For the Love of Figs

Remember way back when I was on vacation and Julia was cooking me fancy-pants dinners every night because she is awesome? Well, while she was scouting recipes, she came across one in her Spanish cookbook that sounded delicious. A dessert. Hazelnut ice cream with Honey-baked Figs.

Photo courtesy of www.healthytimesblog.com

Have I mentioned how obsessed I am with figs? No? Well, I am. Every time I go to the grocery store and they are available, I feel compelled to buy them. They are delicious. I don't understand how I made it through 28 years of living without having tasted a fresh fig, but once I did I was a goner. If you've never tasted a fresh fig, please, for the love of all that is good, get yourself to a decent grocery store and buy a pint RIGHT. NOW. (Seriously, go, because they will only be in season for another 4-6 weeks, after which it will be Fig Newtons/Newmans for you until next July. So not the same.)

Anyway, this recipe called for whipping up some custard-style hazelnut ice cream and serving it along side some baked figs drizzled with a cinnamon-honey syrup. Which sounds fantastic. And also like something that takes way too much time if you're busy (lazy). So, we'd bought the figs, and I kept promising I'd get around to it, and I didn't, and I made something else out of the figs, and then I bought more figs because there they were, tempting me at the store again, and I finally, finally made the custard part of the ice cream, which you then have to chill before putting through the ice cream maker.

So it was chilling overnight and I was totally going to do the fig baking the next night. But. I didn't. It was too much work (not really - it's just that I was supposed to roast and peel and crush hazelnuts and that's at least two more things than I had energy for this week) so I decided to cook down the figs with the aforementioned honey and cinnamon and then mix them into the ice cream and forget about the nuts all together. And I did.

And it was good. Though it's a bit sweet and the nuts would probably have been good for balancing that out. Hmph.

(Limited quantity available, if you want to come over and try it.)