Throwback Thursday: Get figgy with traditional Tipsy Tart

There’s not much that’s more representative of South African food than preserved green figs. They represent the fruit industry, the old ways, a large section of our public landscape, and even a passing glance at a jar of them on a shelf at a farm stall has many of us sighing and wanting to open it and get stuck in.

I’ve written about this classic pudding, which is also known as Tipsy Tart, before. Previously, I added citrus to give it some zing. This time around, I swapped some of the dates in the mixture for tiny bits of green fig preserve. It didn’t change the flavour profile massively, but it did give it a pleasantly and recognisably figgy layer of taste.

I served it with my green fig preserve ice cream, which is so moreish that I can’t believe it took me so long to come up with this new ice cream flavour. In fact, it’s more than merely a flavour — green fig is built into this ice cream’s DNA. 

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Tipsy Tart is unavoidably alcoholic, so this is not a poudding to make for a teetotal palate. Obviously. And to select it as a pudding for your dinner party and then decide to leave the brandy out, well, that would be just silly. It’s called Tipsy Tart. If your guests are teetotal, rather choose another pudding altogether, and there are plenty of them that don’t feature alcohol.

The core of Cape brandy tart, apart from it being a pudding that celebrates South Africa’s homegrown brandy products and dried fruit, is the combination of dates and pecans, or walnuts. This particular one is made with walnuts, but pecans can be happily substituted.

So, yes, if you’re not a fan of preserved green figs in the old South African country way, this one’s not for you. But there are a lot of us who adore them — more for us then.

This recipe makes two tarts.

Tony’s green fig preserve tipsy tart

(Each tart serves 8-10)

Ingredients

Butter for greasing the pie dishes

200g dates, stoned, chopped

1 heaped tsp bicarbonate of soda

1 cup (100g) walnuts or pecans, chopped

100g green figs, drained, chopped finely

250ml boiling water (or enough to cover the chopped dates in a bowl)

125g butter at room temperature

125g (½ cup) caster sugar

125g (½ cup) golden brown sugar

2 eggs at room temperature, beaten

2 cups (500g) cake flour, sifted

½ tsp salt

1 tsp ground cinnamon

¼ tsp ground nutmeg

¼ tsp ground cloves

Syrup:

300ml brown sugar

1 Tbsp butter

70ml green fig syrup

120ml water

5ml (1 tsp) vanilla essence 

pinch of salt

125ml (½ cup) brandy

Method

Preheat the oven to 180°C.

Have two buttered 22cm diameter pie dishes or a large oven dish at hand.

Chop the dates and nuts, separately. How finely you chop them is up to you — I prefer them fine, which makes for a more compact end result. 

Boil a kettle. Place two-thirds of the dates in a bowl, sprinkle the bicarbonate of soda over the top and pour boiling water, just to cover (about 200-250ml). Stir and leave to cool.

In a bowl, cream the butter and sugar (caster and brown) and beat in the eggs.

Sift the flour, stir in the salt and the spices, and fold into the creamed butter mixture.

Stir in the chopped nuts, the chopped figs, and the remaining chopped dates, then fold in the wet date mixture. Fold until well blended.

Spoon the batter into the two greased pie dishes.

Bake for 30 to 40 minutes. When done, place the tarts on racks and allow to cool to room temperature. Once cooled, use a bamboo skewer to prick many holes in them.

For the syrup, boil the sugar, butter, water and green fig syrup together for 5 minutes.

Remove from the heat and add the essence, salt and brandy. Stir.

Pour the hot syrup over the tarts, or pour it over individual portions when serving.

Serve hot or cold hot with green fig preserve ice cream. DM

Tony Jackman is twice winner of the Galliova Food Writer of the year award, in 2021 and 2023.

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This dish is photographed on plates by Mervyn Gers Ceramics.