Vegan Mofo #10 - Mark’s Chocolate Stuffed Figs...

Vegan Mofo #10 - Mark’s Chocolate Stuffed Figs 

The Region - Spain
The Book - The 30 Minute Vegan’s Taste of Europe
The Author - Mark Reinfeld
The Recipe - Chocolate Stuffed Figs
Page # 117
Difficulty - Easy
Duration - Roughly 20 minutes

Okay, I know I’ve been keeping all my posts for one day to a specific region, but I’ll be honest and say I haven’t got any of my other South American food pictures edited at the moment and I’m kind of in a time crunch what with the fact that I’ll be leaving for vacation in just a few hours. However, not wanting to stray to far from South America I decided to end the night by posting a dish from Spain. Spain - South America, correct me if I’m wrong but there is a connection there Is there not? So I’m not totally off the mark right? Well, that’s my story anyway and I’m sticking to it.

I picked the chocolate stuffed figs for two reasons, I love figs and well FIGS! Seriously! Late summer and early fall is the best time for figs, and yet so few recipes actually utilize them. Whenever I find a recipe that showcases the delicious, exquisite fig I always pounce on it, and this quick and easy - yet elegant dessert was no different. I knew from the first that I’d make this, I just didn’t know when or why. My husband you see doesn’t like almonds, and he’s not too keen on figs though he’ll tolerate them if they’re dried or in something else. So this was just a little something all for me you know?

As for what chocolate stuffed figs has to do with Spain I’m not quite sure, but they do appear in the Spain chapter of Reinfeld’s book and for the purpose of Mofo that’s good enough for me. Or maybe I’m just getting lazy because vacation is just around the corner. Figs are native to the Middle East and Western Asia, although from what I hear there is a delicious chocolate fig bonbon that’s popular in Spain and so maybe this is the connection for Reinfeld? Either way his recipe is delicious, and so easy.

All you need to do is pulse up some almonds, chocolate chips, orange zest, orange juice, vanilla extract, salt, cinnamon, and cardamom in a food processor then stuff 12 figs. Top each fig with a raw almond and bake for about 10 minutes. My only qualm with this recipe is that the instructions are somewhat vague. They simply say ‘stuff the figs’ well, if you’ve never stuffed a fig before you might not be sure how to really go about that. I ended up scooping a bit of the fig out with a half tsp and then pulsed it into the mixture of chocolate and almonds. Waste not want not right?

After you bake the figs you can make a tasty sauce to drizzle over them using orange juice, date syrup and cinnamon. Then garnish with mint leaves. I didn’t have any mint leaves and since I was eating the figs all by myself I decided to forgo the sauce. Really it wasn’t needed because these figs were so good all on their own. I loved the melted chocolate, the hint of orange and the crunch of almond. A perfect and light dessert or afternoon snack with tea.