Baked Figs Appetizer with Goat Cheese

Name: Baked Figs Appetizer with Goat Cheese
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 12 min
Total time: 17 min
Yield: 8
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 8 fresh figs; 3 oz (85g) soft goat cheese; 1 teaspoon olive oil; 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar; 1 teaspoon honey; 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Jump to Recipe·Print Recipe

Baked stuffed figs with goat cheese. An easy yet elegant appetizer recipe with simple ingredients. They are naturally sweetened and gluten-free. A perfect combination of sweet, tangy and savory flavors. And there are loads of add-ins you can try to customize it to your liking!

Woman hands holding a plate with baked stuffed figs.

If you like baked fruit desserts like this one, you have to go look at our simple roasted figs and baked pears too! They are equally easy and tasty.

Figs are our all time favorite fruit. Their jammy center is just irresistible! Although they make amazing snacks on their own, we do love creating fresh fig recipes too. And these goat cheese packed figs are always a hit during fall.

Jump to:

Easy Fig Appetizers
About The Ingredients
Alternative Add-Ins
How To Prepare Figs
How To Make Easy Fig Appetizers
Variations
Serving Suggestions
FAQs
More Fig Recipes
📖 Recipe
💬 Comments

Easy Fig Appetizers

This is a "fancy" appetizer that is really easy to make. Ready in 15 minutes. It isn't very labor-intensive, but the flavors used help give that impression.

You only need a few ingredients to make them. While there are many variations and add-ins, you technically only need 5 ingredients to make these bites.

They make great finger foods that are easy to serve too.

About The Ingredients

Today's figs with goat cheese appetizers are incredibly simple but packed with sweet, savory and tangy flavors just like our fig salad recipe.

Fresh figs, goat cheese, honey, balsamic vinegar, oil and black pepper on a light background.

Figs: Always use fresh figs. Green figs are perfectly fine too if that's all you can find. Make sure that the figs are firm but tender. They shouldn't be too ripe and soft.
Goat Cheese: Today, we are using soft goat cheese. If you need a substitute, mascarpone, creme fraiche, and ricotta will be your best options. If you are looking for an equally sharp or pungent flavor, try aged cheddar or blue cheeses like gorgonzola.
Balsamic Vinegar: It adds a delicious tanginess to the figs. You can substitute it with sherry or red wine vinegar.
Honey: A drizzle of honey adds a nice sweetness to these baked figs. The best alternative that will pair well with these fig appetizers is maple syrup.
A little freshly ground black pepper (and maybe salt) could enrich the taste even more.

Alternative Add-Ins

Because these baked figs with tangy goat cheese are pretty simple, there are loads of room for add-ins. Just make sure that the ingredients and flavors you add pair well with the figs, goat cheese, and balsamic.

Nuts: You can sprinkle some chopped walnuts. Pecan nuts and almonds are great alternatives as well.
Herbs: If you want to incorporate some savory herbs, rosemary, sage, and thyme will be your best option.
Meat: And, for meatier bites, you can wrap the figs in bacon or prosciutto.

How To Prepare Figs

Before we look at how to make this fig and goat cheese appetizer, let's look at how to prepare figs. It’s very easy!

To start, rinse the figs under cool running water. Then, pat them dry with a damp piece of paper towel.

Figs are cut and prepared for stuffing with cheese.

Trim off the stems of the figs. Cut a cross on top of each fig, slicing from the top to bottom. But don’t slice through the entire fig. Leave the two halves connected at the bottom of the fig.

Once you have finished cutting all of the figs, place them inside your baking pan.

How To Make Easy Fig Appetizers

Once your figs are prepared, you can start assembling and baking your figs with goat cheese and balsamic. This recipe is incredibly easy, surprisingly filling, and loaded with delicious, savory, and sweet flavors.

Prepare your tools and ingredients. Preheat your oven to 350ºF (160ºC). Then, prepare the figs according to the instructions above. You can also measure the rest of your ingredients and set them aside.

Woman hands holding a baking pan with fresh figs stuffed with cheese.

Stuff the figs. Add about one teaspoon of soft goat cheese to each fig. You can either slice the goat cheese and put a slice in the figs or mash it with a fork and then put a teaspoon of it in the figs. Don't let it peek out the sides too much, or it will leak out. Repeat this step until all of the figs have been filled.
Season the stuffed figs. Brush each of the figs with some olive oil. Drizzle them with balsamic vinegar and honey.
Roast: Place the figs on the center rack in the preheated oven. Then, bake them for 12 minutes or until the goat's cheese becomes slightly browned.
Serve. Once you bake them, they can be served warm or at room temperature. Don't forget to drizzle more honey over the figs before you serve them.

Baked figs stuffed with goat cheese in a white baking pan.

Variations

There are quite a few variations for this goat cheese and baked fresh figs recipe.

No-Bake Variation

The process of making these figs are the same. The only step you can leave out is brushing the stuffed figs with olive oil.

Once you fill them with goat cheese, you can drizzle over the balsamic vinegar and honey. If you want to, you can drizzle over some olive oil. But, it’s optional. We’d also recommend adding some crunch to the appetizers. Pecan nuts are a wonderful addition!

Wrapped Appetizers

Then, you can also turn them into wrapped fig and goat cheese appetizers. To do this, you can use either bacon or prosciutto. If you use bacon, you have to bake the figs. But, if you use prosciutto, you can make them baked or unbaked.

Simply wrap the stuffed figs in the streaky meat. If you are making baked options, brush them with oil and drizzle them with vinegar and honey.

If you make an unbaked version with the prosciutto, simply drizzle over the honey and balsamic vinegar.

Woman hands holding a plate of baked figs with cheese, fresh figs and honey on the side.

Serving Suggestions

The food and wine pairings for most fig and cheese recipes are the same. These figs will pair best with a Port or red wine. Generally speaking, any red wine will do. But if you are looking for a very specific option, go for Pinot Noir, Cabernet, Zinfandel, or Pinot Gris.

These wines have the best chance of making an exceptional pairing. But remember, every Cabernet differs, even between vintages.

FAQs

What cheeses go with fresh figs?

Mild and sharp cheese works best with fresh figs. These include options like Gorgonzola, aged Cheddar, Gouda, Edam, Swiss cheese, and Monterey Jack). If you use dried or preserved figs, your cheese pairings will differ.

Do you eat the skin on figs?

The skin on fresh figs is edible. However, some people don't like the skin of fruit and vegetables. So, it is perfectly fine to eat around it. Just remember to properly remove the inedible stem of the fig.

What flavors compliment figs?

Fresh figs have loads of delicious flavor pairings. Some of the best fruit options are oranges, raspberries, and pears. They also work well with walnuts, hazelnuts, almonds, and pistachios.
And make great flavor matches with honey, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, maple syrup, and candied ginger.

More Fig Recipes

As always: If you make this recipe, let us know what you think by rating it and leaving a comment below. And post a pic on Instagram too—tag @give_recipe so we can see!

Sign up for the FREE GiveRecipe Newsletter to get the new recipes into your inbox! And stay in touch with us on Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube and Instagram for all the latest updates.

📖 Recipe