Saturday, January 12, 2013

Fig Leathers (aka dried figs!)

In his heart a man plans his course,
but the Lord determines his steps.
Proverbs 16:9
 
I know that most people only think of Bible verses when big things happen, but I often think of them for the little things. Here's an example:
 
Last Sunday was the last day of our Christmas break. A teacher has tons of things to do in the 11th hour before school starts back up and I am no exception. As I was getting food out of the freezer to prepare for dinner, I noticed a lot of  UNFROZEN liquid in the bottom!! That is not a good thing to find in a freezer! I thankfully noticed that this was a new development since most of the food was still frozen solid. The liquid was from a couple of my bags of summer figs. I panicked, thinking of all the work and figs that might have been wasted and quickly got a big bowl to move the dripping figs. As it turned out, there was still frost on most of them and they smelled the same as when I had put them in, so no spoiled figs!
 
I had planned to make fruit leathers out of part of the figs, but not the last evening of Christmas break! I poured all of the gooey contents into a large pot and put it on the stove to simmer. After 10 minutes of simmering, I processed the figs in my Vita Mix then and poured them into a big bowl. I stirred in the liquid and spooned them out onto the drying trays of my dehydrator.
 
The next day after work they were ready! I peeled each layer off the tray, laid the layer on wax paper, rolled the wax paper and cut the leathers with kitchen shears. The fig leathers were wonderful!! I didn't add any extra sugar or preservative; they were just figs! I've shared many of them around and everyone tells me they are really good!

So even though I had many plans for the last day of my break and none of those plans included making fruit leathers, I think God helped me notice the figs before they spoiled and allowed me to make a yummy snack to share with my family and friends!! God's plans are always better than mine! (Mark vacuumed out from under the freezer and it seems to be working just fine!)
Simmering the figs 
Blending the simmered figs

 







 
Fig leathers after a night in the dehydrator
 


Roll the fig leathers on wax paper

Cut the fig leathers with kitchen shears