These easy Homemade Fig Newtons have a jammy fig center enveloped by a slightly sweet, soft cookie. Every bite takes us right back to our childhood! Yep, these are pretty much perfect cookies.
Homemade Fig Newton Cookies
There are certain cookies that instantly take me back to my childhood—Dunkaroos, Famous Amos, animal crackers. Lunches where you’d eagerly open up your brown paper bag to see what Mom packed for dessert. Afternoons coming home from school when you’d reach into the snack drawer for a treat.
Though I’d like to believe all cookies were created equal, there was one that always stood out for me. A cookie that I couldn’t get enough of. Fig Newtons.
What are Fig Newtons?
If you haven’t had a Fig Newton yet, I want to start off by expressing my deepest condolences. Fig Newtons are an iconic packaged cookie with a jammy fig center enveloped by a slightly sweet, soft cookie. The crunch of the fig seeds as you bite in. The slight citrus tang you get in each and every mouthful. Yep, they’re pretty much perfect.
So in making my own homemade Fig Newtons, I channeled my inner child and tasted every step of the way, and wound up with a pretty damn good recipe. The cookies have the same shape and texture as the real thing, and the fig tastes spot on thanks to some fresh orange zest and a hint of cinnamon.
Plus, nearly everyone that sees them will be instantly transported to their childhood, making the sharing of these cookies extra special!
Also, dipping these in milk is not optional 😉
Fig Newton Ingredients
If you’re ready to get to fig newton making then you’re going to need to stock up on the following ingredients:
Butter: any unsalted butter will do, just make sure to fully soften your butter to room temperature
Brown Sugar: Brown sugar will help to deepen the flavor of these
Eggs: Use large eggs at room temperature! This will ensure that the eggs incorporate seamlessly into the room temperature butter.
Vanilla: High quality vanilla is seriously a game changer. It will really elevate your baked goods to the next level and give these fig newtons the perfect flavor profile.
Flour: We used a mixture of all purpose and whole wheat pastry flour to give these homemade fig newtons a hearty chew.
Cinnamon: Cinnamon gives these fig newtons a warm, cozy spice. Don’t leave it out!
Baking Soda: Baking soda gives just the amount of rise for these soft and tender cookies.
Figs: Uh duh! Black mission figs will form the chewy, figgy center of these homemade cookies.
Oranges: You’ll use both orange zest and orange juice in this recipe for a zesty, juice punch to round out the flavor profile.
Honey: Nothing wrong with a little honey 🙂 The honey will sweeten and bind the fig layer together for a sweet, chewy finish.
Tips for Making Homemade Fig Newtons
The individual parts of this homemade Fig Newton recipe are fairly straightforward. Make a batch of cookie dough and refrigerate it for at least an hour. Make the fig filling and blend it up a food processor until it’s the right consistency. Easy, right? Right!
But once you’ve prepped the cookie dough and the spiced fig filling, you have to assemble the cookies. This is the part that requires a little extra brain power. To make these cookies, you’ll first need to roll out the cookie dough into a large rectangle. Then, cut the rectangle into three large strips.
Once you’ve cut the cookie dough, fill a plastic bag with the fig filling. Snip off one edge of the bag and pipe a thick line of filling into the center of each cookie dough strip. Then you simply have to fold the dough over the filling (be careful!) and seal the edges as best you can.
The filled cookie dough logs get baked as is, and then you need to cut the logs into Fig Newton-sized cookies once they come out of the oven. The whole process goes by surprisingly quickly and is really easy! As long as your cookie dough logs are sealed properly you should have no problems making these homemade Fig Newtons.
How to Store Fig Newtons
These cookies keep well in a sealed container on your countertop for up to a week. You can also store them in a freezer bag for up to 3 months!
In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in the egg, vanilla extract, and orange zest.
In a separate bowl, combine the flour, whole wheat pastry flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt. Sift the dry ingredients over the wet, then mix until just combined.
Scoop the dough into a ball and cover with plastic wrap. Chill for at least 1 hour, or up to 1 day.
To make the fig filling, place all ingredients except for the honey into a small saucepan and cook over low heat for 10 minutes, until the liquids have evaporated and the figs begin to plump up. Remove from heat and allow to cool for a few minutes. Then, place all ingredients in a food processor, drizzle in honey, and pulse until a thick paste is formed. Remove paste from food processor, then place in a large ziplock bag.
Preheat oven to 325°F. Line a large baking tray with a silicon mat or parchment paper. Set aside.
On a floured surface, roll the chilled dough into a 10″ x14″ rectangle, using a knife or pizza cutter to cut even edges. Cut the dough lengthwise into three 3.5″x14″ strips.
Cut a 3/4 inch tip into the corner of your ziplock bag and squeeze the paste down the middle of each strip of dough. Then carefully fold each edge of dough on top of the fig paste, making a log, sealing the edges as best you can. Roll each log slightly to bond the dough together, then place seam side down onto your baking tray.
Bake for 20 minutes at 325°F, then turn on the broiler for 1 minute to slightly brown the tops of the cookies. Remove from oven and cut each log into 2″ cookies. Devour!
Keywords: how to make fig newtons, easy cookie recipe, jam cookies
These turn out almost identical to the store bought ones, but are way better! I’ve made them for Christmas and birthday gifts and everyone loves them! They are also fun to make and the kitchen smells so good! Thanks for the great recipe!
I added some cardamom and used lemon zest because I didn’t have any oranges (but my meyer lemons are a little closer to oranges than eureka lemons are) the dough is quite sticky so I found it easier to divide the dough into three parts and roll each one out to about 3.5 x 14 inches rather than rolling it all out at once and cutting it into three strips. (i did that first and the pieces stuck) also, for my oven, cooking for 18 minutes was better so they still were chewy rather than crunchy. they taste really good though – thank you for the recipe – i especially liked the bit of whole wheat flour in there.
I have been wanting to make fig newtons because I have a Turkey Black Fig tree that is quite prolific season after season. I end up freezing a lot of them because I just can’t use them up quick enough (not to mention giving them away). The picture on your website looks just like the ones you buy in the store so I thought I’d give it a try. One reviewer asked if she can use fresh figs. I certainly did because I was neither going to buy dried figs just for this recipe nor spend time drying the fresh frozen ones I had. So, despite the recipe calling for dried figs, I gave my fresh (thawed) figs a try. I tripled the recipe because I had soooo many figs. I had a lot of ice water from my defrosted fresh figs so I used that as my water. Followed the recipe as same thereafter and allowed my figs to cook down and to a nice thick consistency.
The hardest part for me was to flip the dough across the filling to seal the edges. The bottom of the dough stuck to the cutting board and it started to become quite a mess. It took a lot of “surgical” effort to make the logs seem somewhat presentable. I probably didn’t put enough flour on the cutting board. I baked them and also followed the broiler time. That was too much for my oven because they were overcooked and was crunchy and too brown on top.
On my next batch (after the fiasco of dough sticking onto the cutting board), I decided to (follow another reviewer) and cut the doughs into thirds and make separate logs instead of one big dough and cutting them into thirds. It was so much easier to handle the smaller (one-third) doughs rather than rolling the dough out into one big 10×14” rectangle.
I also placed the same parchment paper on my working surface to make the logs so that I could simply transfer the parchment paper onto my cookie sheet to bake, saving me one step of transferring the flimsy, finished dough onto the cookie sheet where they could potentially break during transport..
I was much more generous with flouring my parchment paper when I was making my three logs so I could easily flip the log to seal. I ended up with too much filling and they became quite plump and hard to seal. I wasn’t sure just how much filling to put inside each log so that was a trial and error for me. Some parts oozed out and once again the “surgeon” had to operate on the leaky logs…
No broiler time during the second and third batch and they came out so much better.
In case anyone is interested in the filling using fresh figs, I think the filling wasn’t as sweet as store bought but that is quite ok with me since I tend to reduce the sugar content in a lot of my baking anyway. Have to cut some calories somewhere, right? 😉
All in all, I assumed any fig newton recipe was going to be a LOT of work for me so I tripled the recipe to make and freeze some to have later and later and later and later…
One last thing, I knew I had to use my current batch of fresh frozen figs because I will begin to harvest my new figs in several weeks. The tree is full of unripened figs right now! Anyone who lives near me can help themselves.
Great recipe. I made these when I decided to make fig jam. Actually very easy to make. I live outside the US where it’s pretty hard to find fig newtons, but anyways, homemade is always better 🙂
Leave a comment and rate this recipe!
These turn out almost identical to the store bought ones, but are way better! I’ve made them for Christmas and birthday gifts and everyone loves them! They are also fun to make and the kitchen smells so good! Thanks for the great recipe!
★★★★★
I added some cardamom and used lemon zest because I didn’t have any oranges (but my meyer lemons are a little closer to oranges than eureka lemons are) the dough is quite sticky so I found it easier to divide the dough into three parts and roll each one out to about 3.5 x 14 inches rather than rolling it all out at once and cutting it into three strips. (i did that first and the pieces stuck) also, for my oven, cooking for 18 minutes was better so they still were chewy rather than crunchy. they taste really good though – thank you for the recipe – i especially liked the bit of whole wheat flour in there.
★★★★
Hello Sarah I just made your figirlfriend newtons and they are yummmm. Thanks for the lovely recipe it was so easy to follow stay blessed always 🙂
These look amazing! Can I use fresh figs?
★★★★★
I have been wanting to make fig newtons because I have a Turkey Black Fig tree that is quite prolific season after season. I end up freezing a lot of them because I just can’t use them up quick enough (not to mention giving them away). The picture on your website looks just like the ones you buy in the store so I thought I’d give it a try. One reviewer asked if she can use fresh figs. I certainly did because I was neither going to buy dried figs just for this recipe nor spend time drying the fresh frozen ones I had. So, despite the recipe calling for dried figs, I gave my fresh (thawed) figs a try. I tripled the recipe because I had soooo many figs. I had a lot of ice water from my defrosted fresh figs so I used that as my water. Followed the recipe as same thereafter and allowed my figs to cook down and to a nice thick consistency.
The hardest part for me was to flip the dough across the filling to seal the edges. The bottom of the dough stuck to the cutting board and it started to become quite a mess. It took a lot of “surgical” effort to make the logs seem somewhat presentable. I probably didn’t put enough flour on the cutting board. I baked them and also followed the broiler time. That was too much for my oven because they were overcooked and was crunchy and too brown on top.
On my next batch (after the fiasco of dough sticking onto the cutting board), I decided to (follow another reviewer) and cut the doughs into thirds and make separate logs instead of one big dough and cutting them into thirds. It was so much easier to handle the smaller (one-third) doughs rather than rolling the dough out into one big 10×14” rectangle.
I also placed the same parchment paper on my working surface to make the logs so that I could simply transfer the parchment paper onto my cookie sheet to bake, saving me one step of transferring the flimsy, finished dough onto the cookie sheet where they could potentially break during transport..
I was much more generous with flouring my parchment paper when I was making my three logs so I could easily flip the log to seal. I ended up with too much filling and they became quite plump and hard to seal. I wasn’t sure just how much filling to put inside each log so that was a trial and error for me. Some parts oozed out and once again the “surgeon” had to operate on the leaky logs…
No broiler time during the second and third batch and they came out so much better.
In case anyone is interested in the filling using fresh figs, I think the filling wasn’t as sweet as store bought but that is quite ok with me since I tend to reduce the sugar content in a lot of my baking anyway. Have to cut some calories somewhere, right? 😉
All in all, I assumed any fig newton recipe was going to be a LOT of work for me so I tripled the recipe to make and freeze some to have later and later and later and later…
One last thing, I knew I had to use my current batch of fresh frozen figs because I will begin to harvest my new figs in several weeks. The tree is full of unripened figs right now! Anyone who lives near me can help themselves.
Hi Carol! No, only dried, as you need the sticky sugar from the dried out figs for the right consistency.
Hey Sarah!
Great recipe. I made these when I decided to make fig jam. Actually very easy to make. I live outside the US where it’s pretty hard to find fig newtons, but anyways, homemade is always better 🙂
★★★★★