Since Allergy-Free Desserts came out, the one question that people ask more than any other is “Where’s the chocolate chip cookie recipe?”  I mean, come on, I had to hold something back, right?  Mystery is alluring, so I’ve waited awhile to give this one to you.  I love this recipe because you can eat the dough as you go, and there is no bean flavor there to ruin the experience.  I also love this Chipwich recipe because you really get a two for one– chocolate chip cookies and one of the best frozen treats of all time.  Summer is not summer until someone breaks out the Chipwiches, so I hope that you can kick off your summer right now.  Whip up a batch of these, kick off your shoes, put up your feet on the porch railing or jump into the hammock and enjoy!

1 1/3 cup Chinese rice flour

1/2 cup potato starch

1/4 cup sorghum flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

3/8 teaspoon xanthan gum

2 tablespoons ground flaxseed meal

6 tablespoons water

1 cup organic palm fruit oil shortening

1 cup white sugar

3/4 cup dark brown sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 cups gluten, dairy, soy, nut and egg-free chocolate chips + 1/2 cup for coating the ice cream at the end

2 pints So Delicious Vanilla coconut milk ice cream (or appropriate ice cream of your choice)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.  Set them aside until ready to use.

In a small bowl, combine the flaxseed and the water.  Set it aside until ready to use.

In a large bowl, whisk together the Chinese rice flour, potato starch, sorghum flour, baking soda, baking power, salt and xanthan gum.  Set aside.  In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream the shortening and sugars until they are very light and fluffy.  Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add in the flaxseed mixture ad the vanilla extract.  Beat the batter until it is light and fluffy again and then scrape down the bowl.  Stir in the dry ingredients until they are thoroughly combined.  Fold in the chocolate chips.

Scoop the batter onto the lined sheets with a very small ice cream scoop.  Bake the cookies in the preheated oven for 15 minutes.  Cool on the baking sheets for 15 minutes and then move to cooling racks to cool completely.

The cookies may be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for 3-5 days or frozen in an airtight container for up to three months.

If making the chipwiches, when the cookies are completely cool, pour the remaining mini chips into a shallow bowl.  Taking one cookie at a time, place one small scoop of ice cream on top of a “bottom” cookie and gently press a second cooled cookie on top to form a sandwich.  Roll the Chipwich in the shallow bowl of chocolate chips to coat.  Tightly wrap the Chipwich in Saran Wrap and place it in the freezer to freeze for 30 minutes (of course you can also eat them immediately but they might get a little melty).  Repeat this process until all of the cookies have been turned into sandwiches.

Store leftovers wrapped and frozen in an airtight container for up to three months.

Makes 18 chipwiches

It was one of those days.

I woke up to a beautiful, sunny morning only to realize that it was before 6 and that my youngest had kicked me in the side to waken me.  She insisted on crawling in bed earlier in the night, and sleepy, I was too weak to refuse.  Run behind me, I came home to clean up (both myself and the house) before two couples and their 5 children descended upon us for brunch.  Don’t misunderstand, I was really looking forward to their arrival, but I am a neat-freak, so I had a lot of Windexing to do before they showed up.

I neglected, at such an early hour, to remember that half of the electricity in my kitchen went out yesterday and that I was going to have to make everything, and I do mean EVERYTHING on the grill.  Fortunately, I had baked a coffee cake the day before, so at least I wasn’t going to have to bake on the grill.  Now, I have to admit, that in this case, the cake was full of everything that would make you or I very sick.  However, I was in the clear minority: of the 13 people at the house, I was the only one with food allergies.  I digress.

I fired up the grill an hour before our guests came in order to boil enough water to make coffee for everyone.  We use a Chemex ’round these parts, but even if I had wanted to use a coffee machine, the electrical problems prevented it.  Water simmering, giant, not-oven-proof pot being ruined, I went up to my room to shower before coming back to the grill to make something else that I couldn’t eat, frittata.  Of course, I was distracted from showering for over an hour while I found and Swiffered up stray hairs, cleaned the tiny hand prints from various windows and mirrors and came across laundry that had been left scattered about the house by anonymous family members.  Our friends were to arrive at 10:30, so a 9:45 shower was cutting it close but not unreasonable.

Just after drying my hair, standing buck naked in my bathroom with the door open, I heard our friends’ children burst into the house shouting: “WE’RE HERE!”  Yes, I screamed and panicked as I ran, now wrapped in a towel, to my closet.  Standing atop the Nordic Track that had been stowed there for the brunch, I quickly dressed and went to tend to the now boiling water, acting as though it was no big deal that they may or may not have seen me in the flesh.  The grill is not, after all, induction, so the water was just about boiling by then, and I was just about to die from embarrassment.

I am pleased to report that I scrubbed the char from the outside of the water pot, no one saw me naked,  the grilled frittata was a success and we had a great time.  Right now you are probably thinking: “I don’t care about her entertaining snafus,” but there is an allergy-free idea that came from all of this.  I realized after all of this chaos that there are many ways to achieve the same results.  In this case, it was cooking over an open fire while I waited for the Long Island Power Authority (or maybe it’s National Grid these days) to show up.  However, studying the coffee cake at brunch, I realized that there are different ways to approach my recipes, too.  Take, for example, the Moist Cinnamon Cake in Allergy-Free Desserts.  In the original recipe, I use an 8-inch square pan for baking, but it could have been just as delicious and maybe just a smidgen more festive if I had baked it in a tube pan.  So, test it out for me.  Try baking that one in a tube or a Bundt pan and see if your family feels just a little bit fancier.  Because when life gives you lemons, grill up a Bundt cake.

Now come on, I know that you have been dying for bread since the minute you found out you had food allergies.  Frankly, after I found out, I stopped eating any kind of bread for years, because I was so dissatisfied with everything on the market.  However, those days of eating stacks of lonely turkey with lettuce and tomato are over!  This bread reminds me exactly of the bread that my brother begged my mother to make at least once a week when we were younger.  In fact, she often makes it for us when we come home for the holidays.  Her bread is baked from a sourdough starter, risen and then put inside a ceramic Dutch oven to bake.  This keeps the bread moist while allowing it to turn a beautiful golden brown.  So, I got to thinking that I would give the same practice a try with Allergy-Free Bread, and people, I am here to tell you that the outcome was glorious.  I actually cried when this little Boule came out of the oven.  It is really bread.  It is crusty; it is chewy inside; it is brown on the outside, and it slices perfectly.  The best part?  It tastes just like the sourdough that you remember, but you don’t need to make a starter.  I was so tickled by my efforts that I went so far as to invite a non-allergic friend over for a sandwich, and it passed the test.  She had absolutely no idea.  So, run to the deli and get some sandwich meats.  This takes a couple of days to rise, but it is more than worth the wait.

1 cup millet flour

1 cup Chinese rice flour

2/3 cup potato starch

1/3 cup sorghum flour

2 1/2 teaspoons xanthan gum

1 1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cup warm water (105 degrees)

1 teaspoon sugar

1 package rapid rise yeast, dry yeast

2 teaspoons corn meal for dusting the bottom of the Dutch Oven

In the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with a paddle attachment, slowly stir together the millet flour, Chinese rice flour, potato starch, sorghum flour, xanthan gum and salt.  Set it aside.

In a small bowl or large measuring cup, mix together the warm water, sugar and rapid-rise yeast.  Set the bowl aside to let the yeast proof for 7 minutes.  It should be grayish and very frothy at the end of 7 minutes.  Pour the wet ingredient mixture into the dry ingredients and stir together on low speed until a sticky dough forms and there are no more dry pockets.  Spray your hands with canola oil and gather the dough into a bowl.

Grease the bottom of the bowl and return the dough to it.  Lightly spray or brush the top of the dough with canola and tightly cover the top of the bowl with plastic wrap.  Put the tightly covered bowl in a warm place to rise (I use my clean dishwasher just after the cycle has ended, it is emptied, but still warm) for 18 hours.  After 18 hours, punch down the dough, turn it several times, reform it into a ball, return it to the bowl, cover it tightly and let it rise in a warm place for another six hours.

When the dough is ready, place a Dutch oven or a large, oven-proof, pot with a tightly fitting lid in the oven and preheat the oven to 450 degrees.  Let the pot or Dutch oven heat in the preheating oven for at least 30 minutes but up to 40 minutes.  Remove the Dutch oven from the oven, sprinkle the bottom of the pot with the corn meal to prevent sticking, place the ball of dough on top and lightly spray the dough with more canola oil.  Cover the Dutch oven and bake the bread for 45 minutes.  Remove the lid and if the bread is not yet golden brown, bake it for another 10 minutes, uncovered.

Yields 1 8-inch Boule, 12 slices

Today started out just like any other.

As usual, we woke up, had breakfast and walked the dog to the corner deli for my first cup of super-cheap, very low-brow coffee of the day (I won’t drink it any other way, especially if it’s in a mug and made at home or comes from a place with a green seal, if you know what I mean).  At the check out, I spotted something moving in my younger daughter’s hair, and yes, it was exactly what you think.  ’Tis the season for summer camp and vermin.  I am not ashamed to say that I panicked.  Now, let me tell you that I did not panic for the usual reasons.  I don’t believe that only “dirty” children get lice.  In fact, it’s usually those with the cleanest hair that get it, because the eggs adhere so easily to hair that is free of all traces of grease.  I also don’t feel that bugs on my child’s head are a reflection of my parenting skills.  It happens.

No, it’s a far more sinister reason: I am terrified of getting it myself.

Rushing home, my own scalp itching with phantom lice, I racked my brain for the right solution.  Baby oil– they can’t adhere to that.  Baby oil applied, fine tooth comb run through their hair, husband searching the internet, I pressed the panic button and sent texts to my most lice-educated and most empathetic friends.  Every one of them had a different answer.

“You know, Kim has a friend that was an expert Nitter for the Israeli army, but I just pulled them out of my own daughter’s hair and killed them with my fingers,” one friend told me.  Feeling a little sick to my stomach after that story, I pulled out the school directory looking for “Kim’s” number.  Of course, she’s in Europe for the rest of the summer and therefore unreachable.

“My friend had it so badly, she had to take down even the drapes and fumigate,” another friend told me.  Hurriedly, and even more panicked, I hung up with her while I looked for a paper bag to breathe into.

“We used that salon downtown,” still another friend said. “But you know, $700 later, we walked out with fluffy, gorgeous hair and a scalp-full of lice eggs.  It didn’t work”.  Ok, strike two.

“None of the American products work any more,” another mom told me.  ”Don’t worry, there is a woman who sells the best British brand at a premium.  I’ll get you her number.”  Number in hand, I dialed and waited until a woman with a thick, yet unidentified, accent answered the phone.  I explained the situation: “Who gave you this number?!” she hissed as though I was asking for the formula for a nuclear bomb.  I gave her the code name that I was given.  My friend told me that I was to tell her that another woman gave me the number, so I did.  I explained that I would like to buy two bottles of her wares, but she would not budge.  Two was one too many.  She would give me one, and it would be a lot of money.  Desperate, I agreed.

“I can meet you at 11:30.  Bring your lice comb so I can inspect it,” she barked. “So many of these cheap drugstore brands are insufficient.  I must look at it.”  She hung up then.  I realized that I had never gotten her name and that although she had given me her address so that I could meet her, she seemed reticent to see me.

So, $60 and a cab ride later, I am home with the product, getting ready to apply it to my kids.  I’m still covered in phantom lice of my own (don’t worry, my husband checked me thoroughly before leaving for work), and scratching like a maniac.  As it turns out, on the cab ride home, I spoke with the true lice authority in my life.  Her children had an outbreak this year, and she used all of the above remedies to no avail.  ”At the end of the day, all you need is a fine toothed comb, a bottle of olive oil and a shower cap”.

So, a day that was meant to be devoted to recipe development and writing will, instead, be spent delousing my children, first with the top secret Euro remedy and then with the special olive oil treatment.  Oh the life of a mother……

Sometimes, it is through baking that I learn tremendously, deeply important life lessons.  I often have Eureka moments like our little Strawberry Shortcake is having in the photo above.  This doesn’t mean that I put them into practice, but simply that baking often opens my eyes to things that should be so obvious but that have eluded me for years.

This weekend, my husband and I bravely packed up our children and headed for the Strawberry Festival in a neighboring town.  I say bravely because this excursion meant several scary things: 1) our children would be up well past bedtime 2) I left the kitchen a mess because we were short on time, and being the compulsively neat person that I am, this is very stressful for me 3) the traffic was horrible and 4) we knew that the moment we walked through the entrance gate, our children would bombard us with requests for $25 armbands to ride every right, cotton candy, popcorn, crafts and maybe even an Andersen window from the strangely present Andersen window booth.  Our children are relentless and want absolutely everything that they see at carnivals.

So, armed with this knowledge, J and I took a deep breath, squared ourselves for the ensuing battle and went in.  I have to admit that we actually had a good time.  We rode some rides, we negotiated down to one bag of cotton candy for the entire family to split, and we left to watch the fireworks from the parking lot.  Oh yes, and a swinger couple propositioned us, which was weird and really funny, since that’s so not us. While it was nice to have family time and to see my children so blissfully happy and excited about gunpowder exploding in the sky, I have to admit that I could think of one thing and one thing only: strawberry shortcake.  Naturally, the highlight of a strawberry festival is the shortcake.  There were enormous big-top sized tents devoted to it, transient halls filled with sweaty people stuffing themselves with blobs of dry cakes, sweetened strawberries and piles of light, whipped cream.  I salivated, and as we walked past, I looked wistfully over my shoulder.  Oh to partake!

Instead, we drove home after the fireworks with one child resting her sleeping head on her knee despite her seatbelt and the other screaming at the top of her lungs that it was so unfair that the fireworks display had started 30 minutes late and only lasted for 10.  She seemed to have forgotten that we graciously allowed her to stay up four hours past her bedtime and that we had spent what felt like a month’s salary on junk food and crappy stuffed animal.  For the record, all of those animals have already been cast off and will probably end up at the thrift store next week.

As you can imagine, I gratefully fell into bed that night and dreamt peacefully of the days that I could eat unabashedly.  I awoke determined to make myself some of that shortcake if it killed me.  Now, there is nothing more American than shortcake made from Bisquik, sorry apple pie.  So, I naturally surmised that I  could not possibly make allergy-free shortcake from scratch but that I had to make it from a gluten-free pancake mix.  Silly me, this was a stupid idea, because it was terrible! Actually, that’s not at all true.  I used Arrowhead Mills pancake mix, so the dough actually tasted just like Dunkin Donuts donuts, but the shortcakes were a disaster.  And it was here that the life lesson came in.

I haven’t eaten dough in years.  I’m not a fan of raw bean flours (good for the waistline but not for the taste buds), so I usually don’t taste as I go.  However, this had no bean in it, so I happily licked my fingers after I mixed.  My whole life has been a pursuit of perfection, complete with black and white thinking as stark as that on top of my favorite cookies.  I might have a great hair day, but if I have a pimple, it doesn’t matter, I might as well go back to bed.  Last week, I managed to pay all of the bills, get the kids to school on time and cook dinner, but that day sticks with me, because it was the one day that I didn’t make it to the gym.  Maybe, I thought , just maybe life is like this shortcake that refused to brown or develop a crumb, perhaps this shortcake is a metaphor for my life.  OK, so it wasn’t perfect, and I would never put that recipe in a book, but for what it was, a deliciously spiced dough, it was out of this world, all gooey and cinnamon-y and yummy.  So it’s summer and I have a spare tire this year.  Maybe it’s ok; maybe there is more to me than that roll of fat.  Maybe I serve my purpose in my own and in others’ lives just as this messed up dough was serving on my countertop.  I don’t always hit the ball out of the park, but I’m enough.  This dough was enough; it sated my sweet tooth, and I love dough.  Maybe people can be equally as “enough”, myself included.

So, I had my moment of zen for the weekend.  Don’t be fooled.  I snapped out of this philosophical frame of mind less than thirty seconds later and set to the next task at hand: steak.  After all, I was having company, and dinner had to be perfect.

Today, when this came out of my gluten, dairy, soy, nut and egg-free oven, I nearly wept tears of joy. I love bread, and, unfortunately, I have been bread-free for nearly seven years.  I’m sorry folks, but rice cakes just do NOT stand in as a close second.  On the contrary, they are basically salty, edible styrofoam.  But this, this, was a real, live sourdough Boule that won’t make my skin molt like a snake just before a growth spurt.  It looks like bread, smells like bread, toasts like bread and most importantly, tastes like bread.  I am looking forward to gluten, dairy, soy, nut and egg-free toast in the morning and a sandwich for lunch.  It’s almost too much, I tell you: moist, tender brisket for dinner tonight followed by toast for a late night snack.  I’m on a roll, and I can’t wait to show you more next week.

Yes, that’s my dog, and yes, she thinks that she is human.  Note that she is in the baby crib before baby #1 arrived and that she was willing to try on her headband, too.  Calliope has little interest in being canine and even less interest in eating dog food, which leads me to the topic of this week’s blog post.

Yesterday I got a frantic phone call from a friend.  ”We’ve been in the doggy ER all night and guess what?  Chantee has food allergies!’.  I offered up my condolences, but I wasn’t really so surprised by this news.  After all, our dog, Calliope, has all but stopped eating dog food since our children started solids.  The dog would rather starve than eat her kibble, and on the rare occasion that the kids have left just Calliope and I behind for a weekend, she sits wistfully under the kitchen table hoping that if she stays long enough that crumbs will materialize.  Thus, on the tail end of a holiday weekend, a holiday largely celebrated with grilled hot dogs, hamburgers, potato salad and pie, it did not surprise me that my friend’s dog stumbled upon something that upset her delicate system.  I mean, I found Calliope up to her back paws in a garbage bag, licking a discarded package of smoked salmon yesterday morning;  I suppose that we are very lucky that she did not lapse into a scratching fit herself.   If humans can be allergic to food, if there are substances that set off our immune systems then why couldn’t they upset the canine immune system?  It doesn’t sound like too much of a stretch to me, but it sure sounds like a great project.  Maybe my next book will be dedicated to my first baby and all of her sensitive friends.  After all, I would do it for my human children, why not for my dog?

…. put them on everything!

Lately, life has not only been hectic, but equally social. It’s the season when we start either hosting or attending lots of parties. If we aren’t having a potluck down at the beach on a Saturday evening, then we’re having friends at our house for Sunday brunch or heading out to an end-of-the-school-year celebration. All of these parties require a food contribution, and I often find myself with about five minutes between school pick-up, dinner for the kids prep, bathtime and leaving for the party to prepare something fabulous yet quick.

I have discovered that a wedge of lemon can solve all of these problems in   a jiffy.  Let me list the ways and give you some inspiration to make a fast, deceptively haute dish of delicious for your next party or weeknight dinner. Best part? They are all safe!

1) Toss baby arugula with freshly cracked pepper, a splash of lemon juice and a dash of olive oil. Shaved Parmesan is great with this if you are not dairy allergic.

2) Grill calamari and serve it with a sprinkle of olive oil, lemon juice, a smidgen of minced Italian parsley and salt.

3) Lemonade! Add a splash of blueberry juice to make it the perfect shade of pink.

4) Make ice cream sandwiches with lemon sorbet and your favorite allergy-free cookie.

5) Grill or steam asparagus spears and then dust them with a shaving of lemon zest. Serve this dish either cold or hot.

6) Make rice pasta or quinoa/corn pasta with olive oil, lemon juice, capers and chopped Italian parsley. Serve it hot as an entree or cold as a pasta salad.

7) For dessert, whip up individual lemon poppy seed bundt cakes from my book, Allergy-Free Desserts!

Drain a can of oil-packed tuna and toss it with quartered cherry tomatoes, diced red onion, capers, fresh rosemary, lemon juice and drizzle of olive oil. Serve the salad on toasted slices of your favorite allergy-friendly bread.

Brace yourselves: I actually volunteered for a school committee.  It’s true, this runner/ solitary baker/ loner actually signed up for a group activity and has had a lot of fun doing it.

Several months ago, we, the committee, announced that we were putting together a community cookbook and that we would need 200 recipes to fill it.  For the first month, it seemed that we, the committee members, might have to fill the book with the contents of our own recipe boxes.   Then, all of a sudden, we were (happily) bombarded by 300 recipes, and unfortunately, this was exactly when I had to travel and couldn’t really help very much.  We were thrilled, and frankly, amazed that there were virtually no repeats among the submissions.  Admittedly, I fretted over the possibility of twenty variations on banana bread or 5 recipes for the perfect cheese ball.  As it turns out, there was no need for worry.

The cookbook has arrived and has been selling like gluten-free hot cakes.  Flipping through the finished product, I was both touched by the beautiful, vintage family photographs and amazed by the recipes submitted by our community.  The book is rife with old-world family favorites that span the world from Kansas, to Italy to Thailand.  Kids submitted their own recipes.  The school chef submitted some of his.  My favorite was a recipe that came from a nanny who had raised a boy who grew into one of the fathers at my daughter’s school; that same nanny is raising his children and continues to make all of her Colombian favorites for the second generation.

Leafing through the book, I got to thinking about some of the regional influences that inspire me in both my cooking and baking.  As I mentioned in Allergy-Free Desserts, I grew up mostly in Ohio, but I spent my teen years in the South and some post-grad time in both Germany and France before moving to NYC.  I celebrate all of these experiences in my cooking and eating.  So, as always, all this thinking got me hungry for something comforting, something that really reminds me of home, my parents and my childhood.  Of course, the answer came in the form of a variation on an Ohio classic: Buckeyes.

These Buckeye bars are so easy, so fast and the best part is that they require zero baking.  My kids and husband loved them despite the fact that they are peanut-free, and I think you will too.

Gluten, Dairy, Soy, Nut and Egg-Free Buckeye Bars

2 packages gluten, dairy, soy, nut and egg-free chocolate chip cookies (I used Orgran Itsy Bitsy Bears)

1 cup organic palm oil shortening

1 cup sunflower seed butter

2 1/2 cups confectioner’s sugar

1 10 ounce package gluten, dairy, soy, nut and egg-free chocolate chips

4 tablespoons canola oil

Pour the cookies into the bowl of a food processor and pulse them until they are fine crumbs.  Measure 2 cups of the cookie crumbs and set them aside.

Cream together the shortening and the sunflower seed butter in the bowl of a stand mixer until they are light and fluffy.  Scrape down the sides and then slowly add in the 2 cups of cookie crumbs auntil a dough forms.  Press the dough into a 9×13-inch pan; place the pan in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.  Meanwhile, melt the chocolate and canola oil in the microwave until the chocolate chips are 2/3 of the way melted.  Stir the chocolate until it is completely smooth.  Let the chocolate cool for 5-10 minutes.  When the chocolate is somewhat cool, remove the crust from the refrigerator and pour the melted chocolate mixture over the top, spreading it out until it completely covers the top of the crust.  Return the Buckeye Bars to the refrigerator and let chill until the chocolate is set and completely cool, about an hour.

Cut into squares and serve.  Store leftovers in an airtight container for up to a week.

Makes 35 bars

Well, it took a plane, a train and an automobile to get me back from Ohio, but back I am, and here is the recipe as promised.  A warning: this is the first test of the recipe.  Please be my testers.  Try them out; let me know what you think; let me know how to improve them.  I hope you enjoy them as much as my kids have….

Gluten, Dairy, Soy, Nut and Egg-Free (Legume-Free, too) Fig Newtons

2 cups Chinese Rice Flour

2/3 cup sorghum flour

1/3 cup potato starch

1 1/4 teaspoon xanthan gum

1/2 cup sugar

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

3/8 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup organic palm fruit oil shortening, room temperature but not softened

3/4 cup unsweetened applesauce

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3/4 cup fig preserves

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.  Set the sheet aside until it is ready to use.

In a large mixing bowl or in the bowl of a food processor, whisk together the flours, the sugar, the leavening and the salt.  Cut in the shortening with a pastry blender, two knives, or pulse the ingredients in the food processor until the dough looks like sand.  Mix in the applesauce and the vanilla extract until the dough comes together in a ball.  I like to use my hands to do so.

Dump the dough out onto a piece of parchment paper and cover with another sheet.  Roll out the dough between the two sheets into a 17″x 13 1/2″ rectangle.  Square off the edges.  Move the dough to the refrigerator to chill for an hour.  When the dough is chilled, cut the dough into 4 strips.  Brush two of the strips with the fig preserves and then top with one of the remaining two strips of dough.  Seal the edges (I just folded them over and pressed them so that the fig would not ooze out).

Move the filled rolls to the prepared pans and bake for about 10-12  minutes or until golden.  Remove from the oven and cool completely on the baking sheets.  Cut into smaller rectangles and serve.

Store remaining bars in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.

Makes about 4 dozen bars