Caramelised Figs With Hazelnuts

I bought a bag of what I think will be the last figs of season and have been indulging in a few too many Caramelised Figs.  Such a simple little recipe that gives halved figs a thin, crisp caramel shell which cracks like a Creme Brulee – a little fig brulee.

Sevtap Yüce’s book ‘Turkish Flavours’ has a recipe for Caramelised Figs topped with roasted, chopped hazelnuts and a a scoop of hazelnut ice cream.  It looked so gorgeous and I have considered making hazelnut ice cream just to replicate the recipe but I may have to wait until fig season next year.

But Caramelised Figs served with a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream with a drizzle of Frangelico is pretty hard to beat.  I also found a scoop of Maggie Beer’s Burnt Fig, Honeycomb and Caramel ice cream worked beautifully too.

An incredibly simple dessert.  A little spoon of sugar in a hot pan for each fig half then pop the figs in and watch them bubble and caramelise for a minute or two, then serve with ice cream and sprinkle with the hazelnuts.  Beautiful.

caramelised figs with hazelnuts

(based on a recipe from Sevtap Yüce’s book ‘Turkish Flavours’)

150g hazelnuts
1/2 cup caster sugar
4 figs, halved lengthwise
ice cream

Preheat oven to 160 degrees C.  Spread the hazelnuts over a baking tray and bake for 10 minutes.  Tip the hazelnuts into a tea towel and rub to remove the skins.  Discard the skins and chop the hazelnuts roughly.

Heat a frypan over a medium to high heat.  Spoon the sugar over the base of the pan and place the figs, cut side down, on the sugar.  Cook for a minute or two then flip over for a few seconds then remove from the heat.

Serve the figs with a scoop of ice cream and top with some chopped hazelnuts.  A little drizzle of Frangelico is optional!