If at first you don’t succeed, try again. And maybe one more time. Or two. Or maybe three. This year, it took me three recipes to settle on this Whole Wheat Fig and Walnut Cookie to share in this year’s Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap.
I initially wanted to make a cookie featuring purple sweet potatoes. Not only are they beautiful, but sweet potatoes are packed with beta-carotene and vitamins A and C. They fit in my happy zone of good for you and good to eat in a cookie form. And because it’s a sweet potato, it would be easy to find recipes to adapt, since regular, orange sweet potato cookie recipes are abundant.
The first recipe I tested was good, but not quite good enough to send out to others. Not enough pizzazz. N was certainly pleased with that decision. I tried a different recipe (several times) only to find out something special about purple sweet potatoes. The hard way. Because how else are you really going to learn it?
Turns out, purple sweet potatoes get their rich coloring from anthocyanins, plant pigments that give plants or roots a purple, blue, or red color. Anthocyanins can change color with certain acids and bases. If you add lemon juice (an acid) to purple sweet potato juice or puree, it will become red. If you add baking soda or powder (bases), your sweet potato juice/puree/baked goods will turn a blue-ish green! The color change doesn’t change the flavor of the purple sweet potato, but people do eat with their eyes, and foresty green cookies seemed a bit out of most eyes’ comfort zones.
Purple sweet potato cookies were out. The deadline to send off cookies was fast approaching and I had no seasonal cookie to send. What to try next? Should I just throw in the towel or just make something easy not seasonal?
I’m not saying making these cookies is on the same level as discovering pediatric cancer treatments, but the persistence threads itself through both processes. The drive to keep going, to have a positive result (or cookie) to show and share with others, no matter what science has in store for us. And sometimes it means moving from one idea to another.
I shifted from vegetable to fruit, from purple sweet potato to fresh fig, and threw in some walnuts for fun. This experiment worked, and worked well. The more work, noodling, and observing we do can bring us to answers, and maybe one day, a cure.
If you’d like to donate to Cookies for Kids’ Cancer, you can here.
This recipe is perfect for a cookie swap, large gathering, or to give to friends. It also can be halved for smaller occasions.
Check out my contribution to last year’s Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap recipe here.
Ingredients
- 3 cups whole wheat flour
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg
- 8 oz (2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
- 1 cup dark brown sugar
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 eggs
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup fresh figs, chopped
- 1 cup walnuts, chopped
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350.
In a medium mixing bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, soda, and spices. Stir until evenly combined.
In a large mixing bowl, combine sugars and butter mix on a low speed with a mixer until creamed, about 2-5 minutes. Add eggs one at a time, followed by the vanilla.
Slowly add the dry mixture in and mix on a low speed until barely combined. Stir the rest with a spoon. This dough won't come together like most doughs and may look a bit dry. Pinch the dough together with your fingers. It should stay together and be ready to use. Fold in figs and walnuts.
With an ice cream scoop, drop the cookies on parchment lined baking sheets. Bake for 16-20 minutes until golden brown.
Notes
Recipe adapted from Martha Stewart.
For a smaller yield, halve ingredient quantities and keep baking times the same.
This recipe looks awesome. I discovered you via the Jess Lively podcast. I would love to participate in a cookie swap like this.
Thanks Mandy, and thank you for reading at the blog! You can start your own cookie swap to benefits Cookies for Kids’ Cancer. They have details on their website.
Yum I love figs and walnuts omg yum! These cookies sound amazing!
Thanks so much Sam!