Fig Newtons & Milk

That post on ancient history made me hungry for Fig Newtons, which as it happens also employ the creaming method. The cookie dough is akin to a sablée crust (French for “sandy” or “crumbly”) which means it’s rich, delectable, and slightly hard to work with. Being very buttery it goes soft fast after chilling, and requires a lot of flour to keep it from sticking to the work surface. In essence, fig bars are shaped by rolling the dough out into a sheet, then cutting the sheet into long 3-inch wide strips. The fig filling (made either from fresh or dried figs) is spooned down the center of each strip, then the sides of the strip are turned in to cover it (I use a bench scraper for the job). The strips are then baked, seam-side down, on an ungreased sheet pan before being cut into individual cookies. I used this recipe here, but the web is awash in fig bar recipes. Choose whichever one appeals.