Recipe: Walnut Stuffed Figs

A Turkish dessert recipe by Anason Barangaroo's Somer Sivrioglu and Arman Uz.

Photo by David Gray.

Ingredients:

500 ml (9 fl oz/2 cups) milk 1 cinnamon stick 4 cloves 8 dried figs

60 g (21⁄4 oz/1⁄2 cup) walnuts 1 tablespoon vegetable oil 2 tablespoons grape molasses 2 tablespoons sugar 8 dried apricots 1 tablespoon almond meal 1 teaspoon icing (confectioners’) sugar 2 tablespoons pouring (whipping) cream 2 tablespoons pistachio kernels

Heat the milk, cinnamon stick and cloves in a saucepan over medium heat and bring to the boil. remove from the heat. remove the stalks from the figs. rest the figs in the warm milk for 30 minutes.

How to cook?

Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F/Gas 4).

roughly chop the walnuts. remove the figs from the milk with a slotted spoon and place on a board. open the figs with a teaspoon and stuff 1 teaspoon of chopped walnuts inside. Mix the oil and molasses together in a bowl and then brush over the figs. Place the figs on a baking tray and cook for 10 minutes until soft. remove from the oven and leave to cool.

Meanwhile, put the sugar and 250 ml (9 fl oz/ 1 cup) of water in a saucepan and bring to the boil. add the apricots, reduce the heat and simmer, covered, for 15 minutes. remove from the heat and leave to cool. remove the apricots from the syrup and leave to drain on paper towel.

Mix the almond meal, icing sugar and cream together in a bowl. Make a pocket in each apricot with a teaspoon and stuff 1 heaped teaspoon of the cream and almond mixture inside. Use the teaspoon to smooth the exposed stuffing. Finely chop the pistachios and roll the cream side of each apricot in the pistachio pieces.

serve two figs and two apricots per person.