What is the best way to freeze raspberries for the winter?

Freezing raspberries for the winter in the freezer is not at all difficult. On cold winter days, berries can be added to tea, compote, cottage cheese, porridge, and pie filling. Freezing raspberries remains especially relevant for summer residents who do not have time to properly process their harvest. To preserve the vitamins and taste of berries as much as possible, you need to freeze them according to certain rules.

Are there any benefits to frozen berries?

Many people have wondered whether the beneficial qualities of berries are preserved after freezing. Fresh raspberries are rich in vitamins, aromatic and tasty. But what happens to it during the freezing process?

It can be reassuring for those who want to get the most out of their products. If the correct technology was used for freezing and the packaging was sealed, then the berries will not lose all their valuable qualities until spring.

In frozen raspberries, vitamins are completely preserved for 8 months. In winter, you can’t buy fresh berries everywhere; they are expensive, and there are serious doubts about the benefits of the product. Therefore, preparations made in the freezer will always come in handy.

To ensure that raspberries do not lose their shape and beneficial properties before consumption, they must not only be frozen correctly, but also defrosted correctly. The berries are removed from the freezer 1–1.5 hours before consumption and transferred to the refrigerator, where the defrosting process will occur gradually.You can eat raspberries after they have completely thawed. But it is better to cook compote from frozen berries, immediately throwing them into boiling water.

Preparing raspberries for freezing

Before you start picking berries, you need to calculate how many of them will be needed in winter specifically for freezing. Part of the harvest will probably be used to make jam and compotes, and part will be eaten fresh. Having decided on the volume of the harvest, the berries are collected.

It is permissible to keep the harvest fresh for no more than 2 days. With each passing hour, the amount of vitamins in the berries rapidly decreases, so ideally you should start freezing raspberries as soon as you bring them home.

Preparing raw materials for freezing looks like this:

1. It is necessary to discard all spoiled, dented, and overripe fruits.
2. Together with them, particles of plant debris that are in the same container are removed.
3. The berries are carefully washed under a gentle stream of water so as not to disturb their integrity.
4. Then the fruits are transferred to a tray to dry, spreading them in one layer.

Since raspberries are soft berries, during the preparation process they should be subjected to as little physical impact as possible so as not to crush them. That is why it is not dried on a towel, but immediately placed on a tray, where it will undergo the first stage of freezing.

Freezing and storage rules

You can freeze raspberries either in a separate freezer or in the refrigerator using its freezer. Modern household appliances have the ability to accelerate freezing, allow you to regulate the temperature and maintain it at a given level during food storage.

If you freeze the berries slowly, ice crystals will form inside the pulp, which will break the fibers and disrupt the structure of the fruit.It is therefore important that the set temperature is reached quickly:

1. In the upper section of the freezer, as a rule, there is a narrow compartment designed for quick freezing of bulk products. This is where you will need to place the tray with raspberries and turn on the accelerated or continuous freezing mode.
2. After the berries have set, they are taken out and quickly poured into plastic containers or special bags for storing frozen foods.

Now raspberries can be stored compactly until spring. It’s better to spread it out in small portions for one-time use – it’s much more convenient.

You cannot defrost and re-freeze fruits, as this will result in their quality suffering and vitamins being lost. If you neglect the rules for preparing and storing frozen berries, they can not only become useless and tasteless, but also cause digestive upset.

Winter preparations with sugar

You can prepare raspberry preparations for the winter with sugar by freezing in various ways. For example, using the following recipes:

• Raw jam. For preparation, take selected washed raspberries and sugar in a 1:1 ratio. Those who have already used a similar recipe recommend adding sugar to taste, then it will take less. After all, as you know, sweets are not good for your health at all. Grind the berries with sugar with a tablespoon or use a blender for this purpose. The resulting sweet berry puree is placed portionwise into small containers. If you have to make a lot of different preparations, it is better to sign the jars in advance.
• Raspberries in sugar syrup. The prepared berries are placed in plastic trays and poured with syrup made from 2 glasses of water and 1 glass of sugar (the syrup is kept on the fire until the granulated sugar is completely dissolved, and then cooled). The trays are covered with a lid on top. If disposable plastic cups are used as containers, they are covered with cling film. The containers must be placed stably so that they do not tip over during the freezing process and the contents do not leak out.
• Berries sprinkled with sugar. Raspberries are placed in plastic containers, sprinkling each layer with granulated sugar. The last layer is definitely sugar. The top of the container is closed and provided with a signed label. Consumption: for 200 g of berries – 2 tbsp. l. granulated sugar.

The healing qualities of raspberries are well known, so during the cold season, preparations from fresh berries will support the body and provide it with a vitamin cocktail. The fruits can be used as an independent dish, filling, or decoration for homemade baked goods. The berries are suitable for dietary and baby food, and can become the basis for cosmetic masks. Freezing is a great way to preserve raspberries in their original form for a long time.