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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Unsweetened Dough Snacks For The New Year's Table (quick And Easy!)
Recipes for quick and simple snacks will help out before the New Year, when worries are already up to the throat. We will prepare many of them from ready-made puff pastry, so if necessary, buy a couple of packs and throw them in the freezer; always helpful and helpful.
potato sticks
You can cook a budget and incredibly tasty dish from yesterday's mashed potatoes. And serve some sauces to the chopsticks.
You will need:
150 g flour; 250 g mashed potatoes (preferably with milk); 1 egg; 1 clove of garlic; 100 g sesame seeds (can be replaced or mixed with flax seeds or sunflower seeds).
The puree should be cooled down, beat the egg into it, add the flour and crush the garlic, mix thoroughly.
Preheat the oven to 190 degrees, cover the baking sheet with baking paper and lay the blank on it, giving it the shape of sticks, about 2 cm wide and 5 to 10 cm long. Sprinkle each stick with the selected seeds.
Such an appetizer is baked for about half an hour, a tender crust will indicate readiness. Potato sticks are universal, they are suitable for a gourmet dinner, and for gatherings with friends, or just for beer and your favorite TV show.
Filled puff pastry sticks
Ingredients:
100 g of hard unsalted cheese; 100 g of ham; 1 sheet of puff pastry; 50 g sesame; 1 egg.
Cut the dough into strips 2-3 cm wide, and cheese and ham into thin bars. Whisk the egg.
Fold a piece of cheese and a piece of ham and wrap a strip of puff pastry in a spiral. Put the resulting sticks on a baking sheet covered with baking paper and brush with beaten egg. Sprinkle sesame seeds on top. Bake for 15-20 minutes at 180 degrees.
You can replace the ham with smoked red fish, or leave only the cheese, it will still be delicious.
Layer cake with tuna
You will need:
2 canned tuna; 1 onion; 2 bell peppers; 1 egg; 2 sheets of puff pastry.
Chop the onion and fry in canned oil, after 3 minutes add the chopped pepper, stew a little on the fire and add the tuna. First, it should be folded into a strainer and slightly kneaded with a fork. Simmer together for about 5 minutes. Then turn off, transfer to a bowl so that the filling cools faster.
When it is only slightly warm, place it on a sheet of puff pastry, leaving a distance of 1.5-2 cm at the edges. Make longitudinal cuts on the second sheet and cover the filling with it, pinch the sides with a fork (a corrugated edge of the pie will appear during baking). You can cut the dough into squares and rectangles, then you get small puffs with tuna, which is convenient when there are a lot of guests.
Beat the egg and brush the top layer with the resulting mass, and sprinkle with sesame seeds on top. Bake the workpiece for 15-20 minutes at a temperature of 180 degrees.
Cheese curd pie
Ingredients:
300 g of hard cheese; 300 g low-fat cottage cheese; 5 eggs; 3 tomatoes; 1 pack of puff pastry.
Hard boil eggs. Grate eggs and cheese, then mix with cottage cheese and salt.
Cover a baking sheet with parchment, lay out 1 sheet of puff pastry, make frequent pricks with a fork. Put the filling on top, leaving 3-4 cm at the edges. Wrap and pinch the edges. Cut the tomatoes into thin circles and put on top of the cheese mixture.
Bake the cake for 20-25 minutes, until the filling is browned.
Lavash cheese sticks
2 pita bread; 100 g of hard cheese; 1 egg; 1 clove of garlic; 100 g dill; breadcrumbs.
Cut the lavash folded in half into strips 10 cm wide. Whisk the egg. Grate the cheese and mix thoroughly with crushed garlic and chopped dill. Place 2-3 tablespoons of the filling evenly along the edge of the strip, roll into a tube so that the cheese mixture is wrapped twice with dough. Cut off the resulting sticks with a knife. Do this until the ingredients are used up. Then dip the tubes in a beaten egg and roll in breadcrumbs, fry until golden brown in deep fat or in a pan with plenty of oil.
Fast pizza in a pan
Dish for student New Year. This type of snack is really simple, it requires a small set of products, and besides, it is very variable. You can combine, supplement or remove the filling depending on the contents of the refrigerator.
For the test you will need:
180 g flour; 2 eggs; 50 ml sour cream; a good pinch of salt.
The ingredients must be mixed and beat with a whisk or mixer until completely homogeneous. The consistency should resemble thick sour cream.
For the filling, we suggest taking:
80 g of hard cheese; 2 tomatoes; 1 bell pepper; 1 boiled chicken fillet; 50 g canned corn.
The filling can also include sausages, mushrooms, smoked fish, salami, capers and much more.
Vegetables should be cut into thin slices, meat should be larger, and cheese should be grated.
Pour 30 ml of vegetable oil into the pan. When it warms up, send the dough there and cover with a lid. Cook over medium heat. After 2-3 minutes, it will grab a little and you need to quickly place the filling on top in random order, the main thing is that the final layer is cheese. Cover the pan again and wait until the dough hardens and the cheese begins to melt. This means that the fast pizza is ready.
Pies on kefir dough with ham, cheese and tomatoes
For pies you will need:
150 g flour; 100 ml of kefir; 1 egg; 30 ml of vegetable oil; 2 tomatoes; 100 g of hard cheese; 100 g of ham; 10 g of sugar; 5 g salt; 10 g baking powder.
Beat the eggs with a whisk with kefir, salt and sugar. Then add flour and baking powder, mix. You should get a thick, viscous, slightly sticky dough. Pour vegetable oil into it and knead for about 5 minutes. Then let stand for the same amount of time.
Remove skin from tomatoes. To do this, put the tomatoes in boiling water for 20 seconds, then select, the skin will easily come off. For the filling, ham, cheese and tomatoes should be cut into thin slices, approximately the same width and length.
Roll the dough in flour, divide into 2 parts and roll each into a thin cake (about 0.5-0.8 cm thick). Spread the ham on it, keeping a distance of 2 cm between the slices, on top of a circle of tomato and cheese. Cover the first with the second cake, cut the pies in a circle with a knife, leaving a centimeter on the edge. Pinch the edges of each pie with your fingers.
The resulting pies can be fried in vegetable oil (1.5-2 minutes on each side), or baked in the oven (10-15 minutes). If the second option is chosen, then they should first be greased with a beaten egg and sprinkled with sesame seeds.
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