There are some figs in there somewhere.

I have to say that I really like it when you guys email me recipes to try. There’s two reasons for this.

First, most of you are pretty good cooks (or on your way to becoming good cooks) and you have at least a few awesome recipes hidden away that are usually very unique and different from what I would normally do.

Second, you may not know this, but I’m actually fairly lazy and the idea of new, awesome recipes from readers just appearing in my Inbox always makes me happy.

So when reader Rachel (Hi Rachel!) emailed me this lovely Bircher Muesli recipe, I just had to try it out.

Bircher Muesli

Yield: Serves 2.

Prep Time: 5 minutes + overnight soak

Total Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:

100 g. (about 1 1/4 cups) rolled oats, not the instant kind
250ml (1 Cup) milk
50ml (1/4 Cup) cream
50g (1/2 Cup) raisins (I subbed dried figs for these guys)
1 apple, peeled and grated
1 banana, diced
1 orange, cut into segments
1/2 lemon, juice only
Sliced almonds (or other nut)
Honey, brown sugar, or agave syrup (some sort of sweetener)
Yogurt

Directions:

1) Mix oats, raisins (or figs), milk, and cream in a bowl, cover, and store in the fridge overnight.

2) The next morning, prep the fruit. Dice the banana, peel the orange and dice the segments, peel the apple and grate it.

3) Mix the fruit with lemon juice.

4) Serve muesli with fruit topping, yogurt, chopped nuts, and some sort of sweetener.

Planning is Important

This recipe is far from hard. Actually, it’s very easy. Maybe easier than making actual oatmeal because there’s nothing to cook!

But it does require a bit of planning. For the muesli to really work well, you need to prep it the night before.

It takes all of 2 minutes. I think you can handle it.

Just the basics.

Rachel’s original recipe called for raisins, but I used some dried figs because my loving wife isn’t a huge raisin fan.

Just pour everything into a bowl, stir it together, cover it and stick it in the fridge!

If you’re using figs, chop them up a bit.

Soupy!

The Next Day

The next day, when you wake up, you’ll see that the oats have completely absorbed all the liquid.

It’s like a magic trick.

All soaked up!

Now you can prep the fruit part of the dish.

You’ll need these things.

A fruit assortment

For the banana, just peel it, cut it in half long-wise, then dice it up.

For the orange, peel it and cut the segments into chunks. Nothing fancy.

For the apple, peel it and then grate it. The grated apple adds an awesome texture to the final dish. It’s a great touch.

Mix all these things together and squeeze in some lemon juice to stop the fruit from browning.

NOT Cheese.

Other Add ins

Besides all that fruit, you can add in almost any nut in the world and any sweetener you can think of. I went with some sliced almonds and agave syrup.

Very tasty.

Any nut and any sweetener will do.

You can either mix the fruit into the muesli or just serve it on top. I liked it on top with the almonds and agave and a good dollop of yogurt.

A great breakfast.

This is a really great summer breakfast if you like oatmeal. It’s cold obviously which is nice and refreshing on a hot summer morning. And you don’t need to ever turn the stove on!

If you’re eating this by yourself, this will feed you for a few days and it keeps just fine in the fridge for that long.

Give this a shot if you’re in a breakfast rut!

These flavors are out of this world.

Believe it or not, not everything that’s delicious needs to be a huge production. Sometimes the most delicious thing you’ll eat all week can be thrown together in just a few minutes and take only three ingredients.

This is that dish.

It’s almost impossible for me to imagine a dish so packed with flavor that can be made in the same amount of time as this quick fig dish.

It’s so quick you can literally make it during a commercial break. I know. Because I did.

Figs with Blue Cheese and Honey

Yield: Serves 2.

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Total Time: 5 minutes

Ingredients:

Figs (about 4 per person)
Blue Cheese
Honey
Pinch of salt

Directions:

1) Slice figs in half and broil them for 1-2 minutes on high, cut-side up, until they are warm and slightly browned around the edges.

2) Sprinkle on blue cheese and drizzle with honey.

3) Devour them!

The Figs

If you aren’t familiar with figs, they are a very strange fruit. When you cut into them it looks like some sort of alien fruit. If you take a leap of faith and bite into one though, you’ll be rewarded with a subtly sweet flesh that’s like nothing else.

They happen to be in season near the end of Fall so this time of year you can usually find some really good ones in the store. You could use any kind of fig for this dish, but I used brown Turkish figs.

Beautiful things!

Figs are best when they are almost over-ripe. They should be kind of mushy. If they are firm then they aren’t quite ripe yet.

You can also tell pretty easily when you cut into them. Of course, by then, they are cut open so you might as well just eat them even if they’re a bit under-ripe.

Usually the darker the color, the riper and sweeter they will be.

Broiling the Figs

If you were just going to pop a fig in your mouth, you’d want it to be ripe. If they aren’t ripe, they can be a bit bitter.

But for this recipe, it’s okay if they aren’t perfectly ripe because we’re going to broil them for a minute which will soften them up and also caramelize them a bit.

Just slice the figs in half, lay them out on a baking sheet, cut-side up, and place them under the broiler for about 2 minutes. You want them to be warm and slightly browned around the edges.

The Toppings

The toppings don’t get much easier than this. Just some blue cheese and honey is all you need.

And no. You can’t substitute the blue cheese. The tanginess is essential to the dish. There’s only 3 ingredients so no substitutions people!

I went pretty heavy on the blue cheese...

Once your figs come out from the broiler, sprinkle on as much blue cheese as you want (I like a lot) and drizzle on some honey.

Serve it up and wow your friends!

Tried to make it pretty...

The nice thing about broiling the figs is the skin because a bit crunchy. So you get this kind of crunchy texture, with the soft fig flesh and the blue cheese and the honey.

It’s really out of this world.

An awesome snack.

The only other thing I’ll mention about this dish is that it can actually be served as either an appetizer or a savory dessert. It works perfectly both ways.

Some things are better when they aren’t overcomplicated. This is one of those things.

If you can get your hands on some nice figs, definitely give this dish a shot!

Fresh figs + Scones = Tasty.

You know what I love about a good scone? It works for breakfast or dessert. Now granted I don’t have a crazy sweet tooth so I’m never looking for pounds of chocolate or anything. Just something with a tiny bit of sweetness to it that’s rich and goes well with coffee or maybe a glass of milk.

And I’ll take this scone any day for either meal.

I used fresh figs for this batch but you could use dried figs if that’s all you can find. And also, I should get extra food blog props for this because the linen napkin I used in the first photo has actual figs on it. This is the kind of thing that can be attributed to nothing other than shear luck.

Figgy Scones

Yield: Makes 8-10 scones.

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 50 minutes

Ingredients:

3 1/2 Cups all-purpose flour
3/4 Cups sugar
1 Teaspoon salt
1 Teaspoon baking powder
1/2 Teaspoon baking soda
2 sticks (1/2 pound) unsalted butter, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1/2 pound fresh figs (about 6) or 1/3 pound dried figs
3/4 Cup buttermilk, shake well
1/2 Cup cream
1/4 Cup maple syrup

Egg wash:
2 egg yolks
2 Tablespoons cream or water
Raw sugar for sprinkling

Directions:

1) Combine dry ingredients in a bowl and cut in butter using your fingers or a fork until the butter is in pea-sized balls.

2) Cut your figs into 1/4 inch pieces (a bit smaller if you're using dried) and add your figs to the dry ingredients.

3) Whisk together all your liquids (cream, buttermilk, syrup) and then add all the liquids to the dry stuff.

4) Stir lightly until the batter is combined, but don't over mix.

5) Drop the batter onto baking sheets lined with parchment paper in 1/4 Cup rounds.

6) Brush with egg wash and sprinkle with raw sugar. The sugar is optional but it's a nice touch.

7) Bake at 400 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until the scones are golden brown.

8) Cool for 10 minutes on a rack before eating.

Adapted from Gourmet Today.

Making the batter

The key to a good scone batter in my opinion is to not over-mix it. The more you stir it the more you mess up the air bubbles and stuff that are forming in the batter. So don’t go all OCD on the batter.

To start, mix your dry ingredients together and then cut in your butter until you have pea-sized pieces. I just use my clean fingers to mush the butter into the flour.

Dry stuff and butter.

Once your butter is combined you’ll need some wet stuff. Buttermilk and real maple syrup give these scones incredible flavor. I don’t recommend substituting for either. In fact, if you’re going to use the fake syrup stuff just leave it out and sub the liquid with more cream.

The liquid parts.

The Figs!

I found these awesome black mission figs so that’s what I used. If you can’t find fresh figs, then by all means you can use dried figs for the recipe. Just dice them into slightly smaller pieces.

Pretty things.

I think figs are very pretty.

Strange fruits!

Dice up your figs into chunks (not too small) and toss them in with your dry ingredients and butter. Why do you mix them in before the liquid you might wonder? Again it has to do with not over-mixing. Once you add the liquid you want to mix as little as possible. If you had to had the figs after, you’d have to mix too much.

Figs mixed in.

Add all your liquids and then give the batter a good stir. A few good stirs should be enough to bring the batter together. Lumpy is fine!

These are free-form scones so just measure out about 1/4 of a cup (I just eyeballed it) and plop the batter onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

Once all your scones are formed, brush them with some egg wash and sprinkle on some raw sugar.

I knew these were going to be at least edible.

Bake these at 400 degrees for 20-25 minutes until they are golden brown.

It’ll be hard, but let them cool for a few minutes before biting into them.

Perfect? Maybe.

Like I said, not only did I eat these for brunch one day, but I also ate them for a nice dessert throughout the week. They were very moist and flaky and flavorful.

In a fancy dish.

Of course, my one downfall with this dish is that even though my napkin has figs on it, I forgot to actually arrange it so you could clearly see the figs in the photo!

Go Fig-ure.

As far as I can tell that’s the difference.

Even with all of that, I had no idea whether this fig thing I made was a pie or a tart. It was made in a pie dish, and I used a pie crust recipe, but it had a very tart feel to it. So I’m not really sure what to do about it. Anyway, it’s a tart for now. But feel free to call it a fresh fig pie if that makes more sense to you.

Whatever you call it, it’s really tasty.

The prettiest thing I've ever made?

It’s kind of hard to find fresh figs unless you happen to be in California where they are pretty abundant during the summer months. Don’t fret though if you can’t find any good ones at your store. You could substitute any berries I think for the figs. If you don’t use figs though, you might want to up the sugar in the filling a bit. The filling is not particularly sweet because the figs are really sweet.

Fresh Fig Tart

Yield: 1 tart.

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes

Ingredients:

8-10 fresh figs, cut into sixths
6 ounces (approximately) of fresh raspberries
1 Cup heavy whipping cream
1 Cup ricotta cheese
3 Tablespoons sugar
1 Teaspoon vanilla
1/2 Teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 Teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

Rum Butter Sauce:
2 Tablespoons butter
1/2 Cup sugar
1/4 Cup dark rum (I used light rum and I think it would be better with dark.)
1/4 Cup water

Almond Pie Crust (Adapted from Simply Recipes version)
1 Cup all-purpose flour
1/4 Cup almonds, ground into flour
8 Tablespoons (1 Stick) butter
1/2 Teaspoon salt
1/2 Teaspoon sugar
1 - 3 Tablespoons very cold water

Directions:

1) Grind your almonds into a flour in a food processor or you could use a mortar and pestle.

2) Combine all the dry ingredients in a bowl.

3) Cut in the butter and slowly add the water.

4) Roll this into a ball and then stick it in the freezer for 10 minutes.

5) Roll it out onto a lightly floured surface.

6) Transfer dough to a normal pie pan, poke a bunch of holes in the bottom and around the sides with a fork to make sure the crust doesn’t puff up while baking.

7) Put a layer of parchment paper in the bottom of the pie and filled it up with black beans. The helps keep some weight on it so it stays nice and thin.

8) Bake this at 400 degrees for about 20-25 minutes until the edges are golden brown. As soon as you pull it out of the oven, gently lift the black beans out of the pie. If the bottom is still kind of soggy, bake for 5 more minutes. The crust needs to be completely cooked before filling it.

9) After it comes out and is golden brown, make sure to cool it completely before filling.

10) Add the cream to a large bowl and whisk until it begins to turn stiff.

11) Gently stir or fold in the ricotta and all the spices.

12) Once it is all mixed up, you can fill the pie crust with the mixture. Make sure the pie crust is completely cool before filling it.

13) Wash the fruit and dry them thoroughly. Make sure to use only very ripe figs for this.

14) Roughly chop fruit and arrange around pie on top of filling.

15) Melt the butter in a sauce pan and stir in the sugar, rum, and water. Let that simmer together and reduce until the sugar is completely dissolved. Maybe 5 minutes. It should be slightly syrupy.

16) Let it cool before coating the dessert. Just drizzle it on the fruit-topped dessert.

Forming the crust

This is very much a pie crust recipe which really shifts the debate toward “pie” for this dessert. To start, grind your almonds into a flour in a food processor or you could use a mortar and pestle. You can also buy almond flour in some specialty stores. Combine all your dry ingredients in a bowl.

Pretty dry.

Next, cut in your butter and slowly add your water. I found that this dough came together really easily. Easier than a normal pie crust. I think it might be because the almonds are kind of oily and they give a bit more moisture to the dough than just flour.

At some point you’ll end up with a mixture that will easily hold together if you press it.

Kind of crumby.

Roll this into a ball and then stick it in the freezer for 10 minutes. That will keep the butter into nice chunks. Then roll it out onto a lightly floured surface.

Again, I found this pie crust recipe to roll out very easily which may mean that my version was too moist. I thought the final product was very good though.

A very easy dough to roll out.

I used just a normal pie pan for this because that’s what I had on hand. I poked a bunch of holes in the bottom and around the sides with a fork to make sure that it doesn’t puff up while baking.

Poking prevents puffing.

After doing that, I was still worried that it was going to puff up while baking so I put a layer of parchment paper in the bottom of the pie and filled it up with black beans. The helps keep some weight on it so it stays nice and thin.

Helpful??

Bake this at 400 degrees for about 20-25 minutes until the edges are golden brown. As soon as you pull it out of the oven, gently lift the black beans out of the pie. If the bottom is still kind of soggy, bake for 5 more minutes. The crust needs to be completely cooked before filling it.

After it comes out and is golden brown, make sure to cool it completely before filling.

As an aside, this bean thing may be unnecessary. I read somewhere that it helps and so I thought I would give it a try. It worked well, but I also think that it may have worked fine just by poking some holes in the dough with a fork.

The Filling

This filling is really simple. Add your cream to a large bowl and whisk until it begins to turn stiff. Also known as whipped cream people. Don’t over whip it or you’ll be staring at a bowl of butter.

Then gently stir or fold in your ricotta and all the spices. Adjust this to your tastes, but I found this to be a good balance. The filling was really light but still had some spice to it. When mixing in the ricotta and spices try to keep it really light. Gentle is good here.

Kind of winged this.

Once it is all mixed up, you can fill your pie crust with the mixture. It should fit perfectly.

Very important

Make sure your pie crust is completely cool before filling it. In fact, I put mine in the fridge so it was actually cold. If it is at all warm, your filling will just melt like ice cream on asphalt.

Filled up.

The Fruits

Wash your fruit and dry them thoroughly. Make sure to use only very ripe figs for this. I actually bought more than I needed so I could be sure to only use the best ones in the bunches.

Left over figs are usually not a problem.

Figs are good.

As you can see from the first picture I got a bit carried away with arranging my fruit on the dessert. Feel free to throw them on there however you want.

The Rum Butter Glaze

There is a very light glaze that goes on top of this dessert. Basically, just melt the butter in a sauce pan and stir in the sugar, rum, and water. Let that simmer together and reduce until the sugar is completely dissolved. Maybe 5 minutes. It should be slightly syrupy.

Let it cool before coating the dessert. Just drizzle it on your fruit-topped dessert.

Very refreshing!

This was very good and at the end of the day it reminds me much more of a tart than a pie which is why I called it a tart.

Thanks very much to reader Bethany for sending me the idea for this recipe. It was kind of an original idea and we went back and forth on crust options and fillings before I settled on this version.

So I made these for breakfast:

You can just barely see the figginess.

There are only two real steps to this recipe that make it unique: making the fig jam and making the biscuits. In my opinion you have to make the biscuits from scratch. They aren’t that hard and they really make the sandwich.

The fig jam you could buy. But I’ve never really made jam before so I took this as an opportunity.

Black Mission Fig Jam (from BA)
(45 minutes)
- 1/2 pound mission figs (like six)
- 1.5 cups water
- 2 Tablespoons light molasses (this is very important. The LIGHT part I mean. I used dark and it was a bit too molassesy. I couldn’t find light molasses though. Maybe honey? Or maybe use just 1 Tablespoon of dark molasses)
- 3/4 Teaspoon Dijon mustard
- 3/4 Teaspoon sugar
- Fresh ground pepper
- Pinch of salt

You literally put all this stuff in a pot and let it reduce down for 45 minutes.

Start and finish:

45 minutes and a few simple ingredients.

Now let’s talk biscuits. These biscuits are a bit heartier than you might be used to. You want that though because they have to hold up to ham, cheese, and fig preserve. A lame store bought biscuit would fall apart.

Buttermilk Biscuits (also form BA)
(Makes 8 if you are me. 12 if you are Bon Appétit.
- 2.5 cups all purpose flour
- 1.5 Tablespoons baking powder
- 1.5 Teaspoons salt (kosher is best)
- 1.5 Teaspoons sugar
- 3 Tablespoons shortening
- 1 1/4 cups buttermilk
- 3 Tablespoons very thinly sliced, and frozen, butter

Start with your first four ingredients and mix them up well. Then use your hands to pinch in the shortening. You want it evenly distributed in small pea-sized globs.

The dry stuff.

The next step is the tricky part and the part I had never done before. The recipe calls for using a French preparation (so they claim, but I’m not French so who knows). You roll the dough out in a rectangle until it is about 1/4 inch thick.

Then place the chilled butter all over the dough, and fold it over in thirds. So you want a layer of dough, a layer of butter, a layer of dough, a layer of butter, and then a layer of dough.

Don’t press down on this dough too much. You want it thick and light.

Does this make sense?

Once you have this part done you need to actually make the biscuits. This is easy if you have a biscuit cutter or even a freakin’ cookie cutter. I had none of these.

I got a small, sharp paring knife and made biscuits. Easy breezy. Then brush them with a bit of buttermilk.

Ready to be baked.

Bake these for 20 minutes at 425. You’ll end up with these beauties.

DUDE.

Now this gets easy. Cut a few of these in half. Spread some butter on one half and some fig jam on the other. Pile on some ham and cheddar cheese. Lots of cheddar cheese.

Overboard on cheese? Impossible

Stick them under the broiler for a few minutes until the cheese is bubbly and the biscuits browned.

Taste tester had one. I had two because I'm a fatty.

These are a great way to start the day. You just can’t go wrong. You could change up the cheeses and ham with tons of stuff I’m sure. These are like a McMuffin on a strong dose of awesome.

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