To taste delicious, flavorful blueberries in winter?
Yes, it’s possible!
You can achieve it by a simple measure – by freezing them while fresh. Learn how to freeze blueberries so that they are perfect once thawed!
Freezing seasonal fruits and vegetables has long been considered one of the best ways of retaining their looks, color, and taste. Low temperatures decrease the activity of enzymes responsible for spoiling fruits and vegetables, and germs can’t replicate below 0 degrees Celsius.
Learn how to prepare blueberries for freezing properly.
Prepping blueberries for freezing
Most importantly, you need to select the best blueberries carefully.
Discard all blueberries that seem to be bad, rotten, or bruised.
Fresh blueberries are best for freezing – although low temperature tends to prolong food’s durability, it doesn’t improve its quality.
Once you’ve picked the best and nicest blueberries, the next step is to wash them well. You may not know that, but low temperature doesn’t necessarily kill bacteria and germs. They tend to hibernate but their number doesn’t decrease even after a couple of months of freezing at -18 degrees Celsius. That’s why you need to get rid of them yourself, washing them off with running water.
Once washed, dry your blueberries carefully. I’d recommend using a paper towel, as it absorbs water perfectly.
If you put wet blueberries in a freezer, a layer of ice will soon form on their surface, deforming them. After thawing, such fruits can only be used for jams or kissels.
If you intend to use them as an addition to your yogurt or ice cream, make sure to dry them well before freezing!
Freezing wet blueberries can cause more issues: it’s going to take more time to freeze them well (not to mention evenly!); they are also most likely going to form larger chunks.
If you want to be 100% certain your blueberries don’t clump up, you can leave them on a board to dry (a regular, wooden chopping board is just fine).
How to freeze blueberries properly
Depending on the space you can designate to store your blueberries, you can use ziplock bags or containers. If you endorse the zero-waste lifestyle, you can use ice cream boxes, yogurt cups, or plastic margarine containers.
It’s bags, though, (especially ziplock ones) that let you see what your fruits look like and allow for the optimal placement in your freezer.
While planning the freezing, it’s important to remember that blueberries require some space. Even if frozen, blueberries that are squeezed will lose their shape and may not look that appetizing when thawed. That’s why you should get familiar with dos and don’ts for freezing blueberries!
Before we place our blueberries in the freezer, it’s ok to put them in a refrigerator for a couple of hours. It’s not true that the lower the temperature the food is kept in, the longer its life – it’s extremely important to make sure that the temperature doesn’t drop below -18 degrees Celsius, and that it’s kept constant.
And remember about the most important thing…
If you happen to experience an equipment failure or power outage and the content of your freezer is thawed, you can’t freeze it back.
Oh, it’s also important to get rid of all stems before freezing. It may not be as crucial as it is with, for example, strawberries, but trust me – you don’t want to be removing them once the blueberries are thawed!
Thawing blueberries – step-by-step
If frozen properly, blueberries can be kept in your freezer for up to 12 months.
That’s the time in which it’s safe to thaw and use them. Remember: the slower the thawing, the tastier the fruits!
So instead of leaving them at room temperature, consider placing them on the lowest shelf of your refrigerator. If you need them to thaw fast, you can put them in water (even slightly warm), but the process will impact the blueberries’ shape and firmness.
If you want to decorate your ice cream or yogurt, you can use your fruits while still frozen. Placed on the dessert, they will thaw on their own in a few minutes.
The least recommended way to thaw your blueberries is using a microwave. It deprives your fruits of vitamins and minerals, taking away the healthy aspect of eating them.