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- Summer fruits from the freezer: freeze sweet cherries
- Prepare sweet cherries for freezing
- Deep freeze, step by step
- Thaw sweet cherries and process
The sweet cherries should be as fresh as possible for freezing
Summer fruits from the freezer: freeze sweet cherries
The delicious sweet cherries have one major drawback: they all mature at the same time. To be able to nibble and process delicious cherries outside the harvest season, it is worthwhile to freeze sweet cherries.
Prepare sweet cherries for freezing
If you want to freeze sweet cherries, you should use freshly picked or just bought cherries. Every day the sweet cherries lose their aroma. Also, they should have no brown spots or other quirks, as this greatly reduces their shelf life in the frozen state and also savor the taste of sweet cherries.
Wash the cherries, drain them thoroughly and remove the stems. Now you have to decide if you want to stone the sweet cherries before freezing. Preserved cherries can be used as needed without additional steps. Kernel frozen cherries have the advantage of keeping them juicier and more easily digested in the semi-frozen state than fresh sweet cherries.
Deep freeze, step by step
- Spread the prepared sweet cherries next to each other on a cutting board or plate and put them in the *** freezer for at least two hours. This step is especially important with stoned cherries, as this will prevent the cherries from freezing to a lump. Fill the frozen cherries into freezer containers. You can choose between freezer bags, cotton bags and plastic or stainless steel boxes. Label the containers with the freezing date and close them carefully. Put the pre-frozen sweet cherries in their freezer containers back into the freezer. At -18 ° C, they still taste good after one year of storage.
Thaw sweet cherries and process
The type of defrosting depends on how you want to use the sweet cherries. For a freshly prepared compote, for example, you can put the cherries directly frozen in the saucepan. If sweet cherries are needed for cold desserts or for baking, you can thaw them in a sieve and at the same time catch dripping cherry juice.
If you have not yet gutted your cherries, follow these steps: Remove the sweet cherries from the freezer and thaw them so that you can easily cut them in with a sharp knife. If you chop the cherries in this condition, the kernel will dissolve more easily from the pulp and the cherries will lose less juice than when pitted with fresh sweet cherries.
Thawed sweet cherries have a much softer consistency than the fresh fruits. But since they get their good taste and their vitamins, freezing sweet cherries is still worthwhile.