Apricot Fig Newtons

Over the holidays I ended up with a fairly unreasonable hoard of dried fruit and nuts.  What to do?  Hmmmm, how bout chop it all down and boil it into a jam and bust out some Newtons?  Yup, sounds about right!

I borrowed the pastry dough recipe from Good Food Stories, but created my own filling.  Here's what I came up with:

Apricot Fig Newtons
Pastry Ingredients:
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
3/4 cup butter, room temp
3 large eggs

Filling Ingredients:
3 cups assorted dried fruit (I used figs and apricots) quartered and remove stems!
2 cups all natural apple juice (such as Simply Juice)
1/4 cup sugar
1 inch piece of ginger, finely grated
1/2 vanilla bean

Method:
In food processor using the dough paddle, cream sugars and butter together until light and fluffy.  Add eggs, one at a time. 

Then add dry ingredients and continue mixing until a firm dough develops.  Remove from the food processor and form into a disk - wrap tightly with plastic wrap and then chuck in the fridge for about an hour.

Next up, get the filling going: in a large saucepan, combine the dried fruit, sugar, juice, ginger and vanilla bean.  Bring to a boil, then drop the heat and simmer for about 30 minutes, until fruit is soft and liquid is reduced.

This is after about 15 minutes!

Once your fruit is nice and soft, remove the vanilla bean and discard.  Transfer the rest of the goo to the food processor and pulse until pureed.  Let it cool to room temperature.

Seedy!

Remove the dough from the fridge and preheat your oven to 375 degrees.  Prepare a couple of cookie sheets with baking paper. On a lightly floured surface, roll out about a quarter of the dough at a time, forming a rectangle.  I used my pastry cutter to trim it up before heading to the next step.

Spread a few teaspoons of filling down the centre of the rectangle. 

Fold up the left side to cover the filling.

Fold up the right side to cover the freshly folded over left side.

Cut into slices that suit your fancy and then arrange on the prepared cookie sheets.  I have to admit, I went a little ballistic on the first batch - dough just a bit too thick and way too much filling, but they were a special treat for the Fig Newton "Superfans" in the office.  Bake for about 20 minutes (22 if you make giant ones!)  Remove from oven and let cool on a baking rack before eating.  Store in an airtight container - these tasted even better today for some reason - more moist and Newtony.

The next batches were rolled out much thinner with less filling!  I took my Newtons to the office today and they were a hit with all who tried - I love the little crunchy seeds from the figs - figalicious!