It’s pretty easy to freeze strawberries.
To taste sweet, juicy strawberries in late fall or winter, when the world is covered in snow? How about a strawberry smoothie to lift your spirits?
Sure thing!
Just freeze a bunch of strawberries right after buying them. Learn how to freeze them to achieve the best result possible!
Freezing seasonal fruits and vegetables has long been considered one of the best ways of keeping their looks, color, and taste. Low temperatures decrease the activity of enzymes responsible for spoiling fruits and vegetables, and germs can’t replicate in temperatures lower than 0 degrees Celsius.
Learn how to prep your strawberries for freezing.
Prepping strawberries for freezing
Most importantly, you need to select the best strawberries carefully.
Discard ones that seem to be bad, rotten, or bruised. It’s an extremely important step, as strawberries tend to spoil unbelievably fast.
Fresh strawberries 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 strawberries, 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 strawberries carefully. I’d recommend using a paper towel, as it absorbs water perfectly.
You won’t be able to dry them completely, but the drier the state you can get them to, the better. A layer of ice will soon cover the surface of each wet fruit, deforming it after thawing. Such fruits can only be used for kissels, jams, or hot mousses.
If you intend to use your strawberries to decorate cakes, you need to make sure you get rid of excess water. Otherwise, you may not be able to get them to thaw in a nice way, as they’ll become squishy.
Freezing strawberries that are too wet 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. You won’t be able to separate them afterward and you’ll end up with a strawberry pulp.
If you want to be 100% certain your strawberries don’t clump up, you can leave them on a board for initial freezing (a regular, wooden chopping board is just fine).
How to freeze strawberries properly
Begin with making sure the first batch is frozen on a board, with each fruit separated from others. You can take them out of your freezer after a couple of hours; at that point, you can place them in a bag or a container. That way you’ll prevent the fruits from clumping up once placed back in the freezer!
Depending on the space you can allocate to store your strawberries and on the size of your freezer, 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. If you want to freeze larger amounts, it’s going to be hard to use containers as they take up more space, and you’ll most likely resolve to frozen foods bags.
Such bags (especially ziplock ones) let you see what your fruits look like and allow for the optimal placement in your freezer.
Remember that strawberries that are crammed will quickly lose their shape and will not look appetizing when thawed. That’s why you should get familiar with dos and don’ts for freezing strawberries!
Before putting your prepped strawberries in the freezer, you can cool them for a while in your refrigerator. It will make them last even longer.
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.
Thawing strawberries – step-by-step guide
If frozen properly, strawberries can be kept in your freezer for up to 12 months.
Try to use them during that year you have. Although, to be frank, I personally keep my frozen food for longer and it’s still perfectly fine. What’s important is the way you thaw your fruits.
Remember: the slower the thawing, the tastier the fruits!
It’s really worth it to put your frozen products on the lowest shelf of your refrigerator ahead of time when you want to use them to have them thaw slowly. It’s also the healthiest!
You can use whole frozen strawberries to decorate cakes and desserts, as they’ll thaw on their own in a couple of minutes. But since a whole strawberry needs more time to thaw completely (compared to blueberries or raspberries), it’s great to have them frozen in smaller pieces. You can also use them to cool a glass of wine (strawberries are a great replacement for ice cubes).
The least recommended way to thaw your strawberries is using a microwave. It deprives your fruits of vitamins and minerals, taking away the healthy aspect of eating them.