Fresh apple compote or aromatic charlotte at any time of the year? Easily! Apples can not only be pickled, juiced and dried, but also frozen for the winter. This method has many advantages, and there are a number of simple and interesting recipes. The housewife herself will decide how to use the frozen apple.
Why freezing?
The fresh summer harvest of apples is much tastier and healthier than winter greenhouse products. Harvested fruits from your own garden will provide seven vitamins, iron and other valuable substances during the period when diseases attack.
Benefits of freezing apples:
- When quickly frozen, most of the nutrients are retained in the fruit.
- Homegrown apples and summer harvests are less dangerous and are not waxed for transport or pumped with flavorings.
- You will have supplies for various purposes on hand all year round. This is a good time saver and a collection of ready-made ideas.
The reasons for failures in freezing apples are simple: excess moisture, which leads to sticking, and incorrectly selected fruits. Apples must be whole, without rotting spots, traces of pests, etc.
Another problem that housewives face is the ugly brown color. The fruits darken due to oxidation processes, which are easily stopped by lemon juice. Just spray the workpiece with it before storing. Also, you should not pause the process: once you peel the fruit, freeze it immediately. Contact with air should be minimal.
Important Store frozen food at temperatures no higher than –18 degrees. This is a standard indicator, if you can put it lower, do it.
About the benefits
Is it possible to freeze apples for the winter? What's the use of them? Charlotte, apple pies, strudel, compote, various desserts and much more - all this will be available for preparation at any time of the year. Everything is clean, eco-friendly and pre-cut.
But the most important advantage is the retention of all the properties of a fresh apple. After all, it is freezing that preserves the maximum amount of vitamins in products, about 90%.
Is it possible to freeze apples and pears for the winter and why? Many fresh fruits lose almost all their vitamins by the end of winter, so frozen fruits provide an opportunity to support immunity .
Freezing whole apples and halves
The easiest way is to wash the fresh harvest and pack it in containers. Such freezing is more than possible. However, the skin deteriorates greatly during the freezing process. Better to clean it off. It also makes sense to remove the cores immediately (by cutting them out with a special thin knife or cutting the fruits into halves and removing the central part in the usual way). This will allow the workpiece to be put into use immediately after thawing, without additional processing.
What to cook This delicacy can be used for a popular dessert - baked apples. Just add a little honey and a nut to the middle.
Freezing in slices
The smaller the size of the slices, the more convenient it is to store them in the freezer. If there are a lot of preparations, then give preference to chopped fruit - more will fit into the compartment.
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How to freeze fresh apples in slices:
- Wash the apple peels thoroughly, using a soft brush to help.
- Wipe thoroughly from moisture.
- Cut off the peel - it is better to store without it.
- Cut the fruit into beautiful slices. Children will love the shaped apples. To do this, use a special knife or cutters for cutting out dough and other products.
- Treat the apple slices with lemon juice to prevent browning. Another option is short-term soaking in a solution of 1 liter of water and 5 g of citric acid.
- Freeze the slices to prevent them from sticking together during storage. To do this, they are laid out in an even layer on a tray and sent to the freezer for a couple of hours. Cover the pan with cling film to prevent the fruit from sticking to it. When the apples become hard and frozen, place them in storage bags.
- The container for apple slices should be tight. Use freezer bags, plastic containers or cups.
- Divide the slices into convenient portions so you can take them out one at a time.
The magazine “Miss Purity” found out that crispy, sweet and sour varieties of late-ripening apples, for example, everyone’s favorite Antonovka, are best stored. A trick to check if the variety is suitable for freezing: cut the apple in half and put it in the refrigerator for about 10 minutes. Then take it out and see if the flesh has darkened. If not, then feel free to freeze the crop.
What to cook: Cut the apples into circles rather than slices - they will effectively decorate the top of a cake or pie. After defrosting, the slices are suitable for cooking compote. Add them to salads, bake them with chicken or duck meat, and generally try all the same recipes as with fresh apples. For charlotte, prepare several varieties of apples at once - this will give the pie a unique aroma.
Suitable varieties
Not all varieties of apples are suitable for such processing and further storage. It is necessary to use the harvest of autumn and winter varieties with sweet and sour pulp.
You can freeze the following varieties: Antonovka, Sinap, Glory to the Winners, Richard, Kutuzovets, Golden. The harvest of such apple trees is perfectly preserved at sub-zero temperatures.
You can determine how suitable an apple variety is for freezing: you need to peel the fruit and place it on the top shelf of the refrigerator. If it does not darken after a while, you can safely freeze it.
Apples with sugar
The sweetness of the fruit is lost after prolonged freezing. To solve this problem, housewives have adapted to add sugar.
How to freeze apples in sugar:
- Wash the apples, dry them, remove the skin with a knife or vegetable peeler.
- Cut into convenient pieces, such as cubes or strips. Feel free to use slicers.
- Sprinkle with lemon juice or soak in a solution of citric acid (1 l per 5 g).
- Place the apples in a bowl and add sugar in a ratio of 5:1. You can use more sugar if the variety is sour.
- Stir gently and let it soak a little.
- Now place in containers, seal tightly and store.
What to cook: Wedges in their own juice make excellent fillings for pies and desserts.
Experimental product
In my large freezer, complete freezing is achieved in just a day. There was no time, and I remembered about the experiment only 3 days later. Well, good: you can defrost a few slices and see what they look like.
It seemed to me that after freezing the apples brightened. I put 3 slices on a saucer to try.
The rest was packaged in bags and sent for storage in a box of fruit and berry supplies.
I was going to check the defrosting of the box in an hour, but I went to scold the Belarusian stew and remembered the apples only after 3 hours. This is how scary they became:
Unsightly, dark, soft, but very tasty!
They are somewhat reminiscent of those baked in the microwave with sugar, only the sweetness is natural. A little like apples taken out of compote, just as wet.
I came to the following conclusion:
If you freeze apples, then only unique ones, such as box apples. It is better to store the rest in winter in more conventional ways or buy fresh in stores.
With syrup
Sugar syrup soaks the fruits, and as a result they remain sweet. How to cook:
- Mix sugar and water in a 1:2 ratio. Heat the syrup until the sugar grains dissolve.
- Prepare the apples as usual, pour warm syrup over them. Cover the plate with a lid and leave for a few minutes.
- The apples will release their juice, become saturated with sugar, and become very tender and sweet.
- To prevent the syrup slices from sticking together, drain the excess liquid using a colander.
- Freeze the pieces individually, then distribute into portions and freeze.
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What to cook Soaked apple pieces will be used as a filling in cakes and pies; they can be added to cereals, yoghurts and fruit salads.
How to freeze apples
There are several ways.
You can put whole fruits in the freezer.
There is a higher chance that the flesh will not darken. But you need too much space... Nothing better than this. Our usual late sweet apples are stored at the dacha until March, without any equipment.
Another popular storage method is pureeing and then freezing.
As for me, it’s easier to cook the same puree and roll it into jars than to fill the freezer with pectin mass.
The third way is to cut into slices.
Some housewives clean them, but I decided to keep the skin. A variation is to dip the slices in sugar before sending them to the cold, but my variety is already too sweet. I cut my box into quarters, removed the cores, and off I went. While I was processing it, I ate too much!
Puree
Puree from fruits, vegetables and berries is an indispensable item on the children's and dietary menu. Even in the freezer, applesauce remains aromatic and nutritious, although it has a much shorter shelf life than whole and candied slices.
How to make and freeze applesauce:
- We will prepare sugar-free puree so that we can use it for baby food.
- Wash the apples, cut them, remove the peel and seeds.
- Place the slices in a saucepan and turn on low heat.
- Sweat the fruit a little so that it warms up and becomes soft. There is no need to boil it - this will leave very few vitamins.
- You can add a little lemon juice to preserve the color.
- Almost done. Now cool the mixture and then distribute it into containers or bags. Better yet, place in ice cube trays to use apple cubes to garnish ice cream or cocktails.
What to cook Mashed potatoes will be an excellent filling for pancakes, pies, and baked goods. Spread the mixture on a sandwich, serve with pancakes or desserts, including ice cream.
Different opinions
On the Internet I have come across polar opposite opinions about freezing apples. From “wow, they look so fresh!” to “ugh, this is inedible.” They say they darken, lose their marketable appearance, and look like they’ve been soaked.
I also noticed that for some reason, ready-made frozen fruit mixtures rarely contain apples. Or maybe I just saw the wrong mixtures...
Many people wonder why stock apples at all, wasting valuable freezer space on readily available, inexpensive fruits. I wouldn't freeze regular fruit either. There are compotes and jam, you can cook jam or make puree with almost no sugar, which will quietly stand in a regular cupboard for a year.
But the box... Where can I get it in winter?
And sometimes you want natural sweet fruit from the tree, and not store-bought sterile fruits, free from defects and so glossy, as if polished.
In general, if you don’t try, you won’t know, I decided and prepared some boxes for freezing.
Expiration date and defrosting
Apples without additives are stored for up to 1 year, candied apples, in syrup - 6-8 months, and pureed - 2-3 months. If the freezer does not maintain low temperatures, the shelf life is reduced by 2-3 times. Don't forget to sign all your preparations so that you can use them on time.
Housewives recommend defrosting apple preparations gradually. First, the containers are moved to the refrigerator, allowed to thaw for a couple of hours, then transferred to room conditions.
Apple bins will ease the culinary worries of the housewife. It’s always convenient to have natural, sweet and vitamin-rich apples on hand, reminiscent of summer.
