- I love figs.

I love how they turn a little bit jammy, but yet, hold their shape.

They can be sweet, they can be a little bit tart.

There's a mystery in every fig.

I'm gonna make a fresh fig crostata.

A crostata is a big open face dessert and it is easier than pie.

[gentle music comes to an end] [upbeat music] Now, I have cut these into quarters, because I want them to hold their shape in this crostata and so, quarters are working really well for these figs.

Now, what I need to do is start adding flavor and my inspiration for the flavor in this crostata is a bourbon cocktail called an old-fashioned.

So, my first drizzle here is some good bourbon.

The next thing I'm gonna add, a few dashes of bitters, but I want to thicken these figs a little bit, so that my filling's not too runny and so, I'm gonna do that with a combination of corn starch and brown sugar.

It's interesting, the brown sugar is gonna make them release some juice, and then that corn starch is gonna make sure that those juices don't run out all over the pan.

Sprinkle them over my figs, and then give this a super big stir.

It's important that each one of these figs is coated in a little bit of all of this good stuff.

So, once these are really nicely coated, you can pull out your pastry and this is just good pie pastry.

Now, the first part of my little filling is cream cheese, just a good room temperature cream cheese and I'm going to work in an egg yolk.

That egg yolk is just gonna give this a little bit of body.

Just stir these together until it's relatively smooth and when this is pretty well combined, we're gonna spread this onto our pie pastry.

Now, when you're making crostata, you're really kind of just working in the middle of things, because we have to remember to leave enough pastry that we can fold it up over the edge.

So, I'm gonna spread this and nobody's gonna see this, so you don't have to be super tidy.

You don't have to be super tidy with the pie crust either, because we're gonna fold it over and everything is seamless in the end, and then I have orange marmalade.

So, I'm gonna add orange to this two different ways and the first thing is the marmalade and now that that's on, we're gonna revisit our figs.

The last thing I'm gonna do is put in a tiny, tiny pinch of salt, because salt makes all that sweet taste even better.

Look what I'm doing.

How easy is this?

Now, when you make a crostata, you gotta keep the fruit high.

It's gotta look like it's gonna be too much, because this is gonna collapse in the oven.

Now, I'm adding some walnuts.

Place them around, so that some of them are going to show when this comes out of the oven and now, we're gonna fold up the edges.

I'm not much for crimping a pie crust, but by golly, I can fold a crostata.

All I'm doing is I'm lifting this up and kind of pinching it together.

Pinch it pretty well, so it will hold together and look how this comes together.

I love this.

It never fails to fascinate me.

We're nearly done.

The last thing I am going to do is I'm gonna take the egg white that was left from the egg yolk I put with the cream cheese.

You're gonna take some of this and you're gonna brush it on the outside of your pastry.

This is helping seal that pastry.

It's also gonna give a pretty little shine, so your baked goods look like they came from a bakery, and then gonna take some coarse sugar and sprinkle that on the edge and when this bakes, this is gonna give you a little crunch, a little shine, just one more thing that makes this seem special and just like that, we've made a crostata.

Just as important as the baking is the refrigeration beforehand.

We want this dough to firm up, so it'll make great sturdy side walls for all that fruit and also, we know that chilled pastry in a hot oven is what makes it flaky.

So, I'm gonna put this in the refrigerator.

[gentle music] So, this is ready to go in the oven.

That pastry is chilled and firm and I'm gonna let it bake for about 45 minutes to an hour, just long enough to turn that crust golden brown, and get those fig juices bubbling.

[upbeat music] This has been out of the oven for just a few minutes and my final touch is this gorgeous, fresh orange zest.

One of the things I love about crostata is I never really know how they're gonna turn out.

I have to taste this.

So, let me cut a little wedge out of here.

You can serve a crostata warm or you can let it cool off to room temperature.

Lift out a beautiful piece.

Oh, look at that.

The fruit is tender.

My pastry is crisp.

[upbeat music continues] The thing about figs, they're like apples.

There's all kinds and they all taste different.

This one is fruity, but not sugary.

There's almost a red wine essence to it.

That little bit of orange comes up, that hint of cream from that cream cheese, all enrobed in this crunchy pastry.

You ought to make a crostata.

They're easy and they're gonna make you happy.

[upbeat music comes to an end]