Freezing Strawberries: How to Freeze Strawberries

Strawberries are fruits that indicate the onset of summer. They are eaten raw as well as with various kinds of desserts and cobblers. Apart from a delicious sweet taste, you get a number of nutritional benefits from strawberries. They are rich in vitamin C, vitamin K, riboflavin, copper, manganese, phytonutrients and antioxidants and omega-3 fatty acids. Unfortunately, the strawberry delicacy is naturally available only during summer season. The whole winter goes missing this delicate and toothsome fruit. But no need to worry much. With the help of right freezing strawberries techniques, you can preserve them, intact with all their nutritional properties, up to 6 months. It means that you can enjoy the fresh sweet taste of strawberries all round the year. Take a look on how to freeze strawberries.

How to Freeze Strawberries?

The materials required for freezing strawberries are a pan - that will fit in your freezer, a colander - to wash the strawberries, vacuum food sealer or Ziploc type of freezer bags, and the desired amount of strawberries to be frozen. It is worth mentioning here, that you should go in for a freezer bag version, as they are heavier and can better withstand freezer burns.

Get a desired amount of fresh, plump, full and good colored strawberries. Put the strawberries in a colander. Remove any bit of stem, leaves, soft or mushy strawberries from the collection. Wash the left over strawberries thoroughly but gently, with water. Make sure you do not bruise the strawberries in the process. Now, allow the strawberries to dry. The strawberries should be completely dry getting frozen, as the water will freeze in the process, making the berries hard and difficult to consume. Put the dry strawberries on a cookie sheet placed on a pan in such a manner that they form a layer and don't touch each other. Place the pan along inside coldest region of your freezer. When the strawberries are completely frozen, take them out and put them into Ziploc freezer bags and again place them inside the freezer's coldest region. The strawberries frozen in this manner can be used for a little over a period of six months. To find out some strawberry based recipes, see recipe for virgin strawberry daiquiri and strawberry cake recipes.

What are the Different Ways of Freezing Strawberries?

There can be a number of ways to freeze strawberry. You can freeze them as a whole, with sugar, without sugar, with lemon juice and even with water.

• Freezing Strawberries with Lemon Juice: Freezing strawberries with lemon juice is the best way to freeze strawberries. Crush the strawberries before freezing, put them in an air tight container, add one quart of water, two tablespoons of lemon juice, seal the container and preserve. The lemon juice helps in retaining some of the strawberry color.
• Freezing Strawberries with Sugar Syrup: Prepare the strawberries for freezing. You can either use them as a whole or can crush or slice them. Make sugar syrup with sugar and water in a ratio of 1:1¼ cup. Add the sugar syrup to the strawberries and mix them well. Make sure that the amount of syrup is approximately ½ cup for every 250 grams of strawberries. Freeze the berries as instructed above.
• Freezing Strawberries with Sugar: In this method of freezing strawberries, you are supposed to add sugar directly to the strawberries prepared for freezing. You can use either superfine sugar, also called fruit sugar, or the regular granulated sugar. The choice is entirely yours. The ration of sugar to strawberries should be ¾ cup to every quart of strawberries. Sprinkle the required amount of sugar on the berries and stir the mixture well before freezing strawberries.
• Freezing Strawberries in Ice Cubes: Place the strawberries ready for freezing into each square of an ice cube tray. Fill the tray with water, and then place it inside the freezer. Strawberries frozen and preserved in this manner can be used over a period of two months. They are a great delight when taken with other fruit juices, milk shakes, etc.

There are certain things that need to be taken care of, in order to get well preserved frozen strawberries. Leave about one inch head space in the Ziploc freezer bags containing strawberries. This helps in keeping the strawberries intact. Secondly, once an amount of frozen strawberries is taken out and thawed, it should not be frozen again or else you will spoil the nutritional properties of strawberries. Now that you are almost like an expert on how to freeze strawberries, go to the market and get a stock of good quality strawberries for freezing.