Is it possible to freeze cherries with pits for the winter?

In winter, you can buy any berries in the supermarket, but they contain few vitamins. Try freezing cherries for the winter and you will get a healthy and tasty dessert. An additional plus is savings: during the season, the price of berries is several times lower. So why overpay?

Choosing berries

First you need to choose the right cherries. It is better to buy it at the farmers market: the berries are fresher there. In supermarkets, cherries usually sit in storage boxes for a long time and during this time they lose a lot of vitamins. In addition, the fruits are treated with chemicals for better preservation, but this is not good for health.

When choosing cherries, be sure to try a couple of berries. The fruits should be firm, not watery. The taste is bright, full, distinctly sweet with a slight sourness. But the color of the berries can be any - yellow, pink, and dark red.

Try freezing berries of different colors - in winter this assortment looks very appetizing. Plus, you'll have a choice. Yellow berries look better in cherry-lemon confiture, and red berries look better in compote and filling.

Fruit preparation

Sort through the cherries. Remove all crushed, cracked berries, those with rotten rot. Tear off the petioles.

If you find worms in some fruits, do not be discouraged. They can be removed without sorting through the berries one by one. For this:

1. Dissolve 500 g of salt in a liter of water at room temperature.
2. Place the berries in salt water.
3. Wait 30 minutes.

During this time, the pests themselves will crawl out of the fruits.All you have to do is rinse the cherries thoroughly. Don't worry, such fruits will not harm your health. In a sense, this is even a plus - you know for sure that you bought environmentally friendly cherries “without chemicals.”

Then dry the berries. Spread them in a thin layer on a towel or paper napkins and wait until the fruits are completely dry. The water remaining on the skin will turn into ice, and additional frost is not needed in preservation.

Classic freezing method

Freezing fruits with pits is very simple. Spread the prepared cherries in 1 layer on any flat surface. A small tray, a baking sheet, or a cutting board for cutting vegetables will do. The main thing is that the item fits in the freezer. Leave the fruits there for 2-3 hours (most refrigerators will have time to freeze the fruits during this time).

Then remove the cherries and pour them into a bag or container. Pour the next portion onto the tray and repeat the procedure.

This way you will get neat, not crushed fruits that are convenient to store and use. They can be used in fillings, in compotes, and for decorating desserts. You can simply defrost the berries and serve as a dessert - after defrosting, the pitted cherries look almost like fresh.

Some people advise using vacuum sealers - portion the berries into bags, pump out the air and immediately freeze them. This way you don’t waste time fiddling with pallets and pouring cherries. But the berries are very tender, and the vacuum will force them to press closely together. Some fruits will probably crack or become dented.

Choose for yourself. If the integrity of the berries is not important to you, a vacuum sealer is a great option. Otherwise, use the pallet method.

Freezing pitted berries

This preparation is convenient to use in cooking.Jam, confiture, and pie filling will turn out very tasty and not too “wet” - excess juice leaks out during processing. But you can’t serve such berries on the table and you can’t put them in a fruit salad. After defrosting, the fruits do not look very appetizing, although this does not affect the taste.

To properly remove seeds, use a special device - this way you will damage the berries less. In extreme cases, the bones can be removed with a pin.

After preparing the fruits, divide them into portions and freeze. Never put the workpiece in one large container. Since the cherries will be soaked in juice, it will freeze not as individual berries, but as a solid briquette. It will no longer be possible to separate the required amount of workpiece from it.

When you defrost the berries, there will be a lot of liquid left in the container. Don't pour it out. This is not “production waste”, but natural cherry juice. You can use it to make fruit drinks, jelly, make a topping for ice cream, or add it to a cocktail.

Cherries with sugar

Prepare the cherries and pit them. Wait a little - let the excess juice drain. Then carefully drain the liquid and place the cherries in small containers, sprinkling each layer with sugar. For 1 kg of fruit you will need about 200 g of sugar, but be guided by your own taste. This is an approximate proportion, if you change it nothing bad will happen.

Place the containers with the preparation in the freezer. Now you have your pie filling ready. If desired, berries with sugar can be served as jam. The fruits will be saturated with sugar and become sweet, but not too sweet - not as cloying as classic jam. These cherries are delicious to put on cookies or a hot pancake.

It is better to defrost the workpiece in the refrigerator on the top shelf.This will take about 8 hours, but the fruits will not spread and will retain all the vitamins.

Cherry puree

Peel the fruits and make a puree from the pulp. If you don’t have a blender, a meat grinder will also do – the product will not be as homogeneous, but still tasty. If desired, you can add sugar or honey, spices, and lemon juice to the puree.

Place the chopped cherries in containers. Do not use glass jars - the ice may break them.

This puree can be given to children as an independent dessert, soaked in confectionery or poured over ice cream. Add gelatin - you will get delicious marmalade, steam until the liquid evaporates - you will make cherry jam.

Don't be afraid to experiment. Each recipe in this article can be modified to suit your own needs. In any case, you will get a tasty, healthy and natural dish.