D e l i s i o u c i t y

Figs are gorgeous little things. Up until now I’ve only had access to the dried ones. When I first saw South African air-flown baby figs about a month ago at my favourite grocery store, I knew I was in for a treat. Now there’s figs galore everywhere and I still can’t get enough of them. Often I just eat them for breakfast with a few dollops of nonfat natural greek yoghurt, with some honey and a sprinkling of oats. Gorgeous. Then I’m all set for a morning cycle (or walk; either way I’d end up getting a workout!) to the library or somewhere else rather nerdish ^_^

Since it’s well and truly fig season now, I thought let’s try cooking them next! The thing is though, I don’t have much baking paraphernalia here, including my tart pans (which is great excuse to procure some new ones heheh). But I refrained so far… besides, who’s to say you can’t make a free-form tart instead? Here’s a beautiful galette expressing that very idea, and what’s great is that it has the easiest filling ever – soft vanilla and almond frangipane, topped with quartered figs and fresh blueberries, partially encased in a freely formed golden crusty pastry dough. I got the idea from Chez Pim who writes The Foodie Handbook; you should definitely head over to her site for a look at the delightful things she whips up. The recipe that I follow here are from a different source though, a website called frenchfood.com. This link will take you to the frangipane recipe (which I tweaked a little by replacing the granulated sugar with demerara, and using pure vanilla beans instead of extract); and this link will take you to the pastry dough recipe (or pate brisee). If you have been reading my blog for a while, I think you will find that I can get a bit OCD about reminding people to have cold fingers when working with pastries ;p Also, remember to pop the pastry dough in the fridge after it comes together, at least for an hour, before rolling.

Place the frangipane ‘paste’ in the middle of the rolled pastry, and top with figs & blueberries. Fold the edges of the
pastry in towards the centre, and brush with eggwash.

This dessert, I must say, was amazing. It was sort of an ‘unchartered palatial territory’ for me in the beginning (having  been the first time eating baked figs). But when the smooth frangipane hits your tongue, melts and fuses with the mellow roasted taste of the fruits, and combined with the buttery crunch of the pastry, you are left with a certain something-something defined by a flurry of tasty dimensions. I believe my tasters loved it too; this was brought to our Wednesday Coffee & Cake session this week  at the Institute and it went down quite well ^_^ I suppose you can try topping the galette with other fruits too if figs aren’t available.

Both science and religion have stressed the benefits of the fig whether these fruits are fresh or dried, and you can read all about it here.

Later alligator!
xoxo