These Italian fig cookies are one of those super easy drop cookie recipes and it happens to be one of those very traditional Italian cookie recipes .
This recipe calls for fresh figs! If you have never tried working with fresh figs - don't let fresh figs scare you! I know it's not a normal thing to buy in our American super markets. But it's really worth a try. The thing that will surprise you is the gorgeous red color. Fresh figs look like cherries when cooked.
I re-married in 2008 and the first time I was making these for my new step-sons, I thought I was going to have to lie and tell them they were cherry cookies. That's how red the figs make the cookies. BUT as it turned out the boys started eating these before I had a chance to say anything.
Italian fig cookies are very sweet but taste NOTHING like the Americanized Fig Newtons we try and pass off as a healthy cookie. Don't even try to correlate the dark brown muddy cookie with this recipe.
There are a few things you can substitute in this recipe. But not a whole lot. If this wasn't what you were looking for - scroll below to see my photo gallery which have links that lead to all the Italian cookie recipes I have on my site.
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* 1/2 cup butter
* 1/2 Cup brown sugar
* 1/2 Cup granulated sugar
* 1 egg
* 2 cups flour
* 1 teaspoon baking soda
* 1 teaspoon baking powder
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
* 1 cup chopped fresh figs
* 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
* Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
* Cream sugar and butter
* Beat the egg and add to the butter/sugar mixture.
* Sift dry ingredients.
* Add the dry ingredients to the mixture.
* Fold in the figs.
* Fold in the nuts.
* Drop cookies by tablespoonfuls onto a greased cookie sheet.
* Bake for 15 to
I try and stay a purist by keeping all my Italian dessert recipes true to our heritage. We use walnuts a lot and almonds. BUT, I really wouldn't want to add almonds here. So for those of you in America - if you want to swap out walnuts for pecans, that would work. Not truly an authentic fig cookie - but it's not a big deal to use them.
Yup! Horrible things happen to those that use fake oil products. Ok, just kidding. Margarine is fine - it just flavors horribly in my book. But it won't make you a horrible cook for using it.
Why? Do you hate them? Or not have them? The cloves and walnut combination give this fig cookie a distinct Italian flavor. It's worth the trip to the store. If you hate cloves - than substitute whatever makes you happy.
Yikes! I'm sure you can, but I can't guarantee the outcome with this recipe. This is the old school tradition Italian fig cookie recipe and it relies on some of the moisture from the fresh figs to get a moist and ever so slight good-chewy texture. Dried figs may give you that pull-out-your-filling-chewy-type texture. I really would steer away from trying the dried figs.
Back to the Italian Fig Cookies recipe.
