Big Boy, our resident wordsmith, will occasionally stop me mid-sentence with, “No, that didn’t happen, you figmented it”.
It’s a clever, if (currently) incorrect use of the noun, but it’s actually very appropriate when applied to these brownies. They were indeed a figment of my imagination, or more precisely, my dreams – I woke one morning thinking about figs, rum and dark, dark chocolate. This is what I ended up with…
Fig, Rum and Cacao Nib Brownies
(adapted from a recipe in David Lebovitz’ Ready for Dessert)
- 90g unsalted butter
- 225g dark chocolate, chopped or in callets
- 150g white sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (I used homemade)
- 2 large (59g) eggs, at room temperature
- 40g plain (AP) flour
- 150g Turkish figs, soaked in rum (see below)
- 40g cacao nibs
Note: I made these with 70% cacao bittersweet chocolate, but the basic brownie recipe works best with semisweet (I normally use Callebaut 811 with 54% cacao). With the higher cocoa fat content, the batter has a tendency to split, resulting in a pool of oil on the top of the finished brownies. 70% seems to hold together – just – but when I tried using a 75%, the mix split completely and had to be thrown away. Having said that, in this instance I really wanted a bittersweet chocolate to offset the figs…
1. The night before, place some Turkish figs in a clean jar, and top it up with rum. You’ll need seven or eight well-intoxicated figs, although I try and keep a jar full at all times (for emergencies, you understand).
2. Preheat the oven to 160C with fan. Line a 20cm square pan with parchment paper. Chop the figs up, discarding the stems.
3. In a medium saucepan, soften the butter, then add the chocolate and stir over low heat until combined and smooth. Remove the pan from the heat and, using a silicon spatula or wooden spoon, stir in the sugar and vanilla.
4. Beat in the eggs one at a time, working quickly so that you don’t end up with scrambled eggs. Add the flour, and stir vigorously for one minute (this bit is important) – the mixture will change from grainy to smooth and glossy in that time.
5. Add in the chopped figs and cacao nibs, stirring well. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and bake until just set – about 25 minutes. Do not overbake.
6. Cool in the pan, before removing the brownies and cutting into squares for serving.
Click here for a printable version of this recipe
. . . . .
This recipe is adapted from Robert’s Absolute Best Brownies in David Lebovitz’ new Ready for Dessert. Like all of his books, this one is a cracker – full of anecdotes and delicious recipes. I’m keen to try the chocolate cake recipe that he copied off the wall of a restaurant toilet…
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
As I sit here munching on a cookie made from David Lebovitz’ Chocolate book I am making plans to get my hands on his new book!!
Where did you get it?
Amazon! :) Lambsears, I sent you an email about chocolate shops in Adelaide, did you get it?
That looks delicious. It doesn’t get much better than dried fruit, alcohol, and dark chocolate.
CHFG, they were very moreish! :) The rum I used was superstrength too, so they were pretty potent…
Hey Celia
They look great, unfortunately no one in my family would eat them – apart from me, and that would be disastrous! Have you ever checked out the Book Depository? I’ve been buying all of my books there for a couple of years now.
Meaghan, yes, thank you! It’s amazing they can ship books here for free. I tend to buy from them if I’m buying a single item, or from Amazon if it’s a few – Amazon’s prices are almost always cheaper, but the shipping adds up, particularly for a single item! I’ve recently picked up some bargains on the Amazon Marketplace as well.
These were sooooo good. I have been avoiding looking at this post all afternoon as I just knew that one look at these brownies would make me want to rush home and cook them! I like the emergency bottle of drunken figs….. :)
LOL at “well intoxicated figs”. Over Easter I bought a little bag of cocoa nibs and was literally searching for something to do with them and hey presto! :D
They look enticing! We are still chomping our way through the chocolate stout slice. But something like this might well be next… mmmm…….By the way Celia, what’s the basic brownie recipe you refer to? Have you found the ultimate brownie recipe and I have missed it? :)
Jo, sorry to be confusing. David Lebovitz’ book has a recipe called Robert’s Absolute Best Brownies and I adapted that to work with my figs. That’s the “basic brownie” recipe I was referring to – it had 135g mixed nuts instead of the figs and cacao nibs, and works best with semisweet chocolate, in my opinion. It’s a very nice recipe – easy to make, all in one small saucepan!
You find the best looking cookbooks!
So do you reckon I could do half and half nuts and nibs? Sounds a bit risqué heehee….
They look amazing Celia – and what a fantastic combination to dream up, figs and chocolate. Mmm.
I think I ought to investigate David Lebovitz further, I’ve seen his name crop up quite a bit but haven’t bought any books ….yet! Any suggestions for what to start with?
Amazing … you dream in food. You big foodie you!
And now you have me dying for you to try the chocolate cake recipe.
Gill, I think you mean…”You big fat foodie, you”…hahaha
When I try that cake recipe, I’ll let you know. Story goes, he went for a pee, saw the recipe on the wall, went back to his table, saw the cake on the menu. Ordered it, loved it, then went back to the loo with a pen and paper.. :D
Rayshine and C, I’m a big fan of David Lebovitz cookbooks – as much for the storytelling as the recipes. If you’d like to get an inkling of what they’re like, have a look at his blog – http://www.davidlebovitz.com/. I believe this new cookbook is an amalgam of two of his old ones.
C, the first DL book I bought was The Great Book of Chocolate – it’s a thin small text with stories about chocolate, the people who work with it and sell it, and some great recipes. I taught myself to temper from this book, and I used to take it to bed with me and read about all the chocolatiers in Europe. :)
Jo, the second batch of these brownies that I made had the leftover intoxicated figs, some crystallised ginger, cacao nibs and slivered almonds with 70% chocolate. The third batch had 54% chocolate with 150g bake stable chocolate sticks (44%) – this one was for the kids. See what I mean when I say it’s a very versatile recipe? :)
Celia, figs in brownies…great idea, I am sure that must taste delicious, a little fruity flavor to the brownies, sure looks yummie!
Thanks Juliana! Although I love figs so much that I’d put them into just about everything if my family would tolerate it.. :D
There was a fashion here last year for putting beetroot in brownies? My sister made them and I had them in some chi chi cafe – I wasn’t sure about them, but I am moving over to dried fruit in chocolate cake quite enthusiastically. After all we were brought up on chocolate covered raisins as a cinema going treat!
Jo, over here it’s been prunes in brownies for a few years – I don’t particularly like the combination myself, but the prunes are supposed to replace some of the butter, I think, thereby making the finished brownie lower in fat.
Oh Celia, dream on and on. These sound so decadently marvellous I’m going to have to buy me some rum! I haven’t yet cooked with cocoa nibs, though I’ve seen a recipe for cocoa nib cookies which I want to try. Think it might be these brownies that make it first now.
Thought “figmented” an excellent word – it quite aptly described the fermenting figs in rum part – yum!
Hehe…I never saw that side of the wordplay. The cocoa nibs turn out a bit like chewy nuts in the brownies. If you can, I’d be inclined to use a mix of bittersweet and semisweet chocolate, just to bring the % cacao down a bit – the batter is less likely to split then when you give it the minute of solid beating. And don’t buy rum just for this – if you have brandy or whisky, I think they might work as well…
A friend and I were looking for fig recipes and found your website. We have fig trees and lots of fresh figs to work with, so were excited to get started. We tried to make the fig paste log and ended up with fig puree like baby food substance… so now we know the recipe needs dried figs as opposed to fresh. We also have figs soaking in rum for the figmented brownies and are now wondering if that recipe also calls for dried figs?
Okay, now we’ve come to the conclusion that the figmented brownies probably call for dried figs. So what to do with our frest drunken figs… any suggestions?
Mimi, sorry for the confusion. Yes, both recipes used dried figs – over here in Australia, Persian and Turkish figs are all imported dried. I’m not sure what your drunken figs would be like as I’ve never made them, but I imagine they’d be delicious dipped in melted chocolate, or served with a cheese platter. They might also be nice in something like a chocolate tart – maybe you could adapt this recipe?
I envy your fresh figs – our season is over now, and it lasts for such a short time here and it’s usually a fight with the fruit bats to get any! Have you tried the Jamie Oliver fig salad?
https://figjamandlimecordial.com/2010/01/19/joyous-figs/
It’s the best way I know of to eat fresh figs.. :)
Cheers, Celia
Thanks Celia! I will check out the salad above. I have two giant fig trees in my yard and they are loaded – enough for everyone including all the birds, squirrels, wasps, joggers, etc. I am always looking for ways to use them, besides jam. I am going to try to dry a bunch of them this year to use in recipes like your figmented brownies. The drunken figs I have are what I was preparing for the figmented brownies – fresh figs soaked in bacardi gold rum. I would imagine they’re quite potent but we’ll try to do something with them. Thanks for your suggestions.
Cheers! Mimi