When I was a kid, fig bars were my favourite cookie (kind of strange for the kid who hated dried fruit). Even today I love them: they are the part cookie/part cake, tea time treat, sweetened with the lovely non-to-sweet flavour of dried figs. Swoon, and who doesn't love figs? (I'm sure a few of you said "me", and that's cool. Dried dates, apricots, or even raisins would easily replace the figs in this recipe). While store-brand varieties of fig bars have improved since I was a child (some are now made with whole grains or even sweetened with fruit juice), I just new that these little guys could be made even more nutritious, delicious, and amazing. So here we go: raw, vegan, gluten free, no refined sugar, no added fat, nut free, easy, and wait for it.....amazing fig bars!
While fresh figs have this juicy, amazing, exotic, jewel like lure, dried figs are often over looked as just another dried fruit. Unlike there fresh counter part, dried figs make for an excellent natural sweetener in anything from baking, to making a smoothie, or a Moroccan tagine. Figs are also one of the most alkalizing foods and will help balance the acidic conditions in the body brought on by an excess of meats or refined foods.
Amazing Raw Fig Bar
Recipe: (makes 12 bars)
Dough:
1/2 cup oats (ground in the food processor to make flour)
1/2 cup coconut flour
3/4 cup dates (instead of using the plump and juicy medjool dates, I opted for the drier baking variety.)
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
6 Tbsp. orange juice (more or less)
pinch of sea salt
Filling:
1 cup mission figs
1/2 cup hot water
zest of 1 orange
1/2 tsp. vanilla
Dough: Mix dates, oat flour, coconut flour, salt, and cinnamon in a food processor until the dates are chopped finely and the mixture is combined. Add one tablespoon of orange juice at a time until the mixture fully hold together like a cookie dough.
Filling: Soak figs in hot water for 30 minutes to soften. Puree figs with the 1/2 soaking water, orange zest, and vanilla in a food processor until it resembles a chunky jam.
Procedure:
Divide the dough into thirds. Working with 1/3 or the dough, roll it between two pieces of parchment until it reaches a 10 by 20 cm rectangle (4 by 8 inch). Spread 1/3 of the fig filling down half the long side of the rectangle, be sure to leave a little area along the outside of the fig spread free of jam to ensure the dough will stick to each other (see picture above). Taking the bottom piece of parchment, slowly fold the dough in half along the long side and lightly press the outside edges together so that they adhere. If the dough cracks at all, it is easy to smooth out by placing parchment paper over to and rubbing the cracks out with the tips of your fingers. Repeat two more times with the rest of the dough and filling. Cut each bar into 4.
*Hint- I found that if the bars were left uncovered on the counter over night they dried out a little and where easier to handle/eat.
xox Sophie
