My main memory of fig rolls is that they occasionally turned up in our house if a grandparent or friend was visiting, but they were not an every day treat. I like them well enough; the soft and yielding crust leading to the sticky and sweet filling within is a unique combination, but are they a biscuit? I'm not sure.
I've made fig rolls once before and I'm fairly sure that they referred to the outer case being a pastry, and in that case it was - the coating was essentially a rather sad wholemeal shortcrust pastry, which meant that the fig rolls were quite heavy and felt rather do-goodie and not much like a treat. Perhaps that's why I hadn't made them again...
This technical bake recipe was a little different from the worthy wholemeal affair that I'd made before. For starters the biscuit element was much lighter, and so much close to its commercially made counterparts. What really set this recipe apart was the filling. It is a lightly spiced, sticky jam that really compliments the light, sweet covering. Who would have thought of spiced fig rolls? Well Paul Hollywood, apparently!
The filling is essentially a very thick spiced jam made from re-hydrated figs. The recipe isn't particularly clear on the final texture of the jam, so this was a little bit of a guessing game. I found that ideally the paste should be as thick as you can cook it down while still being able to stir the mixture, rather than moving a solid lump. This then gets blitzed down to a relatively smooth paste with the cinnamon, vanilla and ginger added at this stage.
Once the filling is cool (to avoid putting a hot filling in the cold dough) it should be placed in a neat line down the centre of each rectangle of dough. I found that I had a little too much filling, so instead of overfilling each roll I just kept some of the filling aside and nibbled on it while the rolls were baking! The dough is then folded around the jammy centre to make 2 really long fig rolls.
Then it comes time for cutting the mega rolls into 6 pieces each. I'm not one for measuring, but even so, it seemed unfair that the measurements in the recipe doesn't divide equally by 6! Anyway, I cut each roll in half before cutting each quarter into 3.
Top tip: clean you knife in between cutting each roll otherwise you'll get fig from one roll on the casing of another. Messy stuff.
The dough was fairly easy to work with and I was pleased to find that the rolls didn't need sealing too thoroughly. From the wholemeal versions I seem to remember a full crimp being required, which gave each roll a crust on the side which wasn't ideal. The only part of the recipe that I struggled with was the fork marks on the top of each roll. It seemed that the pressure needed to actually create a dent in the dough would force the filling out of the fairly neat cuts, so I ended up giving each roll a light marking with a fork, but as predicted, it was not deep enough and lost its definition in the bake.
The rolls are then baked until just turning golden at the edges.
I was quite pleased with the results, as the rolls looked pretty consistently sized and baked. What do you think? Hopefully your reaction is better than my boss's ("they look like boneo dog treats!").
I wasn't too sure about the idea of a spice fig roll at the outset but although I'm not 100% a convert I would happy tuck into another batch of these fig rolls.
There aren't too many pictures for this week I'm afraid. There will be more next week!
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