How to properly freeze blueberries for the winter at home in the refrigerator
Blueberries are well known for being a flavorful, mouth-watering and very healthy berry. The valuable properties of its fruits are especially in demand in the cold season, when the body is in dire need of vitamins and other vital substances. For everyone who cares about their own health and seeks to protect their family from disease, it will be important to know how to properly freeze blueberries.
Do frozen blueberries retain the health benefits?
Freezing is a quick and convenient way to keep the berries in good condition and prepare them for consumption in winter. An important advantage of such storage of the product is the complete preservation of the beneficial properties of blueberries, including:
- strengthening of immunity;
- support in the tone of the organs of vision;
- improving memory;
- normalization of digestion;
- prevention of early aging;
- elimination of excess weight.
Many traditional healers recommend using blueberries in order to remove toxins from the body, lower blood sugar, and treat diseases of the genitourinary system. In cosmetology, blueberry fruit extract is added to products designed to rejuvenate the skin of the face, eliminate irritation and inflammatory elements.
Preparing blueberries for freezing
After purchasing or buying blueberries on your own, it is important to properly prepare the fruits for freezing. This will require:
- Sort the berries carefully.
- Remove leaves, debris, unripe or spoiled fruits.
- Rinse (for this, blueberries are placed in small portions in a large container of water, after which the peeled specimens are carefully transferred to a colander).
After washing, the blueberries should be spread out on a clean paper towel. Freezing can be started when the berries are completely dry.
Rinsing the berries is not a mandatory step in preparation for freezing. If the berries are picked with your own hands, in a clean corner of nature, you can refrain from washing them.
Ways to freeze blueberries for the winter at home
There are several options for freezing blueberries. Berries can be harvested whole for the winter, crushed to a puree state. You can also freeze the juice extracted from the fruit. At your own discretion, you can choose recipes with or without sugar.
Freeze harvested blueberries as soon as possible.It is known that after 2-3 days of storage in the refrigerator, the destruction of the vitamin substances in it begins.
Sugarless
This method of harvesting blueberry fruits is considered the easiest. Dry berries, properly prepared for freezing, fill shallow containers (pallet, plate) covered with cellophane or cling film. Then they are quickly placed in the freezer and left in it for 2-3 hours.
After completing the preliminary freezing, the blueberry fruits are transferred to a clean bag. You will need to deflate and tie tightly before placing it in the freezer. Then the berries are left to be stored in the chamber until the right moment.
With sugar
For this type of freezing, you will need to prepare 2 components - whole blueberry fruits and granulated sugar (2: 1). Washed and dried berries are laid out in containers, evenly sprinkled with sugar. Next, the containers are closed with tight lids and placed in the freezer.
Helpful Hint - Candied blueberries are great for culinary purposes. With the berry frozen in the described way, delicious dumplings, fruit drinks are obtained.
Frozen puree with sugar
Mashed potatoes with sugar are used by many housewives in the process of preparing sweet pastries and various desserts. Harvesting it for the winter will require a little more time and effort. Often, berries are used for such freezing, which have slightly crumpled and lost their original shape, but have not lost their taste and useful composition.
Blueberry mass can be sweet or sweet and sour. In the first case, the ratio of fruits to sugar will be 1: 1, in the second - 2: 1. The berries, sprinkled with sugar, are ground with a blender. Then the prepared containers are filled, sealed tightly and placed in the freezer compartment of the refrigerator.
Puree without sugar
Such mashed potatoes are not only tasty, but also safe for people whose diet should be sugar-free. The first stage of freezing is grinding clean berries with a blender. After that, the resulting puree is laid out in prepared containers (medium-sized containers, disposable cups), securely closed with lids or cling film, sent to freeze in the refrigerator.
Blueberry puree, frozen without added sugar, is a good addition to the complementary foods for young babies. If you plan to use berries for this purpose, during processing with a blender, you must carefully grind the skins of the fruit.
Freezing blueberry juice
Thanks to this method of freezing, it is possible to preserve healthy blueberry juice for a long time and enjoy a fragrant drink on cold winter days. Homemade juice always wins in comparison with store counterparts. Another important point is a drink made with your own hands, completely natural, without synthetic additives and dyes.
Berries are processed in any available way (preferably using a blender). Next, juice is filled into clean containers, placed in the freezer compartment. For the complete safety of the berry drink, each vessel must be tightly closed (as in the recipe described above, you can use cling film or lids).
Be careful! When distributing blueberry juice, it is important not to fill the cups completely - the freezing liquid tends to expand and spill over the edges of the vessel.
Storage
There are several important rules for handling blueberries to help preserve the natural flavor and aroma of these mouth-watering berries:
- For the longest possible storage of fruits, one should resort to the method of shock (quick and deep) freezing.
- In order to preserve all the important qualities of frozen blueberries, it is recommended to store them separately from fish and meat products.
- In order not to forget when the harvesting was carried out, packages or containers with blueberry berries, juice or puree stored in them are recommended to sign (indicating the date of freezing).
By following these guidelines, blueberries can be safely stored for at least one year. Sometimes this period can be extended for another 1-2 months.
How to properly defrost blueberries
Unlike freezing, which is carried out in an accelerated mode, with the optimal power of the freezer, defrosting should be slow, natural. Do not use microwave ovens or other devices for this purpose.
The berries taken from the refrigerator are laid out on plates, and then left in the refrigerator on one of the lower shelves. When the blueberries thaw a little, they are taken out and left to "rise" in room temperature mode.
If baking or compotes are planned with blueberry fruits, pre-freezing is most often not carried out. Thawed berries must be used in full - they cannot be re-frozen.
