Homemade Fig Rolls make perfect, fibre rich, healthy snack and taste so much nicer than their shop bought counterparts. Once you see how easy they're to make, you'll never look back! They are vegan too!
Today we are going a bit retro with my delicious homemade fig rolls recipe (or fig newtons if you're in America)!
I must admit, I have never been a fan of fig rolls. I simply never got on with shop bought ones so gave up on them altogether.
That was until my youngest discovered them whilst at nursery few years back and started asking for them at home.
I haven't started making my own straight away. However, couple of years and I don't know how many packets of shop bough fig rolls later I finally decided to take a plunge and start making my own.
I was on a mission to make them healthier and hopefully tastier than shop bought version but they really exceeded my expectations.
All I've got to say is that my homemade recipe for fig rolls has turned me into a huge fan of these little, fibre rich biscuits.
Are all fig rolls vegan?
Funnily enough, many brands of shop bought ones are accidentally vegan but when you look at some recipes available out there for homemade ones, they tend to use an egg yolk in their pastry.
My recipe is very loosely based on Paul Hollywood's Fig Rolls and he actually uses one whole egg in his pastry dough.
Making pastry dough without eggs for this recipe is really easy and you will still get delicious and crumbly biscuits out of it.
Are fig rolls healthy?
Homemade fig rolls are definitely much healthier that shop bought ones.
On a comparison scale of all the biscuits out there, these wouldn't rank too bad. However, remember that as healthy as figs are (great source of fibre) they are full of sugar (natural or not it's still sugar) so try to eat these yummy vegan biscuits in moderation.
I'm still very happy to include them as a treat in my boys' lunchboxes as they're definitely pretty good as far as treats go and I strongly believe we should enjoy our food!
My recipe uses mixture of plain and wholemeal flours to provide that extra fibre and extra brownie points.
Vegan fig rolls - helpful tips!
- Make sure you do chill your dough as suggested, it will make it easier to roll.
2. Dust your countertop and rolling pin very generously with flour as the dough will try and stick. Don't get discouraged and persevere.
3. Most of the fig roll recipes out there call for simmering your dried figs in water even for up to 30 minutes. I don't believe this step is necessary. Simply blending all your filling ingredients in a food processor until smooth works perfectly fine. It also gives you the consistency which is much drier and easier to work with without negative effect on your end result.
4. These fig rolls take 15 minutes to bake in my oven at 190C/375F but make sure you keep an eye on them as they may take anything between 12-15 min in yours.
To ensure the correct temperature of your oven (I don't trust built in thermostats), I highly recommend this super simple, cheap and cheerful oven thermometer.
Storing & Freezing Advice
These delicious biscuits can be stored in the airtight container even for up to a week!
***TOP TIP*** - Due to their fruity filling make sure to store them separately from any crunchy biscuits as they will make them soft!
I haven't tried freezing these fig rolls as they never last long enough between 4 of us but I think they would freeze just fine.
If you decide to make a batch for the freezer, ensure your fig rolls have cooled completely before placing them in single layer in the freezer proof container. Make sure to separate them with some baking paper if you want to stack them.
I would't freeze them for longer than a month.
How to make homemade fig rolls - step-by-step recipe.
- Start by making your pastry.
- Put flour(s), baking powder, vegan butter, salt, sugar, vanilla extract (if using) in your food processor and mix until you get breadcrumbs/sand like consistency to your dough.
- Keep mixing and you will see your dough starting to come together. Gradually add 1-2 Tbsp of plant/nut milk of choice and mix until your dough comes together almost into a ball. Start with just a little trickle of milk before adding any more.
- If you don't have a food processor simply sift your flour, baking powder and salt into a large bowl. Add cubed vegan butter and start rubbing it into the flour until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add sugar and vanilla extract (if using) and mix them in adding a little bit of plan/nut milk (1-2 Tbsp) to the mixture to help bring the dough together.
- Once your dough is ready, cover it in your preferred wrap (I use beeswax wraps) and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.
- While your dough is chilling prepare your filling.
- Add dried figs, lemon juice, maple syrup, cinnamon and stem ginger into the bowl of your food processor and blend until you have a consistency of thick paste and set aside until your dough finished chilling.
- Heat up your oven to 190C/375F/Gas Mark 5.
- Take dough out of the fridge and onto well floured surface.
- Roll it out into a rectangle 25x20cm/10x8in and cut it in half lengthwise.
- Divide fig roll filling equally in between two rectangles like a long sausage along the middle of each one.
- Bring one side of the dough up and over the filling to enclose it in the pastry and form two logs.
- Very gently flatten both logs and trim the ends to make them neater if you want.
- Cut each log into 7 pieces and transfer onto baking tray lined with baking paper.
- Bake in pre-heated oven for approximately 15 minutes or until browned.
- Transfer onto a wire rack to cool.
Have you tried my Homemade Fig Rolls?
Please leave a comment to let me know what you thought, share your tips, tricks etc. If you have any questions, feel free to ask away too and I'll try and respond as soon as I can.
If you’ve made this recipe please rate it too! Thank you in advance!
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Homemade Fig Rolls (Vegan)
Ingredients
Pastry
- 100 g plain (all-purpose) flour and extra for dusting
- 75 g wholemeal/spelt flour
- ¼ tsp baking powder
- 50 g vegan block butter see notes
- 40 g light brown sugar
- ½ tsp vanilla extract optional
- pinch of salt
- 1-2 Tbsp plant/nut milk to bind your dough I use oat milk
Filling
- 200 g soft dried figs
- 2 Tbsp lemon juice
- 3 Tbsp maple syrup see notes
- 1 tsp cinnamon see notes
- 1 ball stem ginger in syrup see notes
Instructions
Pastry
- Start by making your pastry.
- Put flour(s), baking powder, vegan butter, salt, sugar, vanilla extract (if using) in your food processor and mix until you get breadcrumbs/sand like consistency to your dough.
- Keep mixing and you will see your dough starting to come together. Gradually add 1-2 Tbsp of plant/nut milk of choice and mix until your dough comes together almost into a ball. Start with just a little trickle of milk before adding any more.
- If you don’t have food processor simply sift your flour, baking powder and salt into a large bowl. Add cubed vegan butter and start rubbing it into the flour until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add sugar and vanilla extract (if using) and mix them in adding a little bit of plan/nut milk (1-2 Tbsp) to the mixture to help bring the dough together.
- Once your dough is ready, cover it in your preferred wrap (I use beeswax wraps) and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.
Filling
- While your dough is chilling prepare your filling.
- Add dried figs, lemon juice, maple syrup, cinnamon and stem ginger into the bowl of your food processor and blend until you have a consistency of thick paste and set aside until your dough finished chilling.
Assembly & Baking
- Pre-heat your oven to 190C/375F/Gas Mark 5.
- Take dough out of the fridge and onto well floured surface.
- Roll it out into a rectangle 25x20cm/10x8in and cut it in half lengthwise.
- Divide fig roll filling equally in between two rectangles like a long sausage along the middle of each one.
- Bring one side of the dough up and over the filling to enclose it in the pastry and form two logs.
- Very gently flatten both logs and trim the ends to make them neater if you want.
- Cut each log into 7 pieces and transfer onto baking tray lined with baking paper.
- Bake in pre-heated oven for approximately 12-15 minutes until browned.
- Transfer onto a wire rack to cool.
Notes
- Nutritional information is approximate, per fig roll and should be treated as a guideline only.
- If you don't have any wholemeal/spelt flour to hand you can simply use 175g plain flour only.
- I use Flora Plant Butter, Naturli or Stork as they have higher fat content than the tub margarines.
- Feel free to use any other liquid sweetener of your choice instead maple syrup. Date syrup, agave syrup or honey (if you're not vegan) will work here.
- Feel free to play around with the amount of cinnamon you want to use. You could swap it for some ground ginger or even iced spice if you prefer.
- Stem ginger can be substituted with finely chopped candied ginger if you prefer or left out altogether.
- Store in the airtight container for up to 1 week.
- Freeze for up to 1 month.
- Make sure you do chill your dough as suggested, it will make it easier to roll.
- Dust your countertop and rolling pin very generously with flour as the dough will try and stick.
- These fig rolls take 15 minutes to bake in my oven at 190C/375F but make sure you keep an eye on them as they may take anything between 12-15 min in yours.
- Due to their fruity filling make sure to store fig rolls separately from any crunchy biscuits as they will make them soft!
Nutrition
Howard says
As a "newbi" and as I have a fig tree that produces 100 plus fruit each year, I wonder how I can use fresh figs in your fig roll recipe??
joskitchenlarder says
Hi Howard, I'm so jealous of your fig tree 🙂 I'm afraid when it comes to baking fig rolls using fresh figs I haven't attempted it myself. I think you could make a fig jam and use it as a filling once cooled and thickened which should work but then again I haven't tried it myself. Sorry I'm not of much help here.