Frozen Fruits And Berries: Method Of Freezing And Preparation
No matter how much we want it, summer is coming to an end. You don't want to say goodbye to juicy berries and fruits at all. And you don't have to! We will tell you how to properly freeze fruits and berries and enjoy the taste for a long time. All you need is a convenient container or freezer bags and a freezer.
Regardless of whether you freeze berries or fruit, the principle is the same. Just follow a few simple steps.
How to prepare fruits and berries for freezing
Some fruits and berries must be cleaned and cut before freezing:
- Apples and pears must be peeled, cut into four parts and cored. Then sprinkle with lemon juice or apple cider vinegar so that they do not turn brown during the freezing process.
- It is better to cut apricots into two or four parts, and remove the stone.
- Blackberries, blueberries and raspberries can be frozen whole.
- Cherries will also be easier to use if you remove the stone before freezing.
- Melon can be cut into small cubes or pieces.
- Peaches, plums and nectarines must be peeled, cut and pitted.
- Before freezing strawberries, it is necessary to remove the green sepals and cut them in half.
A simple method of freezing berries and fruits
- Make sure that all the berries and fruits you have selected for freezing are ripe and undamaged.
- Rinse the berries and fruits with cool water and wipe them thoroughly with a paper or clean kitchen towel.
- Place berries or cut fruit in a single layer on a baking sheet. Choose a sheet that will fit in your freezer.
- Place the tray in the freezer. Berries and fruits should become firm, usually it takes a couple of hours, but you can leave them in the freezer overnight.
- Transfer berries and fruit to Zip-Lock bags for storage, expelling as much air as possible from the bag before sealing.
- Store frozen berries and fruits in the freezer until ready to use. They can be stored frozen for up to 6 months (or a year if you have a self-contained freezer).
How to use frozen berries and fruits
In addition to the fact that berries and fruits are very easy to freeze, they are also quite versatile in cooking.
First, frozen berries and fruits are perfect for making cocktails and smoothies. Their texture will make the drink thicker. You don't have to add ice, banana or yogurt. To achieve a smooth, thick consistency, add berries at the very end of cooking.
Berry smoothie recipe
Ingredients
- About 3/4 cup orange juice
- 1 cup frozen berries (strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, etc.)
Preparation
- Place all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth.
- If you are using fresh berries instead of frozen, add a couple of ice cubes to achieve a thick smoothie consistency.
- Pour the smoothie into a tall glass and serve immediately.
- You can add a few spoons of yogurt. Low-fat or fat-free yogurt will also work, but whole milk yogurt will give the cocktail the necessary creamy texture better than others.
Variations
- Milk smoothie. If you want your smoothie to be creamier than fruity, use soy, almond, rice, or cow's milk instead of orange juice.
- Vegetarian smoothie. Use a whole, peeled banana instead of yogurt to add thickness. Other tropical fruits, such as mango or papaya, can also be suitable for this purpose. In addition, papaya will make the cocktail more frothy when whipped in a blender.
- Mint smoothie. Add a few fresh mint leaves to a berry smoothie to give it freshness.
- Protein smoothie. Add a tablespoon or two of almond butter for a lovely nutty flavor and extra protein.
- Green smoothie. If you want to add greens to your diet, you need a handful of spinach. This amount of spinach will not affect the taste, but will add a dark color to the smoothie and make it more useful.
Secondly, frozen berries and fruits are very often used in baking. Surprisingly, the frozen version is more suitable for baking than fresh. There is a simple explanation for this: freezing dries berries and fruits, depriving them of excess moisture, which can spoil the structure of the dough, making it runny.
Peach shortcrust pastry recipe
Ingredients
- Two sheets of puff pastry
- 9-10 frozen peaches
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 3 Art. l. corn starch
- 1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp. kitchen salt
- 1/8 tsp. chopped nutmeg
- 1 Art. l. lemon juice
- 1 Art. l. oil
- Milk for moistening the dough
Preparation
- Preheat oven to 400°F.
- In a large bowl, mix the thawed sliced peaches with the sugar, cornstarch, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, and lemon juice. Mix well, cover with cling film and set aside.
- Place a sheet of puff pastry in a baking dish.
- Top with the peach mixture and a little oil.
- Brush the edges of the dough with milk to then join with the top layer of dough.
- Cover all this with the top layer of dough and seal the edges. Pierce the cake with a fork in several places.
- Brush the cake with milk and sprinkle with sugar.
- Transfer the cake to the oven and bake for about 50 minutes. You can cover the edges with foil if they start to darken. The pie will be ready when the crust turns golden brown and the peach juice begins to bubble.
- Cakes must be cooled before use.
You can make jam or jelly from frozen berries and fruits. Freeze ripe, fresh berries and put them aside until you have time to make jam, as not many people want to do this in the summer heat.
Finally, from frozen peaches, apricots, nectarines, cherries, mangoes, strawberries and blueberries, you can make long-term fruit puree.
Sauce
Ingredients for 1.5 cups of ready puree
- 500 grams of frozen fruit or berries (must be thawed before cooking)
- 2 tablespoons of granulated sugar
- 2 tablespoons of freshly squeezed lemon juice
Preparation
- In a food processor or blender, combine fruit, sugar and lemon juice. Blend for about 30 seconds until smooth.
- Strain the puree over a bowl through a sieve. Use a rubber spatula to mix and push the puree through a sieve. There should be no lumps in the puree.
- Taste and add more sugar if necessary.
- Ready puree can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 3 days or 2 months in the freezer.
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Freeing The Freezer For A New Harvest: Dishes From Frozen Berries
Strawberries are blooming with might and main, berries have started on the bushes of currants and gooseberries, a new harvest is coming soon! We will collect, eat and cook in reserve. True, many still have last year's containers filled with frozen berries in the freezer. You don't have to throw anything away! We share recipes for baking, compote and jam from frozen berries. For those who like to tinker in the kitchen, we offer yeast buns and cheesecake. And for those who are looking for simple and quick-to-cook dishes, we advise you to cook compote, smoothies, muffins and jams.
Cheesecake without baking
From cookies, butter, cream cheese and frozen berries, you can make an incredibly beautiful and very tasty cheesecake. We will not bake it, but send it to the refrigerator for 4 hours to freeze. Instead of the raspberries and strawberries stated in the recipe, you can use any other frozen berries.
Cheesecake Ingredients:
shortbread cookies - 250 g; butter at room temperature - 100 g; frozen strawberries, thawed - 200 g; frozen raspberries, thawed - 200 g; cream cheese (such as Philadelphia, mascarpone or almette) - 500 g; sugar - 200 g; fat cream - 300 g; fresh or frozen berries for garnish
Crush the cookies in a blender, add softened butter and beat again until smooth. Then put in a resealable form with sides (20 cm in diameter), covered with cling film, press well to the bottom and level with a glass. Send to the refrigerator until solidified.
Put the berries in a saucepan and put on a slow fire. Cook, stirring, for 3 minutes, mash the berries with a spoon. Then rub through a sieve. Cool down.
Beat cream cheese with sugar with a mixer, add cream and beat again. You can also add whipped cream to dense peaks, but then just gently mix the mass with a spatula. Add berry puree to the creamy mass, mix and spread over the biscuit base. Place in refrigerator for 4-6 hours until set.
If you want the cheesecake layers to be different in color and taste, then divide the creamy-protein mass into two equal parts and add raspberry puree to one and strawberry puree to the other. By the way, strawberries and blueberries look spectacular. Accordingly, you will have to lay out the layers in turn. First - a mixture of cream cheese with raspberries: spread over the base and put in the refrigerator for 2 hours. Then add the mixture with strawberries and now send it to the refrigerator for 4 hours.
Decorate the cheesecake with berries before serving. Enjoy!
Open pie with frozen berries
Use your favorite dough or dough according to our recipe to make the base for the pie. The dough, by the way, can be bought ready-made. The berries are lightly boiled with sugar and starch. Frozen berries can be taken different, handful. And you can use just one kind, 4 good handfuls.
Pie base ingredients:
flour - 2.5 cups; salt - a pinch; cold butter - 230 g; cold water - 6-8 tbsp. spoons.
Filling Ingredients:
sugar - 1 glass; starch - 1/4 cup; salt - a pinch; water - 1/3 cup; frozen blueberries - 1 cup; frozen raspberries - 1 cup; frozen strawberries - 1 glass; frozen blackberries - 1 cup; lemon juice - 1 tbsp. the spoon; butter - 30 g.
Preparing the dough for the base of the pie. In a large bowl, mix flour and salt, add grated butter on a coarse grater. Enter cold water, pushing the dough with a fork to set it. Divide the dough into two parts, one is slightly larger than the second. Form thick pancakes. Wrap both parts in cling film and refrigerate for an hour.
For the filling, in a medium saucepan, combine the sugar, cornstarch, and water; add the blueberries. Bring to a boil and cook, stirring, for two minutes. Remove from heat, add other berries and lemon juice to the mixture, stir.
Roll out a large piece of dough into a pancake, about half a centimeter thick. Put in a parchment-lined form, with a diameter of 22-24 cm, forming the sides. Pour the filling and stick in pieces of butter. Roll the smaller piece of dough into a pancake and cut into strips one and a half centimeters thick. Lay a lattice of strips on top of the filling, attach the edges to the sides.
Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. Place the pie in the oven for 10 minutes. Then reduce the temperature to 180 degrees and bake for 45-50 minutes. The dough should be golden brown and the berry filling should be bubbling. Cool down and serve!
Smoothie with frozen berries
To prepare a refreshing and healthy smoothie, you will need 250 ml of milk - regular or almond, 200 g of frozen berries and one ripe banana. Whisk all the ingredients until smooth and drink! If you like, garnish the smoothie in a glass with a couple of berries and a mint leaf.
Muffins with berries
Dark chocolate and raspberries are a great combination! Chop a chocolate bar, take a handful or two of frozen berries out of the freezer, add to any muffin dough and - into the oven! We offer to prepare the dough according to the recipe we have tested (link below). Do not defrost the berries, just add to the dough and mix gently with a spatula or stick the berries directly into the blanks. Excellent sweetness of muffins will be shaded by sour cranberries or currants.
Step-by-step recipe for making cupcakes with cherries >>>
Buns
Prepare yeast buns with frozen berries! Fluffy, layered, sweet, sour. And they can be dyed pink! We talk about everything in detail in a step-by-step recipe (link below). Eat warm buns with milk or a cup of coffee, treat your friends!
Step-by-step recipe for buns with photos here >>>
Compote
Compote you cook in just 5 minutes! Thus, you can destroy all stocks of berries quickly and profitably. Add sugar to the water, boil, and then add the frozen berries. Bring to a boil, cook for a few minutes and you're done! In summer you need to drink a lot. And what could be better than homemade compote? See step by step recipe.
A simple compote recipe >>>
Frozen gooseberry jam
Frozen gooseberry jam is easier to prepare than fresh. No need to wash and clean the berries! Pour frozen gooseberries with hot syrup and boil. Very simple! The result is sweet bombs bursting in the mouth with sourness. Overeating!
Step by step recipe for frozen gooseberry jam >>>
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