Two years ago: Eggs in Purgatory, Puttanesca-Style, Spring Chicken Salad Toasts, and Caramel Brown Sugar Oranges with Yogurt The resulting cookie has the unique cakiness of the original, as well as the mild sweetness, so mild that they such a hit for afternoon snacks, at playdates, and even for the occasional breakfast cookie.

The cookies have butter and brown sugar for a better-than-original taste, and the instructions are about as simple and straightforward as I’ve seen for a cookie that’s a bit of a structural wonder. Park’s version of fig newtons uses dried figs in a no-cook filling that’s as concentrated and jammy but firm as the originals. Have you seen this book? It’s incredible part American classics (hello: Wonder Bread, Nilla Wafers, and McDonald’s Apple Pie Turnovers), part history book (did you know that the fig newton was patented as a “fruit biscuit” in 1892 and was likely inspired by 19th century fig cakes, spiced and layered with thick jam?) but I bought it for the breathtaking Oreos on the cover alone, how could I not, please don’t tell my existing favorite recipe. I am glad I waited because last fall pastry wizard Stella Park’s BraveTart cookbook came out and if there is anyone that can be trusted to come up with a version as good as the original but with a more appetizing ingredient list, it is her.

In that time, I have bookmarked a dozen versions that claimed to be like the original packaged cookie but all seemed off somehow - too sweet or too wholegrain, too muddled with other flavors, not actually shaped like the original, or just so fussy, if even I couldn’t muster the motivation to make them, it didn’t bode well for talking anyone else into it. I’ve wanted to make a homemade version of fig newtons since I started this site nearly 12 years ago. But I will stan for thick cardigans, tins of Danish butter cookies, Walkers shortbread, and Fig Newtons.

I don’t have a pocketbook full of butterscotch candies or a plastic cover on the sofa or anything, but I’m sitting on it right now and think our elders are probably onto something, especially when you have two kids with an unnatural contempt for napkins.

Ginger brave pillow