Homemade fig bars

I love fig newtons and have been wanting to find a recipe for a really long time. This is my first attempt.  I am not sure it's the final though.  This could be a fig bar journey....These ones are really good but you may see a fig bar 2 recipe on here too!!

For the filling:

1 1/2 Cups of dried figs

1/2 Cup sugar

3/4 Cup water

Soak the figs for one hour in a saucepan.  Add the 1/2 cup of sugar to the saucepan and cook on medium for about another hour, breaking apart the figs with a spoon periodically. Pulse in a food processor till smooth, adding more water if necessary.

For the Dough:

1 1/2 Cups plus 1 Tablespoon flour

1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon cinnamon

6 Tablespoons butter, softened

6 Tablespoons packed brown sugar

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon finely grated orange zest (or lemon)

Sift together the flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. With a mixer on medium speed, beat the butter and sugar until the mixture is light and fluffy. On low speed mix in the egg, vanilla and orange zest.  Add the flour mixture in slowly and continue mixing till you have a soft dough.  Put the dough on your rolling surface.  At this point, I needed to knead in about a quarter cup more flour because the dough was almost too soft to roll out.

Roll the dough into a 10 by 12 inch rectangle.  Cut the dough into 6 equal pieces using a pasty scraper or butter knife.  Halve it crosswise (across the shorter side) first and then cut each piece lengthwise into 3 equal parts.

Spread filling lengthwise down the center of each of the 6 pieces, leaving a 3/4 inch border on either side.  Use a scraper or knife to lift the pieces of dough and fold over on each side of the filling, allowing them to meet in the middle.  Gently press the seams together and then place the bars seam side down on the baking sheet.

Bake 15 minutes at 350 degrees, let them cool and then slice each bar into 6 even pieces. Store in an airtight container.  Makes 36

Other tips:

Double both the filling and dough recipes for a little larger batch.  It is just as easy to do 3 Cups of figs to 1 Cup of water and sugar and get a few more cookies!

I got the dried figs at Costco in a 40 oz. bag:

Here is what the filling looked like after being in the food processor.  It was fairly thick, but not so much that you couldn't stir it easily:

The bars after baking, but before slicing into cookies:

Hope you get to try them and if you do, hope you like them!!

Jeannine