I have a terrible weakness for cookies… and cakes, and ice cream, and all things sweet… but mostly cookies. Especially homemade oatmeal cookies and these double chocolate beauties, I have to confess, have shot straight up to my number one favourite.
They’re amazing!
Figs are a relatively new addition to my kitchen. I only ever (reluctantly) tried a fresh for the first time this year (which was lovely, and I keep buying them now, despite how silly expensive they are) and during my last supermarket shop I picked up a bag of dried figs in the baking section without a clue as to what I was going to do with them.
My paternal Canadian grandmother periodically sends me food parcels from Canada filled with delicacies unavailable here in the UK (like Jello Instant Pudding, graham crackers and Crispy Crunch chocolate bars) and every now and then she pops in some Canadian recipe booklets. I love those Canadian recipe booklets, even just to see the photographs of ingredients I have a nostalgia for, such Crosby’s Fancy Molasses. This recipe is an adaptation of a chocolate fig cookie recipe found in one of those booklets: the Robin Hood Baking Festival 2000.
Be warned, these cookies are incredibly moreish. I probably ate half a dozen just while shooting these photographs. The seeds in the dried figs impart a fantastic crunch to the chewy chocolate oatmeal cookie and the chunks of dark chocolate, especially when still gooey while warm out of the oven, make you want to go MMmmMmm while nomming.
I’ve replaced plain flour with organic spelt flour (Triticum spelta), another new addition to my kitchen store cupboard. Spelt is a wholegrain flour made from an ancient relative of modern wheat and it adds a delicious flavour to the cookies. Wholegrain spelt flour, oats, figs – these cookies could almost be considered good for you!
- 117 grams unsalted butter
- 125 grams granulated sugar
- 100 grams light brown muscovado sugar
- 1 medium egg
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 100 grams Scottish porridge oats
- 115 grams spelt flour
- 30 grams cocoa powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 175 grams dried figs, stemmed and chopped
- 100 grams dark chocolate with at least 85% cocoa solids, chopped
- 40 grams pecans, chopped
Prep time: Cook time: Total time: Yield: Makes 3 dozen
This recipe has been added to Mrs. M’s Linky Party for June 2013 and t o Javelin Warrior’s Made with Love, Monday’s from-scratch recipe round-up.
Foil-baked Shetland Salmon with Orzo & Courgette Ribbons
Lovely recipe, will be making these soon 🙂
Hi Elizabeth, I have just made these cookies again and used prunes as I didn’t have any figs. I would say they were as lovely. They are definitely my biscuit of choice at the moment. Thank you for the recipe x
If I make the biscuits with plain flour instead of spelt flour do I use the same amount?
Yes, you’d use 115 grams of plain flour (I’ve just weighed it out to check! The original recipe calls for 3/4 cup plain flour). 🙂
Thanks Elizabeth, I’m going to make them in the morning to take to a charity coffee morning.
How did they turn out? I hope everyone liked them. 🙂
One word, heavenly!
I have just blogged them, and put a link to your blog for the recipe. x
I’m such a fan of figs and I don’t use them in much of anything! What a wonderful idea to use them in chocolate cookies – they sound like the perfect compliment and the extra crunch of the seeds would be perfect with the chewy oats… Love it!
Glad you like it Mark 🙂
Sorry for the confusion with voting on Foodie Friends Friday yesterday. We switched the way our links show up and from now on there is a heart that will appear in the upper right hand corner of the photo/recipe that you want to vote for. you need to hover your mouse around for it to “appear.” Just click on the heart in the future and you’ve voted! Hope to see you this week for our Father’s Day party! 🙂
i too love figs and these really do look extra special… love a good cookie recipe x
I can’t believe I had missed out on the wonderfulness of the fig for so long! I’m glad I know about it now though, so many lovely things to try!
Fantastic Elizabeth, I have bookmarked them straight away. I adore figs and other than fig rolls, don’t think I’ve ever had fthem in biscuit form before. This is about to change!
That reminds me! I’d completely forgotten about Fig Newton cookies! Oooh I might have to create a from-scratch recipe for those childhood favourites. 🙂 I do hope you try these, let me know what you think if you do!
I like the fact you’ve used 85% cocoa dark chocolate for proper chocolatey cookies and I think these are definitely good for you!
Thanks 🙂 I do have a fondness for dark chocolate and the darker the better!