Apple almond tea cake

It was a National Tea Day in the UK yesterday. I felt like I had to bake something sweet to mark the occasion.
Reading Anca's recipe for Lamingtons, a coconutty chocolate treat from her childhood, made me dig out an old copy of Cakes & Slices Cookbook, a bookazine by The Australian Women's Weekly. I got it last year in the charity shop.
I didn't have any coconut, so Lamingtons would have to wait until I get hold of some, so I looked at what dessert from the book I might like to recreate.

I liked the sound of Apple almond cake, and had most of the ingredients.

I have adapted the recipe, adding polenta for texture and reducing the amount of sugar and butter. The grated apple makes it moist, but you can hardly taste it. I think next time I bake it, I will also add a finely chopped apple to make it more fruity.

Apple Almond Tea Cake
Ingredients:
1 medium apple, grated
100g caster sugar
100g butter (or margarine)
100g self-raising flour
80g polenta
2 medium eggs
100ml milk
a handful of flaked almonds

In a medium mixing bowl grate an apple (with peel on, if you want more fibre). Add the sugar, softened butter or margarine (I used margarine, as I've run out of butter, though I do prefer butter in cakes), flour and polenta and mix well.
Beat in the eggs, one at a time. Add milk and mix until combined.
Grease a 20cm round spring cake tin (I also added a circle of parchment paper at the bottom, as my cake tin is quite old).
Pour the cake batter into the cake tin, and sprinkle a handful of flaked almonds on top. Place the tin in the oven preheated to 180C. Bake for 45+ minutes. Check if it's ready with a wooden toothpick.
You might also want to wrap a foil over the top of the cake tin closer to the end of cooking to prevent the almonds from burning.

This cake is lovely with tea or coffee.

Did you bake anything yesterday to celebrate the National Tea Day?

And if you're curious what tea I had with a slice of cake it is Whittard's Jasmine Dragon Pearls.

Jammy crescents

It's that time of the year when Tuesday evenings are reserved for weeks in advance, and viewers either get out a biscuit tin or join in a cook-along to follow the weekly themes of GBBO. As much as I'd like to do a weekly bake-along, it's just not feasible. I fancied baking a dairy-based dessert the week before last, but it just didn't happen.
I did bake though a big batch of jammy crescents last Friday, to enjoy with a friend who helps me on Fridays with Eddie (collecting him from the after-school chess club).

I was experimenting with the Organic Barley Flour which was one of the products I received recently from Whole Foods Online. I haven't baked with it before, so it was an unknown territory for me.

While I know what barley is, and use it occasionally in soups, I haven't come across a barley flour before.
Organic barley flour has a mild, slightly nutty flavour, which works great, combined with the other types of flour. It's supposed to be very good for bread making.
The texture of the flour is different, when compared to the wheat flour. When baked in bread, it gives a springy dense texture, similar to sourdough.

Jammy crescents
Ingredients:
40g caster sugar
110g butter, cold and grated
150g Organic barley flour
150g self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 medium eggs
114g clotted cream (a small tub)
apricot and/or cherry jam
flaked almonds

Grate cold butter into a medium sized mixing bowl, add the caster sugar and sift in half of the flour. Rub the butter into the flour, making crumbs. Then add the rest of the flour, baking powder, beat in two eggs and mix in the clotted cream.
I planned to use the soured cream, but forgot to buy it, and used the clotted cream instead.
You will have quite a stiff dough. Roll it into a ball, and place in the fridge for about an hour.

Divide the dough into three parts, roll out a big thin circle, using a rolling pin, then divide each circle into 8 parts. Add about a teaspoon of jam on each triangle and top up with flaked almonds.

Tuck in the thin end under the wider part, making open envelopes.
Bake on trays covered with the foil or parchment paper at 180C for about 15 minutes.
Carefully remove from the tray and place on the cooling baking rack.

The crescents are lovely with tea, hot chocolate or coffee.

They will keep in a tin for 3-4 days without a problem.

Have you tried baking with barley flour? What would you recommend?

Disclosure: As mentioned above, I received a bag of barley flour to try in a recipe.

Regency-style lemon almond tart + #ReadCookEat May linky

Reconstructing dishes mentioned in fiction is one of my passions.
I've recently finished reading The ghost of Glendale by Natalie Kleinman (read my review). It is a Romance with a ghost story twist, set in Regency times. There are not many mentions of food, except when the main protagonists Phoebe, her cousin Lydia, their beaus Duncan and Rupert as well as the other neighbours go on a picnic.

"It was all in good fun and, with an appetite that only the young seem to have, the various meets, cheeses, pies and other delicacies were consumed with eagerness which, had the kitchen staff of the various establishments been able to see, would have given them much pleasure."

I was curious to discover what dishes might have been served at picnics during the Regency and consulted a couple of food history books. Picnics were often quite a grand affair, with baskets upon baskets of food and chilled champagne in buckets with ice, carried by numerous servants.

I also consulted a cook book "Dinner with Mr Darcy" by Pen Vogler. In a chapter dedicated to picnic food she offers a recipe for Lemon cheesecakes (Georgian cheesecakes actually did not contain cheese). She cooks individual lemon cheesecakes.
I decided to bake one easy lemon almond tart, and it happened to be a delightful bake, easy and quick, and oh so good. I hope Phoebe and company would approve of it.

Regency-style lemon almond tart
Ingredients:
1 pack of shortcrust pastry
zest of 2 lemons
2tbsp lemon juice
100g caster sugar
1tbsp limoncello (optional)
2 medium eggs
2tbsp single cream
100g ground almonds
60g butter, melted
a big handful of flaked almonds

For the ease of cooking, use a ready-made shortcrust pastry. If you have time and inclination, prepare your own pastry by all means.
Preheat the oven to 180C.
Unroll the pastry and cut out a big circle to fit in your tart dish or tin. Bake for 10 minutes.
In a medium mixing bowl zest 2 lemons. Add the lemon juice, caster sugar, limoncello, beat in two eggs. Add single cream, ground almonds and melted and cooled butter, and mix well.
Pour the almond lemon mix into the pre-baked pastry case, scatter flaked almonds on top.
Place the baking dish in the oven and bake for 20+ minutes until golden brown.
Take out and let it cool a bit before slicing and serving.

This tasty tart is quite similar to Bakewell tart, minus jam, and with lemon flavours.

This is not an authentic Regency recipe, as obviously they would not have a pre-made shortcrust pastry, and I'm not sure whether limoncello or any other lemon liqueur was popular in England in those days. But lemons and ground almonds appear happily in many 19C recipes.

Have you read a book recently which inspired you to run to the kitchen and cook to your heart's content?

I hope you are inspired by books to join in the #ReadCookEat challenge.

The idea is to choose a book, either a world classic or modern fiction, or even memoirs and pick up a dish mentioned or described in that book and then recreate it in a recipe. Please say a few lines about your chosen book, and maybe even do a quote from the book.

If you decide to take part, please add the badge to your post and link up back to me, and either use a link-up tool or add the url of your post as a comment. Alternatively, email me with the link to your post (my email is sasha1703 at yahoo dot com).

I will Pin all blog posts taking part in this challenge, as well as RT and Google+

Almond cake for Verity

Having watched the spectacular Poldark saga, I bought the first two Poldark novels by Winston Graham in The Book People, and then stumbled across the whole set of novels in the charity shop. I got another couple of books from the set, with the previous Poldark TV adaptation characters on the covers.
I've only read the first novel so far, and it is much darker and deeper than the TV adaptation.

In Book I Verity comes to visit Ross at Nampara: "I had to see you, Ross. You understand better than the others. I had to see you about Andrew".
"Sit down, " he said. "I'll get you some ale and a slice of almond cake".

I couldn't find any particular Cornish almond cake recipe in any of my books or online, so my creation is not an authentic old recipe. The author doesn't specify if the cake was baked by Prudie, or whether by then Demelza was able to bake a cake.

In the past I have baked almond cakes, and they tend to be on the dry side. This time I'm adding a grated apple for moister texture.

Almond apple cake
Ingredients:
1 big apple, peeled, cored and grated
4 medium eggs
100g ground almonds
150g caster sugar
150g self-raising flour
1tsp baking powder
185g butter, melted
a handful of whole blanched almonds

In a medium mixing bowl grate a big peeled apple, Beat in the eggs and add ground almonds, mix well, add sugar, sift in flour and baking powder, and stir in melted and slightly cooled butter.
Mix well together.
Pour the cake batter into a spring cake tin, which has been oiled (add a circle of parchment paper to the bottom of the tin). Decorate the top of the cake with whole almonds.
Bake for about an hour at 180C. Check if it's ready with a wooden toothpick. If the cake starts to brown too quickly, cover it with a foil loosely.
Dust with icing sugar before serving.

I was also very curious to try an ale and cake combination, just like Ross offered to Verity. It was not something I've tried before. Tea, coffee or hot chocolate, yes, ale with cake? Not before yesterday.
It is an interesting combination of flavours, but drinking a glass of ale in the afternoon made me very sleepy. Tea or coffee for me please any time.

I hope you are inspired by books to join in the #ReadCookEat challenge.

The idea is to choose a book, either a world classic or modern fiction, or even memoirs and pick up a dish mentioned or described in that book and then recreate it in a recipe. Please say a few lines about your chosen book, and maybe even do a quote from the book.

If you decide to take part, please add the badge to your post and link up back to me, and either use a link-up tool or add the url of your post as a comment. Alternatively, email me with the link to your post (my email is sasha1703 at yahoo dot com).

I promise to Pin all blogs posts taking part in this challenge, as well as RT and Google+

Red velvet almond biscotti

It felt like an Indian summer yesterday, it was sunny and warm, almost hot, a perfect September day. Our apple trees in the garden are groaning under the weight of fruit. I still have some pre-blanched apples in the freezer left from last year.
And as many gardens in the neighbourhood have their own apple trees, nobody wants free apples. Such a shame.
Today we woke up to an incessant drizzle and grey skies, such a difference with yesterday's mild weather. Today I feel like wrapping myself in a fleece blanket and having lots of hot drinks.

I was expecting friends for a late morning coffee, and realised that we've run out of all homebaked cookies and cakes. I rummaged in the kitchen shelves and found a box red velvet cake mix.
I didn't fancy baking a cake, but remembered seeing photos of red velvet biscotti on Pinterest.

Technically these are not proper Italian biscotti. I don't think I've ever seen red velvet biscotti anywhere in Italy.
This recipe, in many variations, appears mostly on American sites and blogs. But these biscotti are pretty good with a cup of coffee or tea. They are also very easy to make, and don't take much time either.

Red velvet biscotti
Ingredients:
1 pack of red velvet cake mix
2 medium eggs
125g butter, melted
125+g plain flour
50g almonds, chopped

In  a big mixing bowl mix together contents of 1 pack of red velvet cake mix and 2 medium eggs. Add melted butter, flour and chopped almonds (bigger pieces not crumbs).
Divide the cake dough into 2 parts.
Shape the cake dough into 2 flattened loafs on the baking sheet.
Place it in the oven preheated to 180C. Bake for 20 minutes.

Take the tray out and carefully transfer each baked rectangle on the cutting board.
Slice into separate biscotti with a bread knife. The dough inside is still quite uncooked and soft.

Place all the biscotti back on to the baking sheet, and back in the oven for another 10 minutes.

They are crispy and crunchy, and lovely to dip into coffee.
Typically I cannot stand dunking biscuits into tea or coffee. Biscotti is the only type of biscuit I would ever dunk.
Are you a biscuit dunker?

Odds and ends flapjacks

I've been rummaging through my kitchen cupboards, checking what needs to be eaten, what has to be thrown. I had the remains of peanut butter in a jar and coconut oil, literally a few tablespoons left over, then the end of the ground almonds packet and the remains of brown sugar with stevia. I also had an overripe banana - not enough for a banana cake, but might do for flapjacks.
There was a box of MOMA bircher muesli (raspberry & coconut) in the latest Degustabox, which I thought would be a great base for flapjacks. These are quick gluten free oats with fruit and seeds including raisins, dried apple pieces, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, coconut flakes and dessicated coconut, raspberries and blackcurrants.

Odds and ends flapjacks
Ingredients:
1 ripe banana, mashed
70g brown sugar (with Stevia)
3tbsp maple syrup
3tbsp peanut butter
4tbsp coconut oil
20g ground almonds
200g oats (bircher muesli)
50g strong white bread flour
50g walnuts, chopped

Preheat the oven to 180C.
Mash a ripe banana with a fork in a medium mixing bowl. Add sugar, maple syrup, peanut butter, coconut oil, ground almonds, oats, flour and chopped walnuts and mix well, until you get a sticky ball. Slightly oil the brownie 20x20 tin and put the mix into the tin, flattening it with a fork, and evening it. Make sure the ends are filled in evenly. Place the tin in the oven and bake for 25 minutes until golden on top.
Make the indentation marks with a knife on the flapjacks while the mass is still warm Once cooled a bit, cut with a knife into rectangular or square slices.

Despite the fact it was all bits and bobs, it is a very tasty flapjack. You don't need a lot of butter to bind the oats, as you use a banana. I've seen some recipes online for flapjacks where they use 250g of butter, that's way too much.

I think any flavour bircher muesli will work in this recipe. Or plain oats, with a handful of dried fruit or coconut flakes. Ground almonds could be swapped for dessicated coconut, maple syrup substituted by golden syrup or healthier date or carob syrup. The possibilities and combinations of flavours are endless.

Adding this recipe to #KitchenClearout linky hosted by Cheryl from Madhouse Family Reviews.

Leek and potato soup with flaked almonds

Souping is one of the foodie trends for 2016. Apparently souping is the new juicing, being made trendy by super healthy Gwyneth Paltrow and clean eating blogellas. Actually the word souping makes me shudder.
And what's so new about it? It's one of the oldest ways of cooking, known for thousands of years. The history of soup is as old as the history of cooking.
The Chinese workers who were excavating the base for a new airport, have dug out a bronze cooking pot which was sealed so tightly that the soup inside it was still liquid. The archeologists confirmed that the pot and its contents were at least 2400 years old. It still contained bones and turned green due to the bronze oxidation. Eat your heart out, Gwynnie.

Soup has never been out of fashion, has it?! Growing up in Russia, soup was served on a daily basis. Nurseries, schools, factory canteens, hospitals etc - soup was considered to be part of a healthy diet. And believe me, the Russians know their soups.
And what about the UK? There are so many British soups to choose from.
So I'm sorry, souping might be a new word (and silly at that too), but the actual soup has never left our tables.

Last week's Superb Souping Box from Abel and Cole had ingredients enough for three different soups.
One them of them was a twist on a classic leek and potato soup. This is one of our favourites which I cook quite often in winter, it's always easy to make and so tasty.

Leek and potato soup with flaked almonds
Ingredients:
3 leeks
1 celery stick
2tbsp sunflower oil
2 big potatoes
1 clove of garlic
1 bay leaf (optional)
1 vegetable stock cube
100ml coconut milk (standard milk would be absolutely fine as well)
flaked almonds

Slice the leeks finely, making sure that you get rid of all the grit in the green part when washing them. Trim the celery and chop it as well. Place the leeks and celery in a deep frying pan with the sunflower (or olive) oil, don't season yet, as you might find the stock cube salty enough. On low fry for about 10 minutes, stirring infrequently. Chop the garlic and add to the leeks, cook for another couple of minutes.
Place the fried vegetables in a medium sized pan, add the peeled and chopped potatoes.
Make the stock with 1 vegetable stock cube and hot water, about 600ml. Pour over the leeks and potatoes, add a bay leaf or any other dried herbs you like, cook simmering for about 25 minutes. In the last 5 minutes add the coconut milk. This is entirely optional, I had a carton of coconut milk so used that, but usually I add just plain semi-skimmed milk.
In a dry frying pan toast a handful of flaked almonds for about 2-3 minutes, tossing them so that they don't get burnt.
Blitz the soup with the hand blender and serve hot with the flaked almonds scattered on top.
The almonds add an extra texture to an otherwise smooth and creamy soup. A nice touch (though I confess I prefer my usual spoonful of soured cream or thick Greek style yogurt for a hint of sourness).

And here it is, a simple yet delicious soup (and I don't even need to flog a fitness DVD or a cook book, lol).

What's your favourite winter soup? And what do you think of the word "souping" - yay, nay or meh?

Pear, almond and cinnamon tart (#ReadCookEat)

I don't often read supernatural stories but do enjoy a good ghost tale. I was browsing in the library, when I came across This House is Haunted by John Boyne. I knew him as the author of The boy in striped pyjamas, but haven't read any other novel by him. The cover and the teaser looked promising, and I took it out. The novel is set in 1867.
Eliza Caine, a plain looking young woman from London is grieving the sudden death of her beloved father and takes up a position of a governess in a remote manor house in Norfolk, called Gaudlin Hall.
She is nearly killed at the train station, pushed by the invisible hands in the path of the train, being rescued by the vigilant doctor.
When Eliza arrives on a dark and chilling evening to the house, she is greeted by two children. The absence of parents or any other responsible adults is not explained by the children, Isabella and Eustace. That same night, as she goes to bed, the invisible pair of hands grabs her by the ankles and terrifies her. This malign presence in the house seems to follow every step she takes. But the children seem to be unperturbed by it.
I won't spoil the plot and tell you how it ends. I will only say that this is a true page turner and a gripping story. There are inevitable comparisons with The Turn of the Screw and even Jane Eyre, there are some stereotypes when it comes to the haunted desolate mansion's paraphernalia, but overall it is an entertaining creepy story with some unexpected twists.
I loved all the literary references to the 19c writers. Even Mr Dickens makes an appearance in the novel. The style of writing is intelligent and perceptive.
Eliza is an endearing character, with an insightful mind. If you enjoy old-fashioned Gothic stories, this is a well written tale.

Mid-way through the novel, Eliza is taking tea with a new found friend Mrs Toxley, who brings a small gift with her.
"I was touched by such an unexpected kindness and opened it. Immediately an explosion of powerful odours emerged from the box. Mrs Toxley had brought pear cakes infused with cinnamon, and I felt a weakness overtake me." The smell of cinnamon reminded Eliza of her father's favourite tobacco, flavoured with cinnamon.

I was planning to cook pear cakes with cinnamon, but couldn't find the small sized tart cake tins anywhere in the kitchen, so instead I baked one big pear, almond and cinnamon tart.

Pear, almond and cinnamon tart
Ingredients:
1 pack of Jus-Rol shortcrust pastry
3 pears
2 medium eggs
125g caster sugar
100g ground almonds
1tsp ground cinnamon
1tsp vanilla essence

Oil the round pie baking dish with the cake release spray or just oil a bit. Roll out the pastry and cut the corners to make it fit the round dish.
Prepare the filling. Grate one pear on coarse, mix with the ground almonds, cinnamon, vanilla, caster sugar and eggs.
Slice two more pears (skin on) thinly.
Pour the filling into the pastry case (still uncooked). Then place the pear slices around the edges, leaving the middle open.
Place the dish in the oven preheated to 180C and cook for 25+ minutes until the pastry is golden brown.

This is a lovely tart, great with cream or ice cream if you eat it hot. It is not bad cold either.
You can make this cake with apples, in fact I have a recipe for Belgian Apple tart which I adapted for pears.

This week I've been reading One Summer in Venice by Nicky Pellegrino, and it is brimming with food references and delightful meals. I know what I am going to cook for the next #ReadCookEat challenge.

Spanish saffron cake

Saffron is such a glorious spice, it adds a beautiful colour and a distinct flavour to dishes. It is expensive, but you only need a pinch. I've been rummaging through my old magazine clippings, and came across a Spanish saffron tea bread recipe from BBC Good Food (March 2000).
I decided to bake it as a cake rather than bread-shaped, and also omitted the mixed peel, as my older son doesn't like "bits" in cakes. He would pick them all out and throw, and as I planned to put a slice of cake in his lunch box, I made it plain.

Put a pinch of saffron threads in a bowl of hot milk (150ml), cover it with the lid, and let it infuse the milk. Leave it for an hour to acquire a deep yellow colour.
In a big mixing bowl beat 2 eggs with 140g caster sugar and zest from 1 orange. Add 6tbsp of orange juice (the magazine suggests juice from 2 oranges, but maybe they used small-sized ones, as I used one orange, and there were about 7tbsp of juice). Add the ground almonds (100g), 350g self-raising flour and mix well. Add the melted butter (175g). The magazine suggests rubbing the cold butter with flour, but I just melted it to speed up the process.
At the last stage add the milk with saffron. mix well. Pour the cake batter in a round cake tin or loaf tin if you prefer and place it in the oven preheated to 180C. Bake for about 45+ minutes. Check the readiness with a wooden skewer.
Take the tin out, and let the cake cool before glazing with a mix of icing sugar and orange juice, or pour some honey over.

This is a lovely cake, crumbly and fluffy.
Apparently it improves with keeping. If you can keep it for 2 days before slicing, the depth of flavour is more pronounced. Not that we would know, as I don't think we'll have much left for tomorrow.

Janice from Farmersgirl Kitchen has launched a new linky called #RecipeClippings, which invites you to go through your recipe collection (either organised in files, or piled all over the house like in my case) and choose a recipe to recreate. So, I'm sending this recipe to Janice's exciting challenge.

Also adding this post to #Bakeoftheweek linky run by Helen at Casa Costello.

Sweet potato cupcakes with bronze crunch

I love vegetables in sweet baking, and have tried many of them: carrots, courgettes, pumpkins, sweet potatoes and squash. I have seen some beautiful chocolate and beet cakes too, but haven't tried the beets in bakes yet. This is the right season for the scrumptious orange-coloured roots, and sweet potatoes are a versatile ingredient in many dishes.

Sweet potato cupcakes
Ingredients:
125 g sweet potato, cooked
150g caster sugar
2 medium eggs
30g ground almonds
1tsp baking powder
1tbsp vanilla essence
100g self-raising flour
1tsp cinnamon, ground
100ml Advocaat liqueur
90ml olive oil
for frosting: melted dark chocolate (1 bar) and 1tsp butter
Waitrose Cooks' Homebaking Gloriously Gilded Bronze Crunch

First cook the sweet potatoes, either boil them until soft or roast. Mash with a fork before mixing with the caster sugar, eggs, almonds, baking powder, vanilla, flour, cinnamon, Advocaat and olive oil. Ladle the cake batter into muffin cases inserted in a muffin baking tray. Put the tray in the oven preheated to 180C and bake for 18-20 minutes until well-risen and golden brown (check with a wooden skewer if they are ready).
Melt the dark chocolate with a spoonful of butter in a dish over the boiling water, and frost the bakes.

Sprinkle Bronze crunch to add a touch of glamour. Bronze crunch is basically edible bronze coloured sugar pieces. It looks very Byzantine and a tad decadent, excellent for any forthcoming seasonal parties. I have discovered it in the baking section of the local Waitrose, and it instantly appealed to my sense of glamour.
Expect more sprinkled baked goodies from me in the following weeks.

Fig and almond crostata

Our weekly fruit and vegetable market is just on my way to school, and if you visit it later in the day, almost at closing time, you can get really good bargains. As I was passing through the market last Thursday, I could hear the fruit vendor shouting at the top of his voice "10 figs for £3!" and couldn't resist such a nice offer. I got my fresh figs, picked up my younger son from school, and we rushed home to wait for the school bus, bringing my older son home. My initial plan was to make some fig chutney, but then I happened to discover a recipe for fig and almond confiture with Vin Santo on Simona's Kitchen blog. It looked delightfully sophisticated and I just had to try it. After I made a big jar, I used the confiture as a filling for a crostata for yesterday's lunch.

Do read Simona's recipe, I followed her advice closely enough, though I had to adapt it to suit the amount of figs, and change some ingredients slightly.

I used a dark variety of figs. When I weighed them, the total weight was 750g. The original recipe suggested that sugar should be roughly half the weight if figs. I didn't have enough of Vin Santo, only leftovers in the bottle, so I mixed it with Muscat wine.
Please read Simona's recipe for the precise list of ingredients.
I soaked the quartered figs in sugar and sweet wine overnight, then cooked for half an hour with the almonds and 4 Rose Extract Spice Drops (added by the end of cooking).

Rose Extract Spice Drops from Holy Lama are a concentrated essence of rose. You literally need just a few drops to add a beautiful aroma and enhance the taste. Rose is a trendy ingredient nowadays, though I have been using it quite a while. I always dry the rose petals from my garden to add to my cooking. Rose Spice Drops have an exquisite smell, I can probably wear it as a perfume.
Going back to my confiture, it was simply luscious, sweet, elegant and very tasty.

As for the crostata, I used a ready-made Jus-Rol shortcrust pastry. I might not get any points from the virtuous cooks and judges at GBBO for using a ready-made pastry (Quelle Horreur! Sacrilege!), but my family loved my dessert. My in-laws are visiting us this week, and they enjoyed my baking very much. I served it with cream, and once I finished my slice and took an empty plate back to the kitchen, I couldn't resist licking my plate. Yes, it was that good.

If you don't have fresh figs, there is a similar recipe for a crostata made with dried figs soaked in marsala, and very tasty it is as well.