A ripe fig, split. A square of dark chocolate next to it.
That is chocolate and figs when you mean it.
The checkout version is candy. Sweet on sweet. The fig disappears inside a coating that does not taste like much. For a long time that is what people picture when they say chocolate figs: a convenience-store idea of a pairing.
A ripe fig tastes like jam and seeds. Dark chocolate, made as a bar, snaps and carries a roast that has nothing to do with sweet. Those two sit against each other. Contrast, not match.
Hill Country Chocolate makes bean-to-bar dark chocolate in Fredericksburg, Texas. We do not sell chocolate covered figs, chocolate dipped figs, or fig sorbet. We sell the bar. The fig is yours.
Why chocolate and figs work
Does chocolate go well with figs? Yes, if the fig is ripe and the chocolate is dark.
Split a ripe fig and look at it. The flesh is jam. The seeds are a fine grit. The skin has a dry edge.
Dark chocolate at 60 to 70 percent is roasted cocoa. Bitterness and snap. It is not trying to be dessert on its own.
Put them together and the fig's sugar pulls fruit out of the chocolate. The roast makes the fig taste like fig, not syrup. Seed crunch next to a hard square. You go back for another piece.
People already do a version of this. Chocolate covered figs and chocolate dipped figs show up at home around the holidays, on a board, at the end of dinner. The instinct is right. The execution is usually a sweet coating and a dry fig. Use a better bar. Use a riper fig. The equation changes.
Fig chocolate does not need a gimmick name. The contrast does the work.
How to eat figs with chocolate
Start fresh. Ripe figs. Split them. Plate. Break a square of dark chocolate, 60 to 70 percent, and eat them side by side.
That is the whole move.
Dried figs can be dipped. A dried fig is sweeter and chewier than a fresh one. Melt a real dark bar over a double boiler. Dip them halfway. Set them on parchment paper. Chocolate dipped figs taste like something when the chocolate you started with tasted like something.
Figs with chocolate on a board works the same way. Fresh figs, a broken bar, a soft cheese if you have one. A quarter of fig and a square. No recipe.
Chocolate fig bars are a different thing. Baked. Fig paste in shortbread or between oat layers. Fine on their own. Not this pairing. This is fruit and square. No oven.
If you are in Fredericksburg when figs are in, buy a bar here and find ripe figs the same day. Eat them outside. That is figs with chocolate without turning it into a product.
A chocolate fig on a plate does not need a wrapper.
Fig sorbet with dark chocolate shavings
About 20 minutes of work and an afternoon in the freezer. No ice cream maker.
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 pounds ripe fresh figs, stems off
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup water
- 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 1 ounce dark chocolate, 60 to 70 percent. The 290 Bar (56% Colombia) shaves well. So does any real dark chocolate in that range.
Method
- Warm the sugar and water over medium heat until the sugar dissolves. Take it off. Let the syrup cool.
- Quarter the figs. Blend until smooth. Strain for a cleaner spoon, or leave the seeds. Both work. The seeds give figs sorbet more bite.
- Stir the cooled syrup and lemon into the puree. Taste it. It should be brighter than feels right. Freezing mutes sweetness.
- Pour into a shallow pan. Freeze 45 minutes. Scrape from the edges in with a fork. Freeze again. Repeat every 30 to 45 minutes, three or four passes, until the fig sorbet is a loose frozen mass.
- For a smoother bowl, blend after the last scrape and freeze one more hour.
Serve in a cold bowl. Shave the dark chocolate over the top with a vegetable peeler. The shavings go brittle on the cold. Each spoon is tart fig against the snap of the bar. Same contrast as the plate. Colder.
This is not a Hill Country Chocolate pint. We do not sell fig sorbet. It is a way to use ripe figs and a bar you would eat.
Notes
Use a bar you would eat. Shaved chocolate does not hide a waxy one.
Skip 85 percent unless you like a bitter shave. Cold mutes sweetness. A 70 percent bar already reads darker on ice.
Best in the first few days. The surface ices if you leave it uncovered.
Fig season here does not last. Brown Turkey figs come in waves in late summer and then they are gone. Mission figs work if that is what you have. Make the sorbet once. Eat a square with it. Chocolate and figs is a real pairing, not a grocery-aisle accident.
When you want the chocolate half, the 290 Bar is the one to shave over that bowl.