15 September 2020

Eating and preserving figs

My Brown Turkey fig tree is only small but it's getting more productive every year.  I'll need to give it a little bit of pruning this winter after it dies back, as some of the branches are getting very long and floppy.

For the past month I've been picking a few figs every week to go into the dehydrator;  I cut them in quarters, slip off the skins (when very ripe, they just come right off) and then slice the fruit thinly.  They take about a day and a half in my dehydrator.

It's a very nice fig for eating fresh, and the son and I have plans for some homemade fig newtons, a type of cookie I haven't eaten for years.  I think I'll make some almond shortcrust pastry and fill it with some rehydrated fig paste.  They're already very sweet, so I won't add any sugar.  

I'm also planning them for the Christmas pudding, as my newest effort made in January had to be thrown out earlier this summer:  it was covered in mold.  Actually it looked like the white mold like on Brie and wasn't entirely unpleasant (I had a taste), but it wasn't the result I was aiming for.  I keep putting off making the new one, but now I've got some dried figs there's no excuse.

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