This month's Sugar High Friday is hosted by the lovely Ivonne of Cream Puffs in Venice. Ivonne chose figs as her theme, and when she announced it I commented on her blog with the following.'My favourite fig memory… Picking them fresh from a tree and eating them right away while walking with my hubby in Andalucia, Spain. Earliest fig memory: chewy fig rolls (biscuits) at my maternal Great Grandmothers home. Yummy, yummy figs and a great theme Ivonne!'
Nigella Lawson recreated (reproduced?) a recipe for her book How to Eat using a recipe by Pat Harrison on Masterchef. Turkish Delight Figs (pg 390) and though I love the syrup, I've always preferred it with apricots than figs. That said I immediately thought of the recipe and wondered if using the syrup with the figs it would work as a fool.... I've just eaten too much of it and I can tell you it definitely works as a fool.
Flowery Fig Fools (Could serve a minimum of 6 people)I tinkered with the syrup recipe as I don't like it too flowery.
You'll need one carton of whipping cream for the fool.
For the syrup
175ml water
175g sugar
1 tablespoon rosewater (Nigella says to use 2 tablespoons of each, which I would find too much.)
1 tablespoon orange-flower water
juice of 1 lemon
Add the sugar and water to a pan, heat and stir until sugar dissolved, then boil for 5 minutes.Take off the heat and add the flower waters and the lemon juice. Put it back on the heat and then boil for 2 minutes.
I only used 4 figs (which was ample, Nigella says to use 12 but then you'd be using them with all of the syrup and in a different way), washed and cut into quarters I put them in an earthenware dish and poured over approximately half of the hot/warm syrup. Left to one side to cool. I then whipped up one 284ml carton of whipping cream, put in the fridge ready for assembly.
I took out 2 pieces of fig to use as decoration later, then tipped the fig and syrup mix into a mini blender and whizzed it up for 2 minutes.
Then came assemble time. I would suggest small glasses in which case this would easily feed 6-8 people, more if you used little espresso cups. I then layered the cream and the syrupy fig mix.
I had some of the syrupy fig mix left over which I mixed with the remaining flower syrup which I'd put to one side. This will be really good poured over ice cream.... I don't have to try it to tell you how good it is, I just know it will be.
