Frozen strawberries: how to properly freeze strawberries for the winter at home

Preparing berries for freezing

You need to choose berries for freezing that are ripe, firm, not very large, and without signs of rot or damage.

For most recipes for freezing strawberries, the berries need to be rinsed in cool water and dried thoroughly on a towel. It is better to wash strawberries in a large saucepan, carefully catching the berries with your hands and placing them on a plastic sieve.

Secret #1: The sieve or colander must be made of plastic. The lattice of the metal sieve reacts with the berries, they oxidize and lose color - they darken.

You need to dry the berries on a towel for no more than an hour so that they do not have time to release juice.

Methods for freezing strawberries at home

Freezing whole berries without sugar

For this freezing method, there is no need to wash the berries and remove the sepals. The berry must be completely dry. It is better to use small strawberries; they will freeze faster and, as a result, will look better when defrosted.

Secret #2: When freezing whole strawberries without added sugar, do not wash or remove the green stems! When interacting with water, the berry quickly becomes limp, and air trapped inside the cleaned berry kills vitamin C.

The berries are laid out on flat surfaces and placed in the freezer for a day. Then they are poured into bags and, after removing as much air as possible, they are sent back.

How to freeze strawberries with sugar

There are two freezing methods:

• with added sugar before freezing;
• with the addition of powdered sugar after pre-freezing.

In any case, the green tails of the berries must be removed. And, if necessary, wash and dry.

Secret #3: The sepals should be removed by hand or with a ceramic knife. When interacting with metal objects, the berry oxidizes and changes color.

In the first freezing method, clean berries are placed in a container in layers, sprinkled with sugar (200 grams of sugar per 1 kilogram of berries). Then the containers are put into the freezer for long-term storage.

In the second method, peeled berries are pre-frozen on a cutting board, and then, already frozen, they are transferred to a container and sprinkled with powdered sugar.

Watch the video: Irina Belaja will tell you how to freeze strawberries in sugar

How to freeze strawberries in sugar syrup

Here you can use either whole berries or cut in half.

Clean berries are placed in containers and then filled with sugar syrup. To cook the syrup you will need 1 liter of water and 250 grams of sugar. Before pouring the berries, cool the syrup.

Secret #4: To save space in the freezer, insert a clean plastic bag into the container before placing the berries and syrup there. After the workpiece is thoroughly frozen, the bag is removed from the container, tied and put into the freezer in the form of a briquette.

Freezing berries as puree

Clean berries, maybe not very strong ones, are punched with a blender. You can, if desired, immediately add granulated sugar, or you can do this after the berries have been thawed.

Strawberry puree is transferred to small containers or plastic containers for freezing, and stored in the freezer.

See video from the channel “TheVkusnoetv” - Frozen strawberry puree

How to make strawberry ice cubes

You can freeze strawberries using ice cube trays. Berries are placed in molds and filled with water. After freezing, the ice cubes with strawberries are removed and placed in one bag and container.

Whole strawberries in strawberry puree

This method is convenient to use if some of the berries are not very strong and have already partially given juice. The densest berries should be selected from the entire volume. Grind the rest to puree using a blender or potato masher.

Place whole berries in containers and pour puree over them. Pack the containers and place them in the freezer for storage.

Shelf life of frozen strawberries

If the freezer temperature is maintained at -18 °C, frozen strawberries can be stored for no more than 6 months.