figs.
Fig bars are bar cookies that contain figs. Each fig bar is square with a cookie dough crust outside and a thick fig filling inside. Nabisco’s commercial Fig Newton® fig bars started many other companies making similar cookies. Fig Newton® was invented by American Charles M. Roser in 1891. Fig bars can also be baked at home.
Dried figs.
The basic ingredients needed to bake homemade fig bars include flour, butter, sugar, eggs, fresh or dried figs, baking soda, salt, and vanilla. The dough is made separately and the filling is cooked on the stove. The fig filling should be quite thick.
A great advantage of making fig bars is that you can prepare the dough and filling a day in advance if you store both in the refrigerator. The dough is usually much easier to roll out after it has chilled for a few hours or overnight. The rolled dough is formed into a rectangle and then cut into about four strips. The fig filling is placed in the center of each strip. The two long edges of the dough strips are pressed together before each strip is cut to form individual square fig loaves to be baked in the oven.
Variations on the basic fig bars recipe include using honey instead of sugar and adding a little lemon or orange juice to the filling. Some fig bar bakers like to add cinnamon. Nuts such as walnuts or almonds can also be added to fig bars, but commercial types of fig bars cannot contain nuts. Some commercial fig bars add other fruit flavors to the fig filling, such as raspberry.
Many commercial fig bar makers use two funnels to create the fig bars. The filling and dough pass through two separate funnels at the same time to produce the filled dough. Some manufacturers bake the filled strips of dough before cutting them into cookies, while others cut the fig bars and then bake them.