Garden Recipe: Fig and Bleu Bites

Garden Recipe: Fig and Bleu Bites

Figs. Blue. Sweet. Savory.

What about those four words together doesn’t sound like a mashup you want to eat and with which you want to ply your guests?  We have a struggling little fig tree that provides about enough figs to make three tablespoons of fig preserves. Sometimes more, but at least figs are here this time of year and waiting for you to use them.

These are easy, so good, and you can even buy the fig preserves instead of making them.  This recipe makes about 3 dozen.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 cup flour
• ½ cup unsalted butter, room temperature
• 4 ounces Point Reyes Original Blue cheese (or something equally as wonderful), crumbled
• Freshly ground black pepper
• Fig preserves, about 3 Tablespoons

RECIPE:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Place the flour, butter, blue cheese and a few grinds of black pepper in the bowl of a food processor. Process until the dough just comes together and starts to form a ball.

Dump the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead a few times. Roll out to 1/8 inch thick with a floured rolling pin, wrap in waxed paper and refrigerate for about an hour.

Cut 1” rounds out of the dough with a floured cutter and transfer the rounds to the parchment-lined baking sheet. Using the back of a round half-teaspoon measure or your knuckle, make an indentation in the top of each dough round. Spoon about ¼ teaspoon of fig preserves into each indentation, using your finger to push the preserves as best as possible into the indentations.

Bake the savories for 10 – 14 minutes, until the preserves are bubbling and the pastry is light golden on the bottom. Let cool on the baking sheet for at least 10 minutes, then remove to a wire rack to cool. You can make these a day ahead and keep them in two layers separated by waxed paper in an airtight container.