How to freeze strawberries for winter

Strawberry is a favorite berry, the season of which lasts, depending on the region, from May to July. Of course, the benefits of fresh products are invaluable, and although today a berry imported from abroad can be bought all year round in any large supermarket, it's best to freeze the strawberries at home. Often the "shop-like" winter variant is characterized by an unintended taste or even its absence, has atypical large forms that are not characteristic of this berry, which may indicate the use of a large number of chemicals during cultivation, and a fairly high price. It is much more useful and cheaper to grow berries on your own or buy it in the nearest market, and then procure for the future for the winter. How to freeze strawberries, read further in our article. By the way, the benefit of such a preparation is invaluable, because berries retain all the nutritional properties inherent in a fresh product. A snowy winter as nice to get a portion of strawberries, thaw it and eat, thereby supporting the body's immunity. Or cook various desserts - mousse, pie, ice cream sauce and others.

How to freeze strawberries: method number 1

There are two main ways to prepare a berry for the winter - in the form of fresh jam, which does not need to be cooked, or traditionally to keep the fruit whole. Let's consider the first option. Necessary amount of strawberries to clean, thoroughly rinse with water, dry and put in a blender. Then add sugar - 100 g for 400 g of berries. All whisk until smooth, divide into portions and transfer to molds - plastic containers, thick-walled glass jars or strong bags, place in the freezer. Such a blank can be stored until next summer. And in the winter, delivering a bag of delicious jam, you can serve it to flavored tea, make a dressing for pancakes or stuffing for pies.

How to freeze strawberries: method № 2

It is known that the berry, lying in the freezer for a certain time, thawing, often turns into a "kissel" or a bloated, unappetizing-looking mass. Of course, you can simply put the strawberries into packages and send them to the freezer, or you can use some tricks. First, you need to choose the fruits of late varieties, but not ripe and not very soft. It is not necessary to separate the green peduncles. It is also said that if you do not wash strawberries before freezing, it will save more vitamins. This is just an opinion, because it is unlikely that scientific research has been conducted on a similar topic, so it's up to you to decide. Secondly, the whole berry should be packed in batches in packages - exactly in the amount that you may need in the future. Repeated defrosting of any unspent plant products is highly undesirable.

Frozen strawberries: recipes for delicious dishes

From a berry preserved in this way, you can cook a large number of dishes. Perhaps as much as fresh. Here are the recipes of some of them.

Strawberry mousse

To please the family in the winter season, try to prepare mousse from freshly thawed berries. It's so like the summer! For him you will need:

- 300 g of strawberries;
- 100 g of sugar;
- food gelatin - about 3 teaspoons.

By the way, if you harvested berries in the first way, just a couple of hours before cooking, pull out a portion from the refrigerator, but in this case use only gelatin - sugar in fresh jam already exists. If you have whole berries, then wipe them through a sieve or whip into a thick foam with a blender, and then add sugar. Soak gelatin (it should swell), heat it on the stove (but do not boil) until the crystals are completely dissolved, pour into the strawberry puree and mix thoroughly. Mass should be spread out according to the molds and send to freeze in the refrigerator. In a couple of hours you can serve an excellent dessert, especially tasty, if you drink it with milk. Frozen strawberries, whose benefits are indistinguishable from fresh berries, will give you the necessary amount of vitamins, and milk - a lot of useful calcium.

Sauce from frozen strawberries to pancakes

For him, take:

- 300 g of frozen strawberries (it is not necessary to defrost it first);
- 3 tbsp. Spoons of sugar;
- about 100 g of water;
- 1 tsp. Starch.

Grind the berries in a blender, place in a saucepan, add sugar and water. Stir, bring to a boil over low heat. Then, dilute starch with a small amount of water, pour into the strawberry puree, which does not need to be removed from the fire, cook the sauce until thick. Keep in mind that the more starch you add, the thicker the sauce will turn out. Done - you can serve with pancakes or use as gravy to ice cream. Now, knowing how to properly freeze strawberries, you can cook these and other dishes all year round. Their taste and benefit will be appreciated by all members of your family.