This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe from Dorie’s Cookies is an interesting combination of flavours – port wine and figs with toasted walnuts in a flaky buttery chocolate cookies.
Dorie tells us that Portofignos were created by Maureen Dudgeon for the Fonseca Bin 27 Cookie Rumble Contest where the idea was to create cookies using the Bin 27 Ruby Port. Maureen’s recipe, according to Dorie:
is deeply, darkly and definitely chocolate and it’s something else too — port and figs. Before adding them to the dough, Maureen simmers snipped figs (I think Black Mission are the best here) in port; I cook them until the fruit has absorbed all of it. The boozy figs flavor the dough the instant they’re mixed in, but they do most of their work while the dough is chilling and setting.
To be honest, I cheated a little with this recipe (we also used Marsala, see Neil’s comment below for an explanation) – it’s a roll, chill, slice and bake cookie but I never manage to make these properly – the roll of dough is always too thin or my cookies crack when I cut them.
So instead of rolling this into a log, once I’d mixed up the dough, I weighed it, divided it by 12 (I made 1/4 of the recipe) and figured it worked out to about 1 1/2 tablespoons of dough per cookie. I popped them in lightly greased muffin tins and pressed them down with the base of a small glass (covered in plastic wrap) and froze them for a couple of hours then baked (I baked 1 minute longer than the 14 minutes suggested, just because they were frozen.
As soon as the cookies came out of the oven, I loosened the edges with a small blunt knife and then let them sit in the muffin tins for about 5 minutes then I put a tray on top of the muffin tin and flipped the cookies out. They were PERFECT!
These were a little softer than the World Peace Cookies, of which these are reminiscent but I loved the texture.
Adding port, figs and toasted walnuts to a chocolate cookie changes much about it, including the way you’ll want to eat it, which is slowly, in small bites. And, yes, with a glass of port.
We didn’t have these with port but they were perfect for a not-too-sweet dessert treat!
Get the recipe for Dorie Greenspan’s Portofignos on p 215 of Dorie’s Cookies!
Want more cookie recipes? Buy Dorie’s Cookies on Amazon (this link should bring you to the Amazon store geographically closest to you) or for free worldwide shipping, buy from The Book Depository. Then join us over on Tuesdays with Dorie and bake your way through the book!
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Disclosure: I was provided with a copy of “Dorie’s Cookies” for review purposes. I was not asked to write about the book, nor am I being compensated for doing so. All opinions 100% my own.
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Well, we *might* have to call these Marsalafignos, too. As I had a recently -opened bottle or Marsala, thought this would be a suitable substitute – save opening a whole new bottle of Port! (Not that that wouldn’t be appreciated…) 😉
The Marsala is more akin to a Tawny Port than the Ruby asked for – so a little more leaning to dried fruits. But still worked well, and these were just fab as a nice (and not-to-sweet) dessert snack.
loved these cookies, and yours look great! this tin method has become my preferred way to do slice-and-bake cookies as well, since the slicing process usually makes me feel sad and dumb. somehow I managed clean slices on this one, and I still don’t know how that happened! 🙂
Your cookies look wonderful, I especially love the photo with the insides exposed, that looks wonderful. I learn so much by reading your posts…how you do things to fit your style, the substitutions you use, and the methods you employ. The advantages of baking in a group…one gains so much insight and knowledge from the other bakers…thank you so much for sharing all that each week.
Funny how we are all different. I actually think the sliced cookies are easier. I also only bake a dozen at a time so they are fresh. Glad that your wine substitution worked well too.
I have used Steph’s muffin tin hack on other cookies, but these actually sliced very easily…and stayed nice and whole haha! Good to know the wine substitution worked well.