photo provided courtesy of elanaspantry.com
The other day when I was at the grocery store with my children, my son mentioned how much he liked fig newtons. I happen to love fig newtons too. I can remember being a kid and mowing through a whole sleeve of them myself. Have I mentioned that I used to have a MAJOR sugar addiction that I still have to work to control? That’s why it is so great to make sweets at home. When you make homemade treats you know exactly what goes into them and can make healthy substitutions. When I use stevia, coconut sugar, Somersweet, agave (which they now sell at our local Costco), or yacon syrup I do not get the crazy insulin swings that lead me to a sugar binge.
I knew I had some dried figs in the pantry at home and got to thinking that it would be a lot of fun to MAKE fig newtons with my kids. This is the recipe we used (gluten and dairy free) from Elana’s Pantry. Elana has been a Guest Blogger here on Veggie Grettie.
These cookies were yummy, but when I make them next time I plan on not using the lemon and will substitute with water or OJ instead. These cookies are also very moist, which tastes great, but for fun I will be adding some gluten free flour or oat bran to the dough next time to firm it up (I will just add it until I feel it reaches the right consistency) as well as using only 2 Tbs of oil.
INGREDIENTS – Makes 20 cookies
Filling:
1 cup dried figs
½ cup lemon juice, freshly squeezed (they are pretty lemony…next time I plan on using water or OJ instead)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
Dough:
2 ½ cups blanched almond flour
½ teaspoon celtic sea salt
½ cup agave nectar
¼ cup yacon syrup
¼ cup grapeseed oil
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- Place figs in a food processor and blend for 30 seconds until they are well chopped
- Add lemon juice and vanilla; process until a smooth paste results
- In a large bowl, combine almond flour and salt
- In a smaller bowl, combine agave, yacon, grapeseed oil and vanilla
- Mix wet ingredients into dry, then refrigerate dough for 1 hour
- Divide chilled dough into 4 parts
- Between 2 pieces of parchment paper , roll out 1 part of the dough into a 10 x 4 inch rectangle, ¼ inch thick
- Spread ¼ of the filling evenly down the right side (lengthwise) of the rectangle
- Fold the dough in half down the long side –resulting in a 10 x 2 inch bar
- “Mend” the seam so the bar is symmetrical
- Repeat with 3 remaining parts of dough and filling
- Transfer each bar to a parchment lined baking sheet; bake at 350° for 10-15 minutes (Mine took 25 minutes to cook)
- Allow to cool slightly; cut bar every 2 inches to form the fig newtons
- Serve
For a printable version of this recipe click here.
To learn more about Elana Amsterdam click here.