Can You Freeze Strawberries and Then Thaw Them?
Can you freeze strawberries?
Yes, you can freeze strawberries safely, without posing any harm to their flavor profile or texture.
How do you freeze strawberries?
First of all, you still need to wash your strawberries to ensure that pesticides and other contaminants are removed. If you don’t want to rinse your strawberries, the next best thing is to get a moist, clean cloth and individually wipe down your strawberries. This applies to batches that are going to be refrigerated and not frozen, too. Experts warn against over-soaking your strawberries, as these tend to absorb a lot of water (that’s how they are). After rinsing, drain your strawberries well before freezing. Excess water can affect how they are frozen, too.
Many strawberries come in plastic boxes that are fit for display at the supermarket but aren’t fit for long-term storage in the freezer. We recommend using more durable plastic containers like freezer-safe Tupperware. Ziploc bags are also ideal as these are designed to withstand freezing temperatures easily. The biggest enemy of fruits while in cold or frozen storage is air. The more air introduced into the package, the higher the chance of spoilage. This is especially true for strawberries that are just refrigerated and not frozen.
How do you defrost strawberries?
There are several ways to defrost strawberries. If you need your strawberries quickly, the fastest way to thaw them out is by using your microwave oven’s defrost function. Set the defrost at one minute and check the state of the fruits. Remove the strawberries from the microwave when they are just about done being thawed. Any longer and you might end up with actual warm and cooked strawberries. This is not something that you’d want, especially if you are looking to eat some sweet strawberries as finger food.
If you have about fifteen to twenty minutes to thaw your strawberries, put your frozen strawberries in a small glass bowl or just put the Ziploc bag directly into a larger bowl of tap water. The tap water will draw out the frost, and your fruits should be ready in fifteen minutes, roughly. If you are defrosting a larger quantity of fruit, you may want to thaw the fruits in a larger basin instead. Refresh the water every half an hour until the strawberries are ready.
Do you have an hour to get your strawberries ready? Place your frozen strawberries on a plate and allow the strawberries to thaw with room temperature naturally. It would be best to leave the frozen strawberries in the container where they were frozen to reduce the chances of having contaminants in the fruit.
Let’s say that you do not need your strawberries immediately, but you do want to use or consume them in roughly 24 hours. Place the frozen strawberries in the refrigerator. It takes roughly 24 hours to defrost food this way, and it works on all kinds of food, not just frozen fruit or vegetables.
Should Strawberries Be Washed Before Freezing?
Like other fruits, strawberries should be rinsed lightly before they are frozen. Do not soak the strawberries as this might cause the natural sweetness and flavor to dwindle, which we do not like, of course. When you are ready to freeze your strawberries, cut off the stems. Place your strawberries in freezer bags before depositing into your freezer.
How Long Can You Freeze Fresh Strawberries?
Can you freeze fresh strawberries?
Yes, fresh strawberries can be frozen with no issues whatsoever. Frozen strawberries can be kept in a deep freeze for 12 months. After 12 months, the crystallization of the frozen fruit may begin to damage its texture, but all the same, the strawberries will remain in good condition for an entire year if you truly need to keep them in the freezer that long.
If you are freezing multiple bags of strawberries at a time, be sure to mark the individual freezer bags with the date that you froze them to keep track of the duration that the fruit is in the freezer. This applies most especially to folks who like freezing different fruit bags and forget about them after, only to rediscover the fruits in their chest freezers afterward.
What Happens When You Freeze Strawberries?
Nothing spectacular happens upon freezing fresh strawberries. They undergo the same changes as other fruits once frozen. You don’t have to worry about the integrity of the fruit or its flavors. They will not be spoiled once frozen, and your strawberries can be thawed out when you need them.
The freezing method will depend on what you want to accomplish with the frozen fruit. If you are freezing them for bleeding later (as is the case for smoothies), then you can freeze them in a bag, no worries. If you want to freeze them for individual consumption (like eating them one by one), the best way to freeze them is individual.
From a practical sense, it would be best just to freeze more massive quantities of locally purchased strawberries for future use. What’s problematic about buying large quantities of strawberries is they can spoil quickly if you don’t know how to store them for the long-term. But when you can preserve them, you can do a lot of things with your strawberries. You can experiment with creating different fillings, sauces, jams, preserves, and even frozen treats for the entire family. You can also use your frozen strawberries for preparing jam tarts and cheesecakes that make use of strawberry as the main ingredient. If you love baking and pastries, you probably already know how amazing fruits like strawberries make stuff like stuffed muffins.
There is nothing you cannot do in the kitchen when there is plenty of fruit in the freezer for instant use—no more running to the supermarket and stuff like that. Try freezing a good-sized batch of strawberries today!
