“This recipe has been handed down through my mother's family for years. My grandmother brought it with her from Italy in the early 1900's. My mom taught me the recipe this year. Now I am the designated person in our family to make the Fig Cookies. This is a very high honor. So they must be as good as my Grandmothers' cookies. Some call them Homemade Fig Newtons. They are a tradition at Christmas and are wonderful with a hot cup of coffee. They are lot of work. I make them in stages. First the dough, then a few days later the figs, and finally I will make the cookies. The dough and the figs keep well in the refrigerator and the cookies freeze very well.” - by Mary Jo
Ingredients
Adjust Servings
Original recipe yields 4 -5 dozen
Directions
- To Make Dough: Cream sugar and shortening. Add eggs, vanilla, and salt. Blend in flour and baking powder by hand. Knead dough until smooth and workable. Add milk to reach workable consistency. (This takes a while and you will get a workout, but you'll know when it's right.)
- To Make Filling: Cut up figs, orange, and apple into small pieces. (It is easier to grind this way). Grind figs, raisins, orange, and apple. If the mixture is too dry or thick, mix in up to 1 cup of water, if desired. (I do not use the water, the juice from the apple and orange are enough). The spices and chopped nuts are added to the ground fig mixture. After the fig mixture is ground, I sprinkle them in over the mixture and mix (knead) it in by hand. STICKY! But good.
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
- Roll out some dough. (should be kind of thin). Put fig mixture in a line. Wrap dough over mixture, sealing figs inside dough. Trim to desired length, using a diagonal cut. Make small diagonal slits in the sides of the cookies. Bake on ungreased cookie sheet for 10-15 minutes. (Dough makes good cookies without the filling also). Wonderful with coffee.
Nutrition
Amount Per Serving (60 total)
- Calories
- 301 cal
- 15%
- Fat
- 10.1 g
- 16%
- Carbs
- 51.9 g
- 17%
Based on a 2,000 calorie diet
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Reviews (19)
Rate This Recipe
"This is an excellent recipe for a traditional Sicilian Christmas cookie. Almost all Americans with grandparents from Sicily are thoroughly familiar with this fig cookie. In the dialect of my paternal ..." See moregrandparents these cookies were known as "uccidati". In Italian they are normally called "cuccidati". Some use the word "buccellati" A plethora of recipes for Italian fig cookies can be found by googling "cuccidati cookies" and "buccellati cookies". My wife of Scotch-Irish heritage went out of her way to master the baking of cuccidati each Christmas - she soon realized how much I considered them to be a part of my traditional Christmas. "
Matt Kuzma
"This recipe makes tasty cookies, but the quantity estimate is way way off. I made a quarter-batch and it produced 41 cookies that were probably twice the size of Fig Newtons. In order for a full bat..." See morech to make the estimated 4-5 dozen cookies, they would need to be probably four times the size of Fig Newtons. Maybe that's what you're going for, but I think that's a mammoth wad of fig goo. I also think the dough-to-filling ratio is a bit off. I would probably use 2/3 as much filling next time. Still, this recipe was spot-on in terms of making tasty fig-filled cookies. The raisins and apple add a nice sweetness to the dried figs without interfering with the flavor. Be careful not to overdo the orange."
ALLAYA
"These cookies are quite good! I am a big fan of Fig Newtons, and I would prefer these to the Newtons any day! The only complaint I have though is that the dough definitely has a shortening flavor to..." See more it that I can't really get used to. Perhaps I'm just a purist in these situations, but I still think that using real butter in baked items such as these is still the best way to go...and somebody has yet to prove to me otherwise! I think I will try making these cookies again using butter instead of shortening to see how it turns out."
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