Gluten free fig bars

My oldest son loves fig bars.  He would eat them a couple times a day- well more often if I would let him!  He was quite distraught when I told him we had to get rid of all the food that hurt his belly and his skin, and that he couldn't have his fig bars anymore.  We are on an allergen free diet, that makes finding snacks the boys like and will eat quite challenging.  So I searched for a fig bar recipe!  I of course lost the site I found the recipe on, so thank goodness I wrote the recipe down.  I altered the recipe to correspond to our current allergen free situation.  While they are not quite the same as the ones he loved, they taste really good and are a great snack.  I also found that these are a great simple snack for my 7 month old to practice with finger food and chewing.  It crumbles enough when given in small pieces so I don't have to worry about him choking, but allows him to practice chewing- which he loves to do! Hope you enjoy them as much as we do!

Ingredients

Fig filling
9 calimyrna figs
16 mission figs
1/2 c. Pomegranate juice
1/4 c.  Cranberry juice
1/4 c. Lemon juice

Soak figs in juices overnight.  After soaking, place in food processor and blend into a thick paste.

Dough ingredients
Wet
1/2 c. dairy free butter
1/2 c. brown sugar
1/2 c. organic cane sugar
1 Tbs Chia in 3 Tbs warm water
2 tsp vanilla
1 Tbs molasses
up to 1/4 c. water

Dry
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 c. white rice flour
1/2 c. tapioca starch
1/4 c. teff flour
1/4 c. millet flour
1/2 tsp xantham gum
1 tsp nutmeg

1. Mix all dry ingredients together. 
2. Melt butter.  Add sugars, and mix.  Add chia mixture, vanilla, and molasses and mix.
3. Add dry ingredients to wet and mix until blended.  Add up to 1/4 c. water.  Add small amounts of water at a time until you are able to squeeze the dough into balls.
4. Chill dough for 1 hour.
5. After chilled, preheat oven to 350 degrees.
6. Divide dough into thirds.  Roll 1 section to 1/2" thickness on parchment paper on 1 end of the parchment paper.
7. Spoon fig paste onto half of the rolled out dough.  Fold the other half over top of the fig using the parchment paper to help fold it over and avoid breaking. 
8. Repeat steps 6 and 7 placing the next section of dough in the middle of the parchment paper and the third section on the other end.
9. Pull parchment paper onto a baking sheet and bake approximately 20 minutes until firm and lightly browned.
10. Allow to cool slightly, then cut into sections.  A pizza cutter works well for this!
11. ENJOY while they are warm or store in an airtight container.  I've noticed they will get a little hard after the initial cooling.  Keep in the airtight container overnight and they will have softened nicely!