| Fig Bread
Aug 3rd, 2004
I don't know if other cities or even other neighborhoods have this problem, but come late July Beacon Hill is overrun with fresh figs. Our yard does not feature a fig tree, but all the yards around us do and last week we were presented with a flat of green, ripe figs. I have no idea what kind of figs these are. Jim and I saw a vendor at the Pike Place Market this weekend who had a variety of figs laid out and labelled. There were the Black Mission Figs, the Italian Figs, and then there were a pile that looked just like the ones that grow around our house. They were labelled 'Hand Grown, Hand Picked Figs'. So apparently that guy had no clue what kind they were either.
Anyway, fresh figs being fairly perishable, I had to figure out how to use as many as possible in a short amount of time. I was also invited to a barbecue and a neighbor's birthday party and needed something to bring to both. Enter fig bread. The recipe I used is very simple and it's all over the internet. In fact, it's the first recipe that pops up if you google 'fig bread'. I was kind of hoping to make something a bit more fancy, but really, the bread this makes is so addictive it's like fig crack. And I should know because six loaves of the stuff have gone through our kitchen in the last week.
Be warned, smooshed up green figs are not pretty. The insides kind of look like little white worms squiggling inside a pink fleshy paste. Smooshed up green figs with egg and oil are even less attractive. The batter goes into the oven looking pale, with strange flecks of green from the skins. And it doesn't fill up much of the loaf pans. But what comes out of the oven are big, deep brown, sticky loaves of sweet fig crack. Everyone in my neighborhood who was at the birthday party now has a copy of the recipe, as there were many cries of "Oh, this is good. Ummmm. Yeah this second piece is good too. I have ten tons of figs at home and no idea what to do with them. May I have this recipe please?" So I can never take this bread to a local event again, but I've made some fig tree owners very happy.
Fig BreadMakes 3 loaves3 eggs
2 1/2 c. sugar
2 c. ripe figs, mashed
3/4 c. peanut oil
3 c. flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 c. buttermilk
1 c. chopped pecans
Beat eggs, add sugar and beat well. Add fig puree and oil. Sift together flour, soda, salt and cinnamon. Add the fig mixture alternately with the buttermilk. Beat well. Fold in pecans. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour in greased and floured loaf pans.
-Der Interneten
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