Fig roll facts for kids
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Homemade fig rolls
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| Type | Pastry |
|---|---|
| Place of origin | Blackpool |
| Main ingredients | Fig paste |
A fig roll or fig bar is a yummy cookie or biscuit. It has a soft, rolled cake or pastry on the outside, filled with a sweet fig paste on the inside.
Contents
The Story of Fig Rolls
Figs have been a popular snack for a very long time in many parts of the world. They first came from northern Asia Minor, which is a region in Asia. Sailors and explorers helped spread figs around, and they became very popular in the warmer areas around the Mediterranean Sea.
How Baking Helped Figs Spread
As people learned more about baking, they found ways to store foods for longer trips. This was important because it meant food could travel further without spoiling. Figs were a valuable food that could be stored well.
Figs in History and Trade
Figs were very important for trade between the 15th and 17th centuries. People even fought over them! Famous explorers like Christopher Columbus loved figs. He wrote about how much he looked forward to eating lots of figs when he reached new lands. Marco Polo also wrote about how beautiful women were, comparing them to figs. Figs arrived in America around 1520 when the Spanish explorers reached the island of Hispaniola.
Making Fig Rolls for Everyone
The Invention of the Fig Roll Machine
In 1892, an engineer and inventor named James Henry Mitchell from Florida created something amazing. He got a patent for a machine that could make a hollow tube of cookie dough. At the same time, it could fill that tube with jam or fruit paste. This was a big step for making cookies in large amounts!
The Fig Newton is Born
Around the same time, a baker from Philadelphia named Charles Roser loved figs. He was working on a recipe for a pastry similar to the homemade fig rolls that immigrants from Britain brought to the US. Roser took his idea to the Kennedy Biscuit Company in Cambridgeport, Massachusetts. They agreed to make and sell his fig pastries.
The Kennedy Biscuit Company later joined with the New York Biscuit Company. Together, they formed a big company called Nabisco. Nabisco then gave the fig pastry a special name: the Fig Newton. This name became a trademark, which means only Nabisco could use it for their product.
Fig Rolls Today
The unique shape of Fig Newtons is now famous. Many other companies make similar fig bars, like the ones you might see in supermarkets. Even companies like Newman's Own make their own organic version called Fig Newmans. In India, the company Britannia Industries also makes Fig Rolls.
See also
In Spanish: Fig roll para niños
