“I only had one grandparent growing up, but my nan made up for that. She was a pivotal person in my life, and wherever we moved she would move too, so we were always extremely close.
Grandma loved to bake. When we were in Bristol with my dad and my uncles and aunt, she would cook the Sunday roast and then do the washing up with a cigarette in her mouth, have a nap, read the papers then spend the rest of the afternoon baking and making tea for an army. She was always baking, I just remember this list of cakes she always had to make, friends of friends that would ask for wedding, anniversary, birthday and Christmas cakes, it was a never-ending job for her. She always put so much love and energy into them, just for the reaction it would get from the person she was giving it to.
When she died, I was given two things; a bear that I had made for her that was in a chef costume, and a copy of Gary Rhodes’s ‘Sweet Dreams’. At the point of receiving the book I was very new into my cheffing career, but this book opened my eyes to an incredible array of perfectly executed desserts. Lots of pages were stuck together and there were scribbles of notes (working from grams into ounces). Now, all these years later, when we started Whole Beast, one of our first dinners had fig rolls on the menu, as so many future dinners will.”
Chef Sam Bryant
Makes 12
Ingredients
For the biscuit dough
175g plain flour
Pinch fine sea salt
¼ tsp baking powder
50g beef fat
40g caster sugar
1 egg, beaten
For the filling
200g dried figs, stalk removed and roughly chopped
30g molasses
Method
To make the biscuit dough, sift the flour, salt and baking powder together into a bowl. Beat the beef fat and sugar together in a stand mixer until pale and creamy.
Add the egg and beat until combined. With the mixer on a low speed, add the flour mixture in two batches until incorporated. Wrap the dough in cling film and chill for 30 minutes, until firm.
Make the fig filling, tip the figs into a small pan so they cover the base. Add the molases and enough water to just cover the fruit. Place over a medium heat and bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer, stirring with a wooden spoon, for 5–8 minutes, until the figs are soft and the mixture is thick.
Transfer the mixture to a food processor and blitz to a paste. Allow the mixture to cool.
Heat the oven to 190°C/170°C fan/Gas 5.
Roll out the chilled biscuit dough on the flour-dusted work surface to a 25 x 20cm rectangle. Trim the edges and cut the rectangle in half to give two strips, each measuring 25 x 10cm.
Halve the fig filling and, with floured hands, roll each half into a sausage measuring 25cm long. Lie each sausage down the middle of one a strip of biscuit dough. Brush the long edge of one strip of dough lightly with water and roll the dough over the filling as you would a sausage roll. It should overlap and seal in the filling. Repeat with the other roll.
Gently transfer the rolls onto a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper and cut each roll into six equal pieces. Run a fork along the tops of the rolls to slightly flatten and to create decorative lines. Bake for 12–15 minutes, until lightly browned, then remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack before serving.