Fig Pinwheels

Fig trees do well in St. Martin Parish, and when fig season comes around, there are more figs than we can keep up with. Some people freeze them—whole and unpeeled—and some people make fig preserves. Fig preserves last for months, even years, and make a nice accompaniment for a bowl of couche-couche and milk—a breakfast or dinner dish made with fried cornmeal mush. And fig preserves go surprisingly well with soft cheese on a cracker. (I like to add a slice of candied jalapeño on top.) But fig pinwheel cookies are by far my favorite use for fig preserves.

Unlike other recipes where the figs get lost in the dough, the spiral shape of this cookie highlights the fig and achieves the perfect proportion of texture, chew and crunch. If you’re a fan of fig preserves, you’re going to love this recipe. And as an added bonus, you don’t have to make the whole batch all at once. You can keep the rolled-up cookie dough in the freezer until you’re ready for it.

FIG PASTE

1 cup fig preserves

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup water

1/2 cup chopped pecans

Mix figs, sugar and water together and cook until water evaporates. Turn heat off. When cool, add chopped pecans. Set aside.

COOKIE DOUGH

1/2 cup shortening

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 large egg

drop of vanilla

1/2 teaspoon soda

dash of salt

2 cups flour

Cream shortening and sugars in mixing bowl. Beat in egg and add drop of vanilla. Combine soda, salt and flour in a separate bowl first, then stir into egg/sugar mixture.

Form the mixture into a large ball in the mixing bowl. If the dough is too crumbly, add a drop or two of water. Roll dough into a foot-and-a-half-long oblong between two lengths of wax paper, being mindful not to roll the dough too thin. (It should be thicker than a pie crust.) Remove the top wax paper and spread the cooled fig paste evenly onto the dough. Using the bottom wax paper, roll the whole thing into a log by folding the long edge of the dough over onto itself, then slowly continue rolling. Chill the log (still inside the wax paper) in the freezer overnight, or at least for a few hours. Slice cookies off of the log and bake at 375 degrees on an ungreased cookie sheet until golden brown, about 10 to 12 minutes).