oh now I remember…

If you know me at all you know I love figs. But, you also probably know I don’t usually bake with them because I eat ’em out-of-hand before I get a chance to even think about it. This year, though, we’re drowning in ’em here in the cul-de-sac. Due to a happy confluence of rain and birds failing to pay attention, we got to most of ’em first. Mmmm…

So, I got this idea to try something based on a banana bread recipe. And, what goes more happily with figs than bacon and walnuts, I ask you? So…

a fig in the hand…

I have a few different banana bread recipes, and I worked off them to come up with this. You could certainly do a gluten-free version, although I’d recommend baking it in a round or square cake pan and cutting it in “cornbread” like squares rather than trying to bake a loaf and slice it. It’ll taste the same… mmmmm either way! And, you can absolutely leave the bacon out for a vegetarian version, no harm at all!

I will tell you, though, that once it was cooled enough to cut I remembered why I don’t bake with figs. The bread was delicious, but it just wasn’t “figgy”. It was moist, and just sweet enough, but the figs flavor got lost in translation. It was very good, it just wasn’t identifiable (in my opinion) as “fig bread”. Oh well… it still disappeared without any problem!

So, if you find your self overrun with more figs than you can eat out of hand safely, here’s a bread you can amaze your friends with…

(yummy but not really figgy) Bacon Fig Bread

wish you could smell it!

2 cups all-purpose flour (or GF mix)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup each brown and white sugar
2 eggs
1 cup ripe figs, mashed
1/2 cup cooked crumbled bacon
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9×5 inch loaf pan.

In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugars. Mix in eggs, one at a time and beat until well blended. Add the mashed figs and mix until well blended.

a nice slice

In a second bowl, sift or whisk together the dry ingredients.

Stir flour mixture into fig etc. mixture; stir just to moisten. Add the crumbled bacon and chopped walnuts, and stir just to mix. Pour (or spoon, it will be a stiff batter) the batter into the prepared loaf pan. Bake in preheated oven for an hour, or until a toothpick inserted into center of the loaf comes out clean.

Let the bread cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack. Cool completely (if you can stand it) before slicing.
****

I recommend serving this with goat cheese…mmmmmm! Enjoy!

Advertisement