Although practically every fruit or vegetable may be frozen, certain items are better suited to the freezing process than others. One of these delicacies is figs, an odd but delightful fruit. And if you’re wondering whether you can freeze figs, you’ll be relieved to hear that you can.

How to Freeze Figs

Step One: Wash Your Figs

Before you do anything with your figs, make sure they are nice and clean before putting them away. Even if you opt to peel your foods before storing them, you should still wash them to avoid transferring germs to the inside of the figs when you cut and ready them for storage.

To clean your figs, just rinse them under cold water with clean hands. Wash them with care since figs may be delicate to deal with and some species are easily bruised.

Step Two: Cut Your Figs into Quarters

If you cut your figs into quarters, they will be much simpler to utilize when the time comes. Another advantage of slicing your figs into quarters before freezing them is that they are simpler to use in smoothies, salads, and other recipes since they are pre-cut and ready to be peeled.

If you want to make a jam or a sauce with the frozen figs, you should peel them before freezing them. This will greatly simplify the process of thawing them out. While peeling your hands, make sure they are clean.

Step Three: Lay Your Figs on a Baking Sheet

When you open a bag of frozen figs, the last thing you want is clumped up quarters. To keep your fig quarters from clumping, arrange them on a baking sheet in a single line. You want to leave just enough space between the figs so that they don’t touch.

Put your baking sheet of divided figs in the freezer and let them to thoroughly freeze. After frozen, put the figs to a freezer bag or a sealed storage container for long-term preservation. This additional stage of preparation will protect your figs from clumping together in storage and will make them much simpler to deal with when they thaw.

Bonus Step: Add “Sugar Pack”

Sugar pack is a sugar syrup that you may use to coat your figs before freezing them. As you defrost your frozen figs, put them with a sugar pack to give them a more lively flavor and texture. If you do decide to use this syrup, be sure to thaw your figs first and then drain any residual syrup from them before using them.

Figs are inherently sweet, and any extra glucose additions may dominate the meal in which they are used. You can manufacture your own sugar pack syrup if you can’t find a sugar pack syrup.

Just sprinkle sugar over the fig quarters, coating them well, and then let the sugar to pull moisture from the figs until it becomes a syrup. Let the figs to boil in the sugar syrup for approximately 20 minutes before freezing.

How Freezing Affects Figs

As frozen figs thaw, the cell walls of the fruit break down owing to the formation of ice crystals during the freezing process. This results in figs that are highly mushy and occasionally watery in texture. Recipes that call for lush fresh figs will not work with frozen figs.

Changes in Color

In addition to changing the texture of the figs, freezing them changes the color of the fruit. During the freezing process, everything will naturally darken. If you care about the color of your frozen figs when you utilize them, there is a workaround.

For every cup of fruit, use 2 cups of lemon juice. Stir the two ingredients together until they form a syrupy consistency. Coat your fig quarters in this mixture before freezing them, and you should be able to keep the majority of their natural color upon thawing them. You may cover your fig quarters in an ascorbic acid and lemon juice syrup. To make this, use three teaspoons of ascorbic acid per quart of fruit and one teaspoon of lemon juice.

What to Do with Frozen Figs

• Smoothies
• Jam
• Ice cream made from scratch
• Sauces made from fruits
• Syrups of fruits

If you like figs and have been wondering whether you can freeze figs, we hope this advice has helped you understand how to work with your figs to make them last longer.

Tell us if you’ve ever dealt with frozen figs and what your favorite meals to make with them are. Here’s to joyful freezing of delicious figs!