Fig-Berry Tea Cakes
Shed a fruit filled tear with me. Fig season lasted only two recipes in length this year. To wrap up the fresh fig season today, we're celebrating tea time with a spin off on Swedish Tea Cakes.
Filling Ingredients:
- 5 figs, halved
- ½ lemon
- 1/8 C water
- 2 T sugar
- ¼ C blackberries
- 1 T chia seeds
- Cream Cheese
Place the sliced figs, lemon, water, sugar and berries into a sauce pan over medium heat. Stir to mix ingredients and cover.
When fruit becomes soft, take off heat and puree. My original goal was to make a 100% fig jam, but after pureeing…a general poll decided the color could be off putting. So toss in a couple of blackberries for a deep jewel tone. Why not? More antioxidants.
After pureeing the jam, add 1 T chia seeds to act as a thickener. Chia seeds cause liquids to gel, as in this chia-brownie recipe I made. Set jam aside until the cookie base is done.
To create the tea cake:
This recipe is based on The American-International Encyclopedic Cook Book (1972) recipe for Swedish tea cakes. Whether it was my original intention to make the dough recipe exactly…as they say in Fiddler On The Roof:
"Tradition? Meehhh." We all know recipes are more of a guideline anyway.
Ingredients:
- 1 C margarine or butter
- 1.5 T sour cream (or Greek yogurt)
- 1/5 T milk
- 2 C flour (you can use ½ whole wheat flour)
In a medium sized bowl mix the butter, sour cream, and milk together with a flat paddle attachment. Scrape down the bowl often. Add in the 2 C flour in batches and continue to mix. When the flour is incorporated, you will notice a crumb forming at the bottom of the bowl. Hand mix it into the batch and refrigerate for about an hour.
Preheat the oven to 400 F. Using a small scoop, place cookies onto Silpat or parchment paper. Using a flat bottomed drinking glass, sprinkle sugar over the cookie balls and press down to flatten the cookie.
Cook for 10 mins until lightly browned. Let cool and sandwich with cream cheese and the fig jam mixture.
Note: For a fluffier texture, whip the cream cheese with sugar.
These are savory dessert, which makes them even more addictive. The cookie is flaky and not sweet at all, letting the fruit jam shine. While I wish I saved a fig for the finished product shot…The more figs the jam had the better. I’m sure you understand.