Honey Roasted Figs with Vanilla Ice Cream
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Fig season has sprung here in California. If you’re lucky enough to have a fig tree in your backyard (I used to in my last home), you’re probably busy harvesting and drying your figs before the birds get to them.
Dried figs can feed your family throughout the year. They can be added to homemade granola or oatmeal, or pulverized and used to sweeten baked goods. And during the holiday season, who doesn’t love a good figgy pudding? My sister makes Christmas pudding every year.
Dried figs are good, but fresh figs are delicious. Roasted, they are even better. Roasted after you drizzle honey on them — pure heaven.
This is such an easy dessert and it’s a wonderful way to use up some of those figs. It’s very inexpensive to make, especially if you can get the figs for free. If you like, you can serve the roasted figs with a cheese plate instead of the ice cream. That’s normally my preference, lover of cheese plates that I am.
However, I whipped up a special meal last night for my in-laws on their last night in town. It was a Moroccan theme: Honey Spice Chicken Tagine with Couscous and Tomato Cucumber Mint Salad (look for my recipe soon). This dessert seemed just right. Besides that, I saw fresh figs at the market.
If you don’t have your own fig tree, you can often find fresh figs in season at local farmer’s markets. I found them at my local Trader Joe’s. I also found a decent ice cream at TJ’s — just cream, milk, egg yolks, vanilla flavor and sugar — no HFCS or gross additives (It’s not organic and it does have a little guar gum, but I’m OK with that. You can’t always do everything from scratch so I cut corners where I can).
Honey Roasted Figs with Vanilla Ice Cream
Ingredients:
1 lb. fresh figs
Honey
Sea Salt
Vanilla ice cream (homemade or a good store bought brand)
1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
2. Wash, slice, and stem the figs (I forgot to stem them), and arrange in a baking dish or cookie sheet.
3. Drizzle with honey and add a scant pinch of sea salt to each fig half.
4. Roast for 15-20 minutes, or until they begin to brown.
5. Serve with vanilla ice cream.
This post is part of Food Roots at Nourishing Days, and Pennywise Platter at The Nourishing Gourmet.
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20/08/2009 at 9:28 am Permalink
Ooh wow! Those look beautiful…wish I had a fig tree!
20/08/2009 at 9:31 am Permalink
the simplest desserts are often the best, this sounds wonderful and cool, just what I need in the hot summer
20/08/2009 at 9:58 am Permalink
Wow, that sounds so good. I’m jealous. I just bought a dinky, little box of fresh figs at Whole Foods for $3. It only contained five little figs. I wish I could get my hands on free figs!
20/08/2009 at 1:24 pm Permalink
I love, love, love fresh figs. I planted a fig tree last spring so won’t have any for a couple of years but I’m already excited about them! I’ve never roasted them and can’t wait to try.
20/08/2009 at 4:57 pm Permalink
Yummy! No (good) figs to be found in Wisconsin, but I’ve got a pile of peaches and apricots from Door County waiting on my counter waiting to be canned tomorrow. It’s tough to stay ahead of preserving all the produce this time of year, but we have no local goodies other than what we stash so busy it must be.
20/08/2009 at 11:54 pm Permalink
Yummy
I have a fig tree here in Denmark ( yes it grows well
My figs are brown/purple and at the moment we eat lots of them- never tried them roasted- will try that this weekend thank:)
We had french toast made with sourdough speltbread this morning served with figs, blueberries and honey from garden- my daughters 15 yo birthday breakfast
21/08/2009 at 2:01 am Permalink
yummy … I wish I had this last weekend when I bought figs at the Farmer’s Market !! … ended up making Fig and Blueberry Jam
21/08/2009 at 5:30 pm Permalink
That looks great! I really like figs. We also have a fig tree, but they never ripen right. I don’t know what’s wrong…..
Thanks for being part of the carnival!
27/08/2009 at 7:21 am Permalink
I love fresh figs! We have a tree in our garden and it’s prime fig season in San Diego right now. I prefer figs and other fruit in season rather than dried, so what my family doesn’t eat during fig season, we share with neighbors, friends, and my husband’s lab staff. I’ve heard you can freeze fresh figs for off-season use, but I’ve never gotten around to trying that and my freezer is always full of meat.
My favorite snack in fig season is a freshly picked fig cut in half, and covered in chevre goat cheese topped with some chopped pecans or walnuts. Sometimes I put that combo in the toaster oven broiler for a few minutes (I cut a thin slice off the round side so they lay flat and don’t wobble.
I also like to slice a couple figs into wedges and toss them in a leaf lettuce salad with crumbled chevre, feta, or parmesan cheese and nuts. Tossed with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, a grating of coarse sea salt and pepper, and what a fantastic salad that is. Add slices of grilled or sauteed bratwurst or other sausage/ham and it’s a complete meal.
29/08/2009 at 6:38 pm Permalink
Thanks for the recipe…I’m making this tonight!