Fig Pinwheel Cookies
Fig Pinwheels are scrumptious cookies that strike the perfect balance of sweet and savory. A classic tea cake dough is filled with fig preserves and then rolled into pinwheels to make a festive dessert for any occasion. These fig cookies are fabulous with fresh fig sauce or your favorite preserves year-round.
Today, I’m sharing a recipe that is a new one for this Christmas season, and it was actually invented during the summer.
Even though it is new, it is quite delicious. And it even won third runner-up in the Best of the West Cookie Competition.
Today’s Participants in the Cookie Week Carnival: Renee baked some fancy looking (and sounding!) Pillowy Lemon Crinkle Cookies! Check their recipes out and leave them some love… and then try their recipes because they both sound amazing.
As y’all might remember, we were inundated with fresh figs by the random, yet substantial fig tree in our side yard. Not knowing what to do, I learned how to make fig preserves, fig tarts and basically any recipe that called for any kind of fig.
The fig tree puttered out in August, finally giving up its final fifteen pounds of fresh fruit, and we were once-again knee deep in fig preserves.
So it was time for me to figure out what to do with those.
A friend and her fiance were in town one weekend, and they came over to visit. She and I decided we needed to make Tea Cakes, but since the recipe is so large, we had tons of batter left over. I stuck it in the freezer, not thinking much about it, and forgot about the cookie dough for a week.
The next week, I was struck by the idea as I was adding fig preserves to a piece of toast. What if I put the fig preserves in a cookie? Kind of like a Fig Newton… but way better and homemade. And then, I realized we had leftover Tea Cake batter. And then, I was throwing together these cookies.
It was a lightbulb moment, y’all. And my life is better for it.
You’ll take the chilled Tea Cake batter. You’ll also need some fresh fig preserves (or some other kind of preserves) to makes these pinwheels happen.
First thing’s first. Coat the surface you are going to be working on in flour. And sprinkle it onto your rolling pin.
Then form the dough into a rectangular shape. It should be longer than it is wide. (See below.)
Now, you’re going to roll the dough out thick. It needs to be at least half an inch thick so it doesn’t fall apart when you are rolling the pinwheels.
… Trust me here. I messed this up before because I rolled the dough too thin.
And then, once the dough is the right thickness and has been formed into a rectangle, slather it in the Fig Preserves… or your favorite jam.
You can scoop the preserves onto the dough by a spoon… or you can actually measure it out.
I’d guesstimate I poured on about a cup of preserves. But put as much or as little as you like. Just make sure to leave about an inch on each side of the dough so the preserves don’t leak out and all over the counter.
And now, it is time to roll!
Start on the side closest to you and slowly peel the dough up from the counter. Once you get this edge up, it should be pretty easy to roll the dough.
Use both hands to push the dough away from you, moving slowly to roll the pinwheels.
When your dough is completely rolled up, move it to the center of your countertop and begin to cut it into 1″ slices.
They will look a lot like cinnamon rolls right now, so don’t fret.
They will probably also be a little messy. So don’t worry about that, either.
Cut the dough into pieces until you reach the ends. You can either bake these along with the other cookies and accept that they won’t be nearly as gooey and delicious since they have less preserves in them. Or you can eat them right now. Or you can toss them. Your choice.
Place the cookies onto a greased baking sheet about an inch apart from one another.
Bake at 350 for 10 minutes – or until tops of cookies are golden and delicious.
And then enjoy!
Fig Pinwheel Cookies
Ingredients
Cookie Dough
- ½ cup unsalted butter at room temperature
- ¾ cup granulated sugar 150g
- ¾ teaspoon pure vanilla extract 4g
- 1 egg ~50g
- 3 tablespoons buttermilk
- 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour 300g
- 1 teaspoon baking powder 4g
- ¾ teaspoon baking soda 6g
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt 1g
Filling
- 1 cup fig preserves 360g
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Instructions
Make the Cookie Dough
- Combine the softened butter and sugar in the base of a stand mixer (or in a large bowl with a hand mixer.) Beat until creamed together, about 2-3 minutes.
- Pour in the vanilla and break the egg. Beat with the creamed butter and sugar until combined and fragrant, about 1-2 minutes.
- Finally, add the buttermilk to the rest of the wet ingredients. Beat until combined. The batter will look broken or curdled. This is OK! This buttermilk gives the batter a unique tangy flavor, and the batter will come back together when the dry ingredients are added.
- Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt into another large bowl. Whisk to combine.
- Pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients incrementally, mixing until just combined.
- Roll out a length of plastic wrap on a flat surface. Dollop the batter into the wrap in the rough shape of a rectangle. Refrigerate for at least one hour.
Shape the Cookies
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a nonstick baking mat, and set aside.
- Once dough has chilled, roll into a 11″ by 17″ rectangle on a floured surface with a rolling pin. It should be about ⅓" thick.
- Slather a cup of fig preserves onto the dough, spreading as evenly as possible until about 1" from the edges. (If you spread it all the way to the edges, it will leak out of the cookies.)
- Carefully, roll the dough up like you would a cinnamon roll in a round, doing your best to keep the dough as tightly wound as possible.
- Place the rolled up dough on the lined sheet pan. Refrigerate for another hour to firm up the dough.
Bake the cookies
- Preheat the oven to 350℉.
- Remove the log of dough from the refrigerator. Use a sharp knife to slice it into 24 separate cookies. (They will be about ½" thick.)
- Transfer these cookies to a prepared baking sheet.
- Bake for 15-18 minutes in the preheated oven, or until tops of cookies are puffy and slightly golden brown.
- Let cool and then enjoy!
Nutrition
Have you ever made up a recipe like this one?
And are you planning on participating in the TSP Christmas Cookie Week? If so, send me a link to your post!
Happy Tuesday, y’all!
About the Author:
Erin Parker is a Southern gal living in Texas with her husband and two daughters. She started The Speckled Palate to share what she was cooking as a newlywed… and over the years, it’s evolved to capture her love for hosting. Specifically, the EASIEST, lowest key entertaining because everyone deserves to see their people and connect over good food. Learn more about her…
Ohhh, these look divine. :]
I am obsessed with fig lately, I want to try making this. They are very different but look tasty!
These are my favorite!