Freezing Strawberries
Tips on Freezing Strawberries
Freezing strawberries is easy to do and will let you enjoy that fresh taste of strawberries throughout the entire year. It’s a great way to have strawberries on hand for your breakfast smoothie or cereal, to make pies, or to use in preserves or jellies.
When you freeze strawberries, it doesn’t matter if you do it whole, sliced or pureed, or whether you do it in a dry pack, with sugar or with artificial sweetener. Here is a very basic way to freeze strawberries without sugar. With this method they come out of the package much easier without all sticking together in one big, messy blob.
Wash your strawberries with cold water and pat them dry. Go through and take out any strawberries that are damaged or moldy, and then remove the stems and leaves. Get out a baking sheet and lay your strawberries out on it--spread them out so they do not touch one another. First put the baking sheet in the refrigerator for one hour, and then move it to the freezer for four to six hours. Overnight is fine. Next move your now frozen strawberries into airtight plastic containers or zippered plastic bags and return to the freezer. This way all of your strawberries will be separate in the containers and not frozen together. You can use however many you wish at one time. Remember to leave a half inch of space in each container.
If you prefer, you can slice your strawberries before freezing them. When prepared this way, cover the sliced berries with water in the container and freeze. If you want the strawberries to stay red add a teaspoon of lemon juice to each container.
Many people prefer freezing strawberries in sugar or sugar syrup. Using this method retains more of the texture and color of the fruit. The standard recipe is to add ¾ cup of sugar to each one quart of berries. One quart of strawberries is equal to a pound and a half. Stir the sugar and berries together until the sugar dissolves. Then pack into freezer containers leaving one-half inch of space, Seal and place in freezer.
If you prefer the strawberries be in a sugar syrup pack, place your berries in your freezer container and cover with cold syrup. Leave one-half inch space and freeze. The same thing can be done with a sugar substitute. Follow the directions on the label for the amount of sugar substitute and water to mix. The sugar substitute will not help the fruit retain color.
Still another way of freezing strawberries uses pectin syrup. Place your strawberries in their freezer containers and set aside. In a saucepan, combine one package of pectin (powdered) with one cup of water. Heat and then let boil for one minute. Remove from the heat and add 1-¾ cups water. Let cool. Pour into freezer containers, seal and freeze. The pectin method makes approximately three cups of moderately thick syrup.