Healthy Homemade Fig Bars Recipe
A healthy homemade take on the classic cookie, this Fig Bars recipe is delicious and easy to make with only 10 ingredients and no fuss! Vegan, gluten-free, refined-sugar-free, and no added oils!
Servings: 12 large fig bars
Ingredients
- 1 cup dried mission figs roughly 6 oz
- juice of 1/2 lemon
- filtered water to soak
- 1 1/2 cup oat flour
- 2 tbsp coconut sugar
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 cup creamy almond butter
- 1/4 cup room temperature plant milk I used light coconut milk, more as needed
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- optional orange juice
Instructions
- In a small bowl, soak dry figs, covering with hot water, for a least 1 hour. Once tender, strain the figs but reserve the soaking water for blending.
- Preheat your oven to 350F.
- Transfer the soaked figs to a food processor and add the juice of half a lemon. Blend to break down, then start to add soaking water by the tablespoon, blending in between. You want to achieve a spreadable paste, not too wet (refer to image above). Taste, and if desired, you can add a touch of maple syrup to sweeten. I personally found it to be naturally sweet. Alternatively, you can opt to blend with orange juice instead of the soaking water to add additional sweetness if you prefer something closer to the original.
- Now prepare your fig bar dough. In a mixing bowl, sift flour, coconut sugar, baking powder and cinnamon. Add almond butter, plant milk and vanilla extract and mix with a spatula until a dough forms. If needed, you can add additional plant milk as needed. Dough should be workable with your hands.
- Lay out 2 pieces of parchment paper or 2 nonstick baking sheets, and place dough in between. Use a rolling pin to roll out into a thin, long rectangle shape (see photos above). Spoon fig paste into a log shape in the center of the dough rectangle, and lift edges of the parchment paper to layer either side over the center fig paste. Flip so the seam side is down.
- Slice your log into 10 pieces, or rectangle sizes of choice, then place onto a baking sheet. Bake at 350F for 12-15 minutes, or until just golden brown on the surface. Don't overbake, or you'll end up with a crunchy bar instead of a soft fig bar.
Notes
Secrets to Success
- As mentioned, you want to ensure you're using dried figs instead of fresh figs. This is important for texture (to achieve that classic fig paste texture) but also for sweetness level!
- Alternatively, you can opt to blend with orange juice instead of the soaking water to add additional sweetness if you prefer something closer to the original.
- For this fig bars recipe, you'll need a food processor or blender, but I highly recommend a food processor because the quantity of ingredients we're blending up is a manageable size.
- Finally, I recommend using parchment paper, which will be important to achieve the classic folded fig bar look.
- You will end up with a little leftover jam, but I find that 1 cup of dried figs was necessary as a minimum quantity so the blades of my food processor could effectively purée.