Ingredients

• Dough:
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 cup cold butter, cut into small pieces
• 1/4 cup cold vegetable shortening, in small
• lumps
• 1 egg
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 to 5 tablespoons cold cream or half-and-half
• Filling:
• 6 ounces dried figs, stemmed and coarsely
• chopped
• 1/4 cup seedless raisins
• 2 teaspoons grated orange zest
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup hot water
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon hazelnut or walnut liqueur, or rum
• 1/2 cup toasted, skinned hazelnuts (or walnuts),
• coarsely chopped
• Glaze:

• 1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
• 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed orange juice
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions

1. To make the dough: In a large bowl, whisk
2. together flour, sugar, and baking powder. Cut in butter or shortening to make
3. an evenly crumbly dough. In another bowl
4. or measuring cup, whisk together egg, vanilla and 3 tablespoons cream. Stir
5. into dough until incorporated. Dough should be soft and slightly sticky; if
6. necessary, add 1 to 2 additional tablespoons cream.
7. Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes to an hour;
8. dough should firm up slightly and lose some of stickiness, but still be soft.
9. While dough is chilling, make the filling: Place
10. all ingredients except liqueur and nuts in a small, heavy-bottomed
11. saucepan. Cook over medium heat,
12. stirring occasionally, just until fruits are warmed through and sugar
13. dissolves.
14. Remove from heat and stir in liqueur and nuts.
15. Place mixture in a food processor (or food grinder) and grind on high speed to
16. make a thick paste. If mixture is too thick to puree, add a little water, a
17. tablespoon at a time.
18. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
19. On a floured board or pastry cloth, roll out dough
20. very thinly, about 1/16 inch thick. Cut
21. into rounds with a 2 1/4- to 2 1/2-inch biscuit or cookie cutter. Reroll scraps
22. once.
23. Arrange half the rounds on ungreased cookie
24. sheets, leaving 1 1/2 inches between cookies. Place about 1 tablespoon filling
25. on top of each round; you want a fairly generous amount of filling in
26. proportion to cookie size. Top with remaining dough rounds. Press each cookie
27. gently with the palm of your hand, then
28. press edges with the tines of a fork to seal (if fork sticks to dough,
29. flour the fork).
30. Bake in the center of the oven for about 10 to
31. 11 minutes, or until cookies are golden. Remove immediately to wire racks.
32. While cookies bake, make the glaze: Whisk
33. together sugar, orange juice, and vanilla until smooth. Mixture should be
34. runny. Spoon over warm cookies.