(Albanian Proverb)
Hi there,
I love to play golf. Now, that doesn’t mean I am any good at it, but I just like being outside taking a walk and bashing a ball in a beautiful place with friends. Who wouldn’t, right?
Recently, I have been having some problems with the walking around part due to a problem most upright mammals suffer from – a bad back. I am fortunate to have the nicest man, Bill, who is the Caddy Master at our golf course. When he saw that I was struggling, he helped me out with the cart so that I could continue to enjoy the sport.
I wanted to thank him for his kindness and friendship. I recently got these beautiful figs in my CSA box from Honey Brook Farms and made fig preserves. I gave Bill a jar of my fig preserves. Bill took them home, and his wife Marie made a melt in your mouth cookie and gifted some back to me along with the recipe.
What follows is my recipe for the fig preserves and Marie’s recipe for Mother’s Cookies.
FIG PRESERVES
Ingredients:
3 sprigs of thyme
8 cups of figs
1/2 cup honey Aleppo pepper
1/2 tsp pepper flakes
1/4 cup of Mike’s hot honey
1/4 cup basaltic
Shredded lemon peel
2 cups of sugar
1 package of liquid certo
Directions:
- remove the thyme leaves
- chop the figs into small junks
- in a large saucepan add all the ingredients
- bring to a rapid boil
- turn down and simmer for 25 minutes
- pour into clean jars and either freeze or water bath can
MARIE’S MOTHER’S COOKIES
Ingredients:
- 1 and 1/2 cup of butter
- 2 cups of sugar
- 2 eggs
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 4 cups of flour
- 1/4 to 1/2 tsp. allspice
- small jar of jelly/jam of your choice
- powdered sugar for dusting
Directions:
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
- cream butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl
- add eggs one at a time until totally combined
- beat in vanilla until fluffy
- add flour one cup at a time and allspice
- beat until totally combined
- spread 1/2 of the dough evenly onto a 15 x 10 sheet pan
- spread jelly/jam evenly over dough
- drop remaining dough into little pieces on top of the jelly/jam
- bake for 30 to 35 minutes
- cool and slice into small squared
Thank you Bill for your kindness and thank you Marie for sharing your recipe. It is delicious.
Talk soon ❤️💕 Bernadette
31 responses to “FIGS – friendship, preserves, and cookies”
My mom loves figs! This would be a great surprise for her this Christmas
You put a smile on my face this morning to think that this post inspired a Christmas present for your Mom.
I’m happy to hear I brightened your day!
They are so beautiful! We have to grab them when we can around here, fleeting as they are.
Dorothy, I hear ya. Such a small window of opportunity to enjoy them. Have a great week.
Your jam is so pretty. What’s honey Aleppo pepper?
Mimi, it is a seasoning. A combination of Aleppo pepper and dried honey. It is available from Amazon. Have a great week.
Wow! Fascinating!
I just bought a case of figs since they are in season. Delicious just as they are and great as a snack. Not sure I would have enough left to make some jam. The cookies look delectable!
angiesrecipes
http://angiesrecipes.blogspot.com
Thanks Angie. I have made small batches of jam and freeze them. The jame is great on a cheese board and also over salmon.
This looks scrumptious.
Looks delicious!
I’m so glad there was mutual niceness between you both!! Here’s hoping you back feels better today!
Sounds so good! I love to give food away!
I wish I’d had your fig preserve recipe ten years ago. We had a second home in France, then, with a fig tree in the garden. So many of them went to waste as we couldn’t keep up with the production.
The cookies sound wonderful, though, and I think I’ll try them later today, if I get the time.
Ah, to live in France with a fig tree in the yard. Now that had to be a little bit of heaven. Have your book loaded on my kindle. Can’t wait to get started.
I love figs, Bernadette. Both of these recipes look great and we have a fig tree.
You are so lucky to have a fig tree. We moved and had to leave our tree behind. I hope you get a bumper crop.
Thanks for getting my book, Bernadette. Which one have you got?
Vengence of a Slave
I hope you enjoy it.
I have never tasted fig jam and I love figs! What a nice person to help you out of the cart and a nice wife to gift you cookies and share the recipe! Both look delicious!!!!
Hope your back is much improved Bern…I love figs but getting fresh figs here is virtually impossible unless they are imported…the fresh figs mainly grown here are not the same genus and are used for animal feed although I have sourced a place where they do grow them but haven’t tried them yet…Both recipes sound and look delicious…3 ingredients I didn’t recognise… one someone else asked the question Honey Aleppo and Mike’s hot honey I googled..basaltic not sure if it’s salt/or another name for balsamic? or totally different…:) x
Hi Carol, the hot honey can be bought on Amazon. Basaltic is a typo – I meant basalmic🤪. Interesting that the figs are animal feed in Thailand. I wonder if they make the animals taste better? Sort of like feeding pigs certain nuts in Italy. Anyway, thanks for the questions and for stopping by.
Ahhh I did wonder given the measurements.. I don’t know maybe the the meat will taste better..
I have been hesitant to buy any figs after live wasps filling my cutting board, but now I am tempted to try fig again. The recipes look so good!
Oh, that would be a big deterrent to me too. I hope you didn’t get stung. My biggest problem has been the ants who love the figs. I wash the figs off with a hose before bringing them into the house. Thanks for stopping by.
Two terrific recipes and so beautifully presented, Bernadette! My mother would love these and I’m forwarding to her … thank you for this lovely share!
Thanks so much Annika. I hope your mother enjoys. I hope all is well with you and yours. I started your new book the other night and it is beautifully written.
Woo, yum, I love the idea of spicy ingredients with figs…and that’s my kind of cookie! Wouldn’t those be great on a tapas platter with almonds and manchego cheese? I guess I know what to do with my jar of fig preserves! 🙂
😍