Dried figs with a twist—you love a fig snack right out of the bag, but maybe also looking for an easy way to dress them up without taking the focus off the fruit. Enter spiced figs. We show you how to make them and then provide ideas for how to use them.

Start Here

Decide between which two types of Sun-Maid and Orchard Choice Dried Figs to use. Mission Figs offer more of a familiar fruit flavor, reminiscent of your favorite childhood cookie. Golden Figs are delicately sweet, tangy and slightly nutty. Both work beautifully in the recipe below.

The technique used for the Spiced Figs is a hot infusion. Typically this involves liquid and spices, herbs, or aromatics. The high temperature helps soften the dried exterior of the fruit so the seasoning can better penetrate the fruit. Hot infusions also help rehydrate the fruit.

Citrus Two Ways + Spice

Figs and citrus are natural flavor partners. For the spiced figs, orange juice is the steeping liquid and a freshly shaved citrus peel amps up the flavor. As the orange juice cooks down, the sweetness intensifies and the figs soak up all of the citrus.

We include whole spices—cloves, cinnamon stick, cardamom seeds, and allspice. Since they’re seasoning the steeping liquid, whole spices can also be easily fished out after the steeping is done.

Ideas

Eat the fig snack hot or cold. We like to chop them up and add them to a yogurt granola parfait. You can slice and serve them with pork or chicken as a savory application. They would also pair beautifully with cheese—either on a cheese board or sliced and griddled into a grilled cheese or quesadilla.

Spiced Figs

Spiced Figs are so versatile. Eat them as a fig snack, serve them with pork, or top vanilla ice cream with them.

Nutrition

Servings servings

Ingredients

1 orange peel strip
2 cups orange juice
1/2 cup sugar
2 cinnamon sticks
2 whole allspice
2 cardamon seeds broken
4 whole cloves
1 cup Orchard Choice or Sun-Maid California Figs

Instructions

In saucepan, combine orange peel, orange juice, sugar, cinnamon sticks, allspice, cardamom seeds and cloves. Bring to a boil; simmer 5 minutes. Add figs; simmer, covered, 20 minutes. Serve warm or chilled. Store in refrigerator.