This began when Betty Martin wrote in saying, “I am looking for a recipe for fig bars. I have made them the same as I would for date bars but am looking for one with a cookie dough or pastry type dough.” She was looking, she said, for “the one.”

I got lots of help from you all on this, and sure hope this week’s recipe is close enough for Betty to be the one or at least, very nearly the one. Seven recipes arrived.

In order to make fig bars you actually need two recipes: one for the dough and one for the filling. I noticed right away that for the cookie dough part, there were a fair number of similarities from one recipe to another as far as sugar, butter or shortening, and flour ratio was concerned; two called for cream. A couple of recipes needed baking soda and powder, and a couple only one or the other. Almost all called for vanilla as a flavoring.

One, sent by Donna Clavette in Madawaska, called for brown sugar and since I am fond of brown sugar, I leaned in that direction right way.

The thought of all that fiddling sent me further into Fig Newton territory, because in truth I am awfully lazy. Some of the instructions, Mrs. Witty’s for instance – one from her wonderful “Better Than Store Bought,” sent by Ruth Thurston of Machias, and the other from “Mrs. Witty’s Monster Cookies,” sent along by Donna Gotwals in Stonington – have exceptionally detailed rolling and cutting instructions. Since I know Mrs. Witty painstakingly tests everything in her books, I thought that probably I ought to pay attention to her. Now, however, I wish I had tried Josephine Richards’ suggestion for a fig roll: roll out of the dough, spread with the fig filling, roll up and slice into cookies.

But I was so worried that the filling would ooze out and stick all over the baking sheet that I felt compelled to keep the filling safely surrounded by dough at all times. I need not have worried. The filling did not get all gooey, it behaved very well, not even taking the opportunity to escape out the few breaks I had in the dough.

Now about that filling. One recipe sent by “budg” (part of an e-mail address) seemed about right. But here was a catch – I thought one cup of dried figs chopped with a whole cup of water was going to be too soupy. My dried figs were very moist and soft – I used a nine-ounce package of them, the only ones available this time of year, by the way. (The fellow in the produce section says that figs are a Christmas thing!) So I added the water gradually and stopped when the mixture was spreading consistency. You’ll have to use your judgment on this one – if your figs are drier than mine, you’ll need more water.

Good luck, Betty Martin, hope this works for you.

Fig Bars

Makes about 5 dozen fig bars

Dough:

1 cup butter

1 1/2 cups brown sugar

3 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

4 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

Filling:

1 1/2 cups of dried figs coarsely chopped in a food processor or by hand

peel of one lemon grated

1/2 cup of sugar

2/3 cups of hot water

For the dough: Cream the butter and sugar together. Add the eggs and beat till smooth, Add the vanilla. Sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the butter, sugar, and egg mixture and beat until the dry ingredients are incorporated. Chill the dough.

For the filling: Put some water on to boil. Mix together the figs, peel, and sugar in a saucepan, and as soon as the water is hot, add two-thirds of a cup to the fig mixture and cook it over a medium heat until the mixture is a spreading consistency. Add more hot water very gradually until you get the desired consistency. Remove from the heat and allow to come to room temperature before continuing.

To form the fig bars: Preheat the oven to 350 F. Working with small batches of chilled dough, roll out on a floured board to a rectangle three inches wide and eight inches long. Trim up the ends and edges and put the dough back into the bowl for reuse. Spoon a narrow line of filling on one half of the rectangle, and ease the other half over it, pressing the sides together. Carefully lift the bar to a slightly greased cookie sheet. Repeat, placing the bars about three inches apart on the sheet. When the cookie sheet is full, bake for 15 minutes or until the dough is a light brown. Allow it to cool on the sheet before transferring to a cooling rack. Cut the bars in serving lengths the size you prefer. Keep the dough chilled between batches.

Looking for…

Tina in Holden and a friend of hers are “hoping you’ll ask your readers for help in finding a recipe for make-ahead French toast, at least that is what we are calling it until we learn the actual name.” They are pretty sure they ate it one time at Ellsworth’s former Fork in the Road Restaurant, topped with blueberry sauce (they’d like a recipe for that, too.) They suspect it would be handy for to serve summer guests, and that it is close to Strata. I think it must be a first cousin to bread pudding, but as Tina points out, the bread, egg, and milk ratio and information on whether it spends the night in the fridge or not would be handy to know. Anyone?

Send queries or answers to Sandy Oliver, 1061 Main Road, Islesboro 04848. E-mail: tastebuds@prexar.com. For recipes, tell us where they came from. List ingredients, specify number of servings and do not abbreviate measurements. Include name, address and daytime phone number.