While I’m still trying to hold on to a bit of summer, I’m also happily welcoming my favourite season of the year, Autumn.

What can I say? I’m a sucker for leaves changing colour, frosty mornings, cool but sunny days and that feeling of winter, just around the corner. Oh yes … and HOCKEY!!!

Just as I savoured my homemade lemon gelato, I’m also looking ahead to the best of the fall and for me that includes figs.

I adore figs and while I can’t say that the figs that we get here in Toronto are the best in the world, we are lucky enough to have access to some good figs. We even have neighbours who have managed to grow their own figs!

For today’s edition of Magazine Mondays, and this being the first day of fall, I couldn’t help but choose a recipe featuring figs. I settled on a Fig Frangipane Tart from the Fall 2008 issue of Ricardo magazine.

This tart was fairly easy to make and so delicious. It’s a great way to use any fresh figs that you can get your hands on. And figs and almonds compliment each other so well. I made the tart for the occasion of my godson’s birthday and brought it as part of a dessert tray. It was very elegant and quite the crowd pleaser.

Magazine Mondays, for those that aren’t familiar with it, is a very informal event that I’ve started as a way to put those magazine recipes that I’m constantly collecting to good use. If you have a magazine recipe that you’ve finally tried, let me know and I’ll link to it in my post.

In the meantime, enjoy those figs and have a great week!

Ciao!

I’m always happy to be joined by other people in the food blogging world who are tackling that magazine pile! Natashya of Living in the Kitchen with Puppies (a real MM pro!) comes to us with two recipes: Curried Cauliflower Soup with Coriander Chutney and Watermelon, Feta, and Olive Salad; my dear Liliana of My Cookbook Addiction made a gorgeous Lemon Olive Oil Cake and Wandering Coyote of ReTorte made (drool) Shrimp in Ginger Butter Sauce. Remember, if you post any magazine recipes, let me know!

Fig Frangipane Tart
From the Fall 2008 issue of Ricardo magazine.

Note: This recipe is similar to the Peach and Almond Tart I made during the summer. This is a lovely fall dessert so I encourage you to try it.

Equipment: 9-inch tart pan (round or square) with a removable bottom.

For the crust:

1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 tbsp. granulated sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
1-1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. salt

In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the butter and sugar and mix with the paddle attachment until well blended.

Add the lightly beaten egg and mix until combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.

Add the flour, cinnamon and salt and mix until just combined.

With your hands, pat the dough into the tart pan making sure you pack the dough up the sides of the pan and into all the corners evenly.

Refrigerate the crust while you prepare the frangipane filling.

Frangipane filling:

1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. almond extract
1 tsp. cinnamon
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1-1/4 cups ground almonds
3 tbsp. all purpose flour
8 to 10 figs, quartered (depending on size)
icing sugar (for garnish)

Before you start the filling, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and place a rack in the centre of the oven.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the butter and sugar and mix until combined.

Add the extracts and mix for another minute.

Add the eggs and mix until combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.

Add the ground almonds and flour and stir in with a wooden spoon until smooth.

Scrape the frangipane filling into the prepared tart shell.

Arrange the quartered figs over the top of the filling.

Bake the tart for 45 to 50 minutes, or until a tester inserted in the middle of the tart comes out clean. The crust will be golden.

Let the tart cool on a wire rack. Once cool, dust with icing sugar.

Enjoy!

Good evening, my friends!

There are just a few hours left before the deadline for SHF #35 passes. Get your entries in by midnight tonight. For those of you that may not make the deadline, just let me know and I’ll see if I can’t give you a bit of a Cream Puff reprieve!

I give you my final creation for SHF #35: The Beatiful Fig.

It’s a sweet focaccia topped with fresh figs and walnuts that have been drizzled with Grand Marnier and sprinkled liberally with brown sugar. Once baked, I blessed each fig with a dollop of mascarpone and then drizzled the entire mess with gorgeous honey!

For those of you that have already contributed to SHF #35, I thank you for your brilliance!

Ciao!

Technorati tags: sugar high friday, SHF #35, figs, mascarpone, focaccia

As we approach another weekend, I thought I’d give everyone a sweet reminder of SHF #35: The Beautiful Fig!

The deadline for submissions is midnight on Monday September 24th with the round-up to be posted on Friday September 28th.

I’ve had a few comments and questions from people about fresh figs so I just want to remind everyone that you don’t necessarily have to use fresh figs. You can use dried figs or any product made with figs. Be creative!

For a little inspiration, I decided to make Fig and Pistachio cookies from a lovely cookbook that I purchased a few months ago: Italian Baking Secrets. The book is written by Father Giuseppe Orsini, a priest from New Jersey.

I’d never heard of Father Orsini until I wandered into The Cookbook Store one day and saw his book front and centre. He’s apparently the author of numerous books on Italian cooking and baking, although this one is the first that I’ve seen.

It’s a sweet book filled with recipes, many of which I recognized from weddings and showers. As soon as I saw the recipe for these cookies, I knew I had to give them a try.

Enjoy the figs and I can’t wait to see what you create!

Ciao!

Fig and Pistachio Cookies
Adapted from Italian Baking Secrets by Father Giuseppe Orsini.

1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter, at room temperature
2 large eggs
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. orange extract (if you don’t have orange extract, use 1 tbsp. grated orange zest)
1 cup shelled unsalted pistachios (don’t chop them up)
1 cup chopped dried figs
1-1/2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 tsp. baking powder
icing sugar for dusting

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Combine the flour and baking soda and set aside.

Combine the sugar and butter in the bowl of an electric mixer and cream on high speed for 2 to 3 minutes.

Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl if necessary.

Mix in the vanilla and orange extracts (or orange zest).

Stir in the pistachios and figs.

Add the flour mixture and mix on low speed until just combined.

Scrape the dough out onto a well-floured surface and gather into a ball.

Divide the ball into three equal pieces.

Roll the pieces into logs that are about an inch and a half to 2 inches thick and about 10 to 12 inches long.

Carefully transfer the logs to the baking sheet.

Bake in the preheated oven for 15 minutes. The logs will be slightly golden and firm to the touch.

Remove from the oven and let cool on a wire rack for about 20 minutes.

Carefully slice the logs into cookies (about an inch thick).

Transfer the cookies back to the baking tray so that they are standing upright. Do not lay them on one side. Put the cookies back in the oven for 10 minutes.

Let cool completely and dust with icing sugar before serving.

Enjoy!

Technorati tags: sugar high friday, shf, figs, pistachios, cookies

It is my great honour to announce that I am the host of the 35th edition of Sugar High Friday!

Created by Jennifer of The Domestic Goddess over two years ago, Sugar High Friday is an event to celebrate all that is sweet in our lives.

Every type of sweet imagineable has been explored over the previous 34 editions of this event, so when Jennifer e-mailed me to let me know that I would be able to host in September 2007, I had to make a decision.

What to choose as a theme?

After mulling it over for awhile, I decided it was time to give the glorious fig its due.

To this day, I am always amazed by the number of people who have never tried a fresh fig. While many people are familiar with dried figs, fresh ones are much harder to come by. Here in Toronto, I know many people who go to great lengths to cultivate fresh fig trees. I know some people who have built greenhouses in their backyards simply for the trees!

While it is usually referred to as a fruit, the fig is actually the flower of the fig tree. Cutting into the pear-shaped fruit is such an experience! The fruit is filled to bursting with tiny seeds and when you cut into a perfectly ripe fig, it’s as though it secretes its own honey.

And the flavour! How to describe one of the truly great flavours in this world? A fresh fig is sweet and soft. It is somehow warm and refreshing at the same time.

For SHF #35, I want all of you to go out there and explore the world of figs. You can submit any dessert you like featuring figs in whatever form you like: fresh figs, dried figs, fig preserves, fig honey, fig sugar, fig extract … surprise me!

If you’ve never had a fig, then look at this as an opportunity to discover something new.

Here are the details for SHF #35:

Prepare a sweet featuring figs in any form that you like.

Post your creation by midnight on Monday September 24th. (The roundup will be posted on Friday September 28th).

E-mail me (creampuffsinvenice {at} gmail {dot} com) the permalink to your post, as well as your blog name and a photo of your creation.

The fig is a truly beautiful food. I hope that you enjoy exploring the many ways it can be enjoyed and I cannot wait to be inspired by the results!

Ciao!

Here are some resources for useful facts about figs:

BBC Food - Figs
California Figs
Wikipedia - Ficus
Fig Fruit Facts
Fresh Figs, Anyone?
Fine Cooking - Figs

And for a bit of fun, here are some books and cookbooks that present the fig in an interesting light:

The Sweetest Fig
Stolen Figs: And Other Adventures in Calabria
Figs, Dates, Laurel, and Myrrh: Plants of the Bible and the Quran
The Girl & The Fig Cookbook
From the Lands of Figs and Olives: Over 300 Delicious and Unusual Recipes from the Middle East and Northern Africa
Fig Heaven: 70 Recipes for the World’s Most Luscious Fruit
Fig Pudding
The Fig Eater: A Novel
Roast Figs, Sugar Snow: Food to Warm the Soul

Technorati tags: sugar high friday, figs