Sweet Fig Bread with Rosemary Honey Butter

INGREDIENTS

2 c. all-purpose flour + 2 Tablespoons

¾ cup dark brown sugar

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

¼ tsp ground cloves

½ tsp Saigon Cinnamon

1 tsp. Arabian 7 Spice (allspice, ground cardamom, ground black pepper, ground nutmeg, ground cinnamon, gound ginger)

¼ tsp salt

6 Tbsp butter, melted and cooled

2/3 cup buttermilk

3 eggs

1 tsp Vanilla (pure)

2 cups coarsely chopped fresh figs

1 cup chopped walnuts, toasted

INSTRUCTIONS

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray Bundt pan with baking spray.

Mix dry ingredients together. Mix wet ingredients together. Mix the two together until just blended. Pour into Bundt pan.

Bake for approximately 40 minutes. Check for doneness – insert a toothpick and if it comes out clean it’s done. If not, let bake another 5 or so minutes. Remove from oven, cool slightly, invert bread onto wire cooling rack. Allow to cool completely. Slice, and serve with Rosemary honey butter.

Rosemary Honey Butter

Mix ½ cup room temp butter with 2 Tablespoons good quality honey. Mince about ¼ tsp fresh Rosemary and blend the three ingredients together until well mixed.

“A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. And he said to the vinedresser, ‘Look, for three years now I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none. Cut it down. Why should it use up the ground?’ And he answered him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and put on manure. Then if it should bear fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’”
Luke 13:6-9
Holy Bible, ESV

This is exactly the story with my fig tree. I planted it, watered it. And waited. A year went by. Then two. After the third year I was sure I had gotten a dud. All it would do year after year was produce tiny green figs that would never mature or ripen. They’d just fall off the tree. I wrestled with the idea of chopping it down except it was great for shade and pretty drought tollerant. Then, this year it has decided to give me figs in abundance. The branches are literally loaded! 🙂 I call it my “snack bush” because as I am out mowing my yard, or watering my garden, or doing whatever yard work, it provides a sweet little energy boost every time I walk by and snatch myself a ripe fig to eat.

This recipe for Sweet Fig Bread is one of my favorite ways to use the summer abundance of figs. It is positively delicious all by itself, but the Rosemary Honey Butter kicks it up a notch. Besides bread, I also love fig preserves on a toasted English Muffin, and I also like to dry them and make my own Fig Newtons. If I get a bumper crop in the fall, I also like to add them to my wild rice stuffing at Thanksgiving. I hope you enjoy this recipe, and that you are doing well, happy, and healthy. God bless you friend, and thank you for stopping by. <blowing kisses>