Butterscotch Figgy Bites

Some of my favorite recipes have been developed on the fly.  Combine a little of this with a little of that and often the result is something quite delicious.  That's what happened when I made these Butterscotch Figgy Bites.  I usually don't keep desserts in the house unless we're having company, but Jon was in the mood for something sweet.  So I stared at the pantry shelves for a minute until some promising ingredients revealed themselves to me: figs, butterscotch chips, and bran cereal flakes.  I never combined figs with butterscotch before but somehow I thought their flavors would be wonderful match.  And they really are.

Into the food processor went about 1 1/2 cups of figs (just cut off the hard tips).  The first time I made these I used kalmyra, this time I used mission.  The figs should be dried (as opposed to fresh) but moist, not all dried out. To the figs I added about 1/2 to 3/4 cup vegan butterscotch chips (the Food Lion store brand is vegan, although there may be other vegan brands available).  To hold it all together I added about 3/4 to 1 cup of ready-to-eat bran cereal flakes.  I processed the ingredients until everything was well chopped and would hold together when pressed.

When I made these the first time, I pressed the mixture into an 8-inch baking pan sprayed with nonstick cooking spray.  For this batch, I pressed them into a mini muffin tin (also sprayed with cooking spray).  They could actually be eaten as is but I think the flavor is better if you bake them for about 20 minutes at 350 degrees.  The baking lets the butterscotch chips melt a bit and allows the flavors to combine.

For only containing three ingredients, these little bites are extremely rich-tasting with a great depth of flavor. If you can't find butterscotch chips, they might be good made with chocolate chips, but I haven't tested out that theory yet.  If you try them (with either butterscotch or chocolate chips), let me know what you think. 

 P.S. Yes, that's a glimpse of this year's lilacs in the photo.  They bloomed a full month earlier than usual and are now almost gone, when normally they'd just be starting to bloom!