanks for showing me a new cookie that I didn't know about before. By the way, I'm holding a giveaway on my blog for Orglamix Organic makeup and you're welcome to come by and enter. http://sweet-as-sugar-cookies.blogspot.com/2010/12/orglamix-organic-mineral-makeup-review.html
ReplyDeleteYum! I love fig-filled baked treats :) I saw a recipe for fig crumb bar cookies a few weeks ago and I've been thinking about baking with figs ever since!
ReplyDeleteThey remind me of the arnott's pillow biscuits I used to get as a child but I imagine these are immensely more delicious.
ReplyDeleteWow this looks amazing! Love dark chocolate and figs. I bet it didn't last very long (=
ReplyDeleteI've never heard of sultana but I'm very familiar with the rest of the ingredients so I'm sure I'd LOVE these. Mmm, chocolate, walnuts, dates and pastry. Hard to go wrong! :)
ReplyDeleteI'm glad that everyone like these cuddureddi.
ReplyDeleteNo-Frills Recipes: I'm pretty sure that you can substitute all the dried fruits in the recipes to the ones that you like. I'm not too sure if the plate that I use is stoneware. I got these ordinary dark colored plates from Harris Scarfe, Australia.
These look delicious! I know I'm showing my ignorance, but I have never heard of sultana. Can you enlighten me a bit? :)
ReplyDeleteThese are so pretty, and I bet they're delicious too. I love figs. :)
ReplyDeleteI am curious, what is the texture of cuddureddi? Hehe...
ReplyDeleteThanks everyone for dropping by.
ReplyDeleteAmy: Sultana is dried grapes. They are like raisins. I Google for any difference between sultanas and raisin and the answer is "Compared to a regular raisin, a sultana is lighter in colour, sweeter and more moist, and less acidic."
Hanushi: I will try my best to describe the cuddureddi that I made. As you can see that the butter content in the pastry is not as high as other shortcrust pastry, so the pastry is not as soft and flaky or buttery as shortbread or shortcrust pastry but at the same time not as hard and crunchy as usual biscuits.If you have tried Arnott's fruit pillow, you would know what I meant. The additional ingredient in cuddureddi is the chocolate in the filling. I would say the taste of the fillings is a crumb up mix of fruit and nuts chocolate. Hope that will help :D
Thanks a lot Zoe for taking the time to give a detailed explanation. :)
ReplyDeleteWell ... I'm here for the first time and what I discover is a really scrumptious place ! ;o) I'll be back often, I think ...
ReplyDeleteHave a nice day
Hélène
cute shape. never seen this kind of cookie before and i think "fig" is uncommon here in my country. what if i change it with dates?
ReplyDeleteHi Wenny, I have not tried making these with dates before and I reckon this recipe should work well with dried dates. As dried figs are less compact than dried dates, I suggest maybe you might to soak the dates in boiling water for a longer time. Have fun experimenting!
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