Fig Orange and Almond Rolls
These fig, orange and almonds rolls are a healthy vegan treat. And they’re gluten free. They are not a copycat for fig rolls. But if you like fig rolls you should like these too.
The rolls are gluten-free because I used gluten-free white flour. Feel free to substitute with plain white flour if that agrees with you.
While I think most people who like fig rolls would like these it is important that you also like oranges. I add a little zest and juice to both the dough and the fig filling. I love it. And I’m not sure how these would taste without it.
I also add black tea to fig filling. I’m not sure it’s necessary but I think it mellows out the fruitiness. And I can’t seem to bring myself to try making them without it.
This recipe makes about twenty cookies. A great thing about it is the unbaked dough and fig fillings stay good in the fridge for at least 3 days. So you can have days of these freshly baked crunchy treats if you wish.
Is this yet another recipe for using up ripe bananas? Yes, it is. And I love them all.
Ingredients
- 75g whole almonds
- 75g gluten free white flour
- 1 orange
- 4 well-ripe bananas
- 100ml strong black tea
- 200g dried figs
- coconut oil
Instructions
- Blitz the whole almonds in the blender until they are ground down to a fine crumb.
- Mix the almonds and the flour together in a deep bowl.
- Zest the orange onto a large plate. Take one pinch of the zest and add to a bowl for making the fig filling later.
- Peel the bananas and lay them on top of the zest on the plate. Using a fork, mash the bananas into the zest until you have as smooth a mush as possible
- Add one mean level tablespoon of melted coconut oil to the mush and mix in well.
- Mix the mush into the almonds and flour and combine well. Add in a level tablespoon of fresh orange juice and stir this in well also.
- Cover the bowl with cling film and leave in the fridge until ready to use. If when you go to use it you find the top of the mixture has turned a dark colour, don't worry just stir in the top and the mix will be the pale colour once again.
- Chop the small hard stalk off all the dried figs and add them to the bowl with the pinch of orange zest. Add in 100ml of hot strong black tea and the juice of the half the orange.
- I leave the figs to soften in the liquid for 10 minutes or so and then blitz the figs, zest, orange juice and tea mix in the blender until you have fig filling with no hard skin bits.
- You can cover this and leave it in the fridge until ready to use. Both the dough and the filling filling stay good in the fridge for at least 3 days. - You can also start assembling the rolls and bake them all right away if you choose.
- The dough is far to wet a mix to be rolled out, so you simply shape them with your fingers, and smoosh things into the shape you want.
- Turn on the oven to 200 C.
- Grease some baking paper with a little coconut oil. I add a little oil to both sides to stop it curling up while I'm shaping the rolls.
- Place a teaspoon of the almond-banana mix and shape into a rectangle 2 inches in length, top with a spoon of the fig mix and shape into a rectangle of a slightly smaller size, top with another spoon of the almond banana mix shape into a rectangle and connect it to the base layer. You can make them bigger but I think they look cuter smaller.
- Bake in the oven for about 30 minutes or until they are golden brown all over. I prefer them really well done so I usually bake them for 45 minutes. My oven's 200 C may not be as hot as your's though.
- Once baked, take out and leave to cool for a few minutes, then transfer to a wire tray and allow to cool.
- Enjoy with tea or coffee.
