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The Best of the West is ready to be revealed! Our top 5 recipes, chosen from the huge numbers that you sent in, will be unveiled each day this week! We at BookTrib whittled the entries down to the Top 5 with the help of food critics Amy and Stephanie from the acclaimed CTBites.com, as well as Dina, who is the author of Tasting Notes, Tasting Club, Williams & Sonoma: New Flavors for Salads, as well as the “Taste Test” column for Every Day with Rachael Ray.

Then, with the help again of Amy from CTBites.com and Michele from 17-Time National Pie Champion Michele’s Pies, a taste-test revealed the order of our Top 5 Finalists, which we’re sharing with you all this week!

Today’s 3rd Runner Up is Erin S.’s Fig Pinwheels. Let us know what you think in the comments!

Fig Pinwheels

For the cookie base:
1/4 cup Crisco
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
3/4 cup white sugar
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg
3 tablespoons skim milk
3/4 teaspoon white vinegar
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt

Combine wet ingredients – Crisco, applesauce, sugar, vanilla, egg, milk and vinegar – in a large bowl. Whisk until mixture is smooth. Sift dry ingredients together – flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt – and whisk together. Fold dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, stirring until just combined. Let chill in refrigerator for one hour.

For the filling, my homemade orange fig preserves:
1 1/2 cups water
3/4 cup orange juice, freshly squeezed
3 1/2 cups white sugar
5 pounds fresh figs
1/2 Valencia orange, chopped

Bring water, orange juice and sugar to a boil in a large pot. You want the liquid to become clear before adding the figs. Quarter figs while water/OJ/sugar are coming to a boil. Drop in the figs to the pot and cook until sauce is thick and gooey. (About 30 minutes.) Add orange with peel on and stir in. Spoon into sterilized cans, then place in a water bath for 15 minutes. Pull cans out of water bath, and they are good to go!

THEN TOGETHER:
Once dough has chilled, roll into a 10″ by 20″ rectangle on a floured surface. Slather 1 to 1 1/2 cups of the fig preserves onto the dough and carefully roll up – like you would a cinnamon roll. Slice into 24 separate cookies, place on a greased baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes, or until tops of cookies are puffy and slightly golden. Let cool and then enjoy!

4th Runner Up

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