4033 Dried chocolate covered figs ?

I have a plan to dry figs and cover them in chocolate but am not quite sure how to go about it. I had these once in a masseria and it seemed to be the inside of the fruit only.......ie not including the skin. So, my question here is does anyone have any idea of how to go about producing the dried inside from the whole fruit? Would it be feasible to pick them and dry them whole then remove the inside or can the whole fruit including the skin be eaten if I dry them out and chop them up?

My knowledge of figs isn't up to much so suggestions would be most welcome. I don't think drying them whole will be a problem as I can just lay them out on the roof. I just need to know what I can do with them after that.

Category
Food & Drink

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 06/25/2006 - 05:12

This thread interested me Pixie, I've got three huge trees and havn't a clue what you would do with the fruit. A quick search and I've found two sites, one explaining how to dry and the other with a recipe for Chocolate Rum covered Figs....got to be better with a bit of booze ;)

[url]http://www.ochef.com/9.htm[/url]

[url]http://www.mangiarebene.net/academy/dessert/choco_fig.html[/url]

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 06/25/2006 - 06:07

Hi, yes, I have a similar problem as we have so many and last year they all ended up on the ground. I wont be able to use them all but at least I can try! I searched around a bit for information too and it seems the drying process is fairly straight forward, although sun drying them will take much longer than using some kind of oven. I think I'll try to do it in the car which apparently can go to completion in just a few hours if it's left standing in the sun.

One thing I did notice when looking for information was a rather disturbing article on Fig Wasps which apparently lay their eggs inside certain types of fig (don't know if it applies to our particular variety) The male wasp is flightless and his only function is to fertilise the female inside the fig flowers where she lays the eggs. After that he dies and remains in the developing fruit........That was a bit off putting for me but as I say I don't know if it applies to our type of figs as there are many varieties. Maybe someone with more detailed knowledge can help further ??

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 06/26/2006 - 04:27

to dry figs, you just have to wash them, dry them and put them in a very sunny spot over a tea towel for several days, covering them at night or even better, bringing the inside. No peeling required!
once they will be dried you can put some white flour on them to preserve them and avoid them sticking together!

Paola

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 06/26/2006 - 04:34

Oh, and don't forget you can make heaps and heaps of buccellato!

Recipe to folllow (left the book at home).

If you do decided to give this a try and succeed, I will pay handsomely for the opportunity to try some...

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 06/26/2006 - 04:35

and pressed figs (Abruzzan speciality), fig and ginger jam, whole fig conserve...

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 06/26/2006 - 12:02

excellent thread I shall try all of those as we have about 25 fig trees. Also I am going to try drying figs with almonds in them as we have about 70 almond trees!! If anyone has done this successfully before I would welcome your advice otherwise I shall seek advice from my neighbour as I saw him drying them last year!