Maple Bacon Wrapped Figs
Sweet figs stuffed with blue cheese, wrapped in bacon, and glazed with maple — three foods with ancient, independent histories from the Middle East, European caves, and the northeastern forests of North America, brought together at the modern party table.
- 16fresh figs(Black Mission or Brown Turkey)
- 4 ozblue cheese(Gorgonzola dolce works well)
- 8 slicesbacon(thin-cut, halved crosswise)
- 3 tbsppure maple syrup
- 1 tbspbalsamic vinegar
- 0.25 tspblack pepper(freshly cracked)
- 1 tbspfresh thyme leaves(for garnish)
Figs can be stuffed up to 4 hours ahead; wrap in bacon just before baking for crispiest results. Glaze can be made 1 week ahead.
- 1Preheat oven to 400°F and line baking sheet with parchment paper
- 2Cut a small X in the top of each fig, about halfway down
- 3Gently squeeze fig to open slightly and stuff with 1 teaspoon blue cheese
- 4Wrap each stuffed fig with half slice of bacon, securing with toothpick
- 5Arrange on prepared baking sheet
- 6Whisk together maple syrup and balsamic vinegar
- 7Brush wrapped figs lightly with maple mixture
- 8Bake 15-18 minutes until bacon is crispy, brushing with more glaze halfway through
- 9Drizzle with remaining glaze, sprinkle with pepper and thyme
- 10Serve warm - warn guests about toothpicks
Choose figs that are ripe but still firm - too soft and they'll fall apart. Gorgonzola dolce is creamier and milder than aged Gorgonzola. Goat cheese or mascarpone are excellent substitutes for blue cheese. Dried figs can work in a pinch - soak in warm water for 30 minutes first.
Each of the three main flavours in this appetiser has a history that runs back thousands of years on a different continent. The fig is arguably the oldest deliberately cultivated food plant on earth: a 2006 study published in the journal Science identified nine parthenocarpic (seedless, cultivated) fig trees at the Gilgal I archaeological site in the Jordan Valley, dated to approximately 11,400 years ago — predating the intentional cultivation of wheat and barley by at least a thousand years. Figs were sacred to the ancient Romans, who associated them with Romulus and Remus; they were offered to athletes at the ancient Olympics; and the Hebrew Bible mentions them among the "seven species" of the Promised Land. Blue cheese belongs to a completely separate tradition rooted in the caves and cool cellars of western Europe. Mould-ripened cheeses appear to have been discovered accidentally when fresh cheese was left in cave conditions long enough for wild Penicillium moulds to colonise the paste; Gorgonzola's first documented mention dates to 879 AD in Lombardy, Italy, while records of Roquefort's production in the Combalou caves of southern France trace to the 11th century. Maple syrup has the most specific geographic origin of the three: the sugar maple (Acer saccharum) and black maple are native only to the forests of northeastern North America, and Wikipedia confirms that Indigenous peoples of the region were producing maple syrup and maple sugar prior to European contact. The first European written account of maple syrup production appears in the early 17th century, when French explorer Marc Lescarbot documented the technique of collecting and boiling maple sap that he observed among Indigenous peoples. The modern party convention of wrapping figs in bacon — adding the salt, fat, and smoke of cured pork to the sweetness of the fruit — emerged from the American gastropub movement of the early 2000s; the maple glaze is the New World contribution that ties this very old combination of flavours together.