Cookbook Review: ‘Roast Figs’ reboot

Quick look: Celebrate the end of autumn and whole of winter with the latest edition of this popular collection of cold-weather recipes, first published in 2009 and updated in September.

What’s inside: Warming comfort foods fill the pages of this gorgeous volume, sprinkled with passages and quotes from writers and poets.

Recipes are divided into a dozen whimsical-sounding chapters with titles like “Apples in the Attic,” “Winter on Your Tongue,” “Of Wood and Smoke” and, of course, “Sugar Snow.”

The poetic title for both the chapter and the book refers to a passage in “Little House in the Big Woods” by Laura Ingalls Wilder, who describes the kind of snow that indicates when maple trees are ready for tapping and the romantic, if old-fashioned, treat of boiled maple syrup poured onto clean snow.

As a schoolgirl growing up in Northern Ireland, Diana Henry – now one of Britain’s best known food writers – was enamored with the Ingalls story and “magical” idea of snow-made maple toffee. As an adult traveling through Vermont, she was delighted to find community sugar-on-snow celebrations still exist. Her “Sugar Snow” chapter is dedicated to sweet and savory recipes featuring maple syrup.

Chapters focus on kinds of foods rather than meal types. “Ripe and Ready” celebrates cheese. “Gathering In” glorifies nuts. Winter squash is the star of “Earthly Pleasures.” Henry’s musings and memoirs at the beginning of each section offer beautiful odes to each seasonal ingredient.

Dishes come from throughout the Northern Hemisphere. There are Russian Cheese Pancakes with Plum Compote, Swedish Halibut with Wild Mushrooms and Horseradish, Danish Pork Roast with Pickled Prunes and Sweet Cucumber, Georgian Lamb with Damsons and Walnuts, and Normandy-style Onion and Cider Soup with Melting Camembert.

Photographs of water droplets on windowpanes, dangling icicles, and farm and forest snowscapes sit alongside chocolate cakes and stews and set the scene for the kind of food that warms your belly as well as your soul.

What’s not: While beautifully photographed, not all of the mouthwatering recipes include images.

Normandy-style Onion and Cider Soup with Melting Camembert

From “Roast Figs Sugar Snow” by Diana Henry

This simple yet flavorful soup was easy to make and the variety of textures – melting Camembert, toasted baguette and rich, buttery broth – were pleasing to the palate.

I left out the sugar – it was optional – and the caramelized onions didn’t quite darken to the shade in the photo in the book. Just the same, the soup featured a deep oniony flavor.

I like fresh herbs, so I used double the amount of thyme, tossing in the stems with their tiny leaves, not bothering to remove them like the instructions asked. The leaves unbound themselves from their stems in the simmering soup, and the stems were easily removed with a slotted spoon just before serving. I also sprinkled additional fresh thyme leaves on the baguette rounds before toasting them as well as used more for garnish.

I wasn’t sure my soup bowls would stand up to the heat of the oven. So instead of broiling the baguette slices in the soup in bowls like the instructions suggested, I broiled them separately on a baking sheet with melted butter, sprinkling on extra fresh thyme leaves and Camembert, and it turned out lovely.

Next time, I might also add some freshly cracked pepper to the rounds and soup.

1/2 cup butter, plus 1 tablespoon, melted

3 pounds onions, very finely sliced

1 tablespoon sugar (optional)

1 cup apple cider

2 pints chicken stock

Leaves from 3 springs fresh thyme

8 slices of bread from baguette, toasted

1 round Camembert

Melt 1/2 cup butter in a heavy saucepan and add the onions. Saute them gently, moving them around in the butter, until they start to soften. Add a splash of water, cover with a lid, and sweat the onions until they are very soft and starting to caramelize. This can take up to 50 minutes. You will need to add a splash of water every so often and turn the onions over in the buttery juices.

Take the lid off and turn up the heat to medium so that the juices can evaporate and the onions can caramelize. I often end up adding the sugar after awhile if it is not caramelizing well, but sometimes, if the onions have a lot of their own sugar, you don’t need to.

When the onions are dark, add the cider, stock and thyme and bring to a boil. Simmer for 10 minutes.

Ladle the soup into 8 heavy bowls that won’t crack in high heat. Put a slice or two of toast on each bowl of soup. Cut the Camembert into slices and lay them on top. Brush with 1 tablespoon melted butter and heat under the broiler until golden and bubbling. Serve immediately.

Yield: 8