Fig Swirl Cookies

By

epicurious.com
fig swirls

  • 48
  • 60 mins
  • 435 mins

Ingredients

  • 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, softened
  • 4 oz cream cheese at room temperature
  • 1 large egg yolk
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1 cup packed soft dried Mission figs (8 oz), hard tips discarded
  • 3/4 cup mild honey
  • 2 tablespoons fresh orange juice
  • 2 teaspoons grated fresh orange zest
  • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Preparation

Step 1

Preparation

Make pastry dough:

Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a bowl.

Pulse butter, cream cheese, yolk, and vanilla in a food processor until smooth, then add flour mixture and pulse until dough just forms a ball.

Halve dough and form each half into a roughly 6- by 2-inch rectangle. Chill, wrapped in plastic wrap, until firm, about 1 1/2 hours.

Make filling:

Purée figs, honey, juice, zest, and cinnamon in cleaned food processor until almost smooth.

Make logs:

Roll out 1 piece of dough between 2 sheets of wax paper into a 10- by 8-inch rectangle (about 1/3 inch thick), long side facing you. Remove top sheet of wax paper and gently spread one fourth of fig mixture over bottom half of dough, leaving a 1/4-inch border. Using wax paper as an aid, roll dough, jelly-roll style, halfway, enclosing fig mixture. Flip dough, with wax paper. Remove paper. Spread with one third of remaining fig mixture and roll in same manner, to form an S-shaped log. Make another log. Chill logs, wrapped in wax paper, until firm, at least 4 hours.

Bake cookies:

Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 375°F.

Cut logs crosswise into 1/3-inch-thick slices and arrange slices about 2 inches apart on lightly buttered baking sheets. Bake until pastry is pale golden, 12 to 15 minutes. Transfer to racks to cool.

Cooks' notes:
· Unbaked logs can be chilled up to 3 days.
· Cookies keep, layered between sheets of wax paper or parchment, in an airtight container at room temperature 1 week.

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