How to freeze apples for the winter: useful tips

"Apples, bulk, amber!". Today there is no need to advertise them. Sold year round absolutely everywhere. With due diligence, you can perfectly keep it from your garden until March. And what about those who have nowhere to store fruit? There is a way out if there is a freezer.

How to freeze apples for the winter? Skeptics will now say that after defrosting, a shapeless mass is obtained, fruits lose vitamins. And here is a lie! Of course, the consistency will not be the same, but it’s far from being smeared. By the way, vitamins in a frozen apple remain about 85-90%, so do not rant in vain. Indeed, they enjoy summer berries after defrosting with pleasure. Why is an apple worse? You just need to freeze it correctly.

Choose apples correctly

For the laziest, there is a simple method: wash the fruit thoroughly and completely cram it into the freezer. Naturally in a plastic bag. In winter, we get, thaw and burst. Remember, many in childhood parents often took solid icy fruits directly from the snowdrift. Defrosted on a saucer near the stove or battery. That taste is impossible to forget!

And what prevents to do so now? But now the sense of aesthetics is in the way. It's already not interesting to just eat a thawed apple. Yes, and on an open pie such a thing does not look at all. I want beautiful, even slices, light color. As you want in the summer. So everything is quite doable.

Appearance initially does not really matter, because fruits must be peeled. The main thing is that they are ripe and without rotten barrels. Excessive scratches or dents are also not very welcome. By the way, green fruits after defrosting have a much less pleasant taste than yellow or red ones. It is worth considering this.

And the last criterion is juiciness. Loose, "cotton" fruits will not give that very pleasant juice.

Sequencing

The apples are thoroughly washed with a soft brush, dried on a rag towel. Prepare cold water in advance. Freshly squeezed lemon juice is added or citric acid is dissolved. Without fanaticism! Just to a slightly sour taste.

The fruits are peeled, cut into 4 parts. So it will be easier to remove the bones. After cutting the core, the quarters are cut into slices (decorate charlotte or pie), cubes (suitable for filling pies or compote), large straws (ideal layer for roll). Applesauce is sometimes required. For example, for sauce. In this case - a grater to the rescue!

Tip. You can not bother and just cut the apples in circles. But then the freezing process will take much longer and in small volumes. Below it will be clear why.

Prepared slices are immediately immersed in a bowl of acidified water. 10 minutes will be enough. This will allow apples to remain light without oxidation in the open air. Of course, this item does not apply to mashed potatoes.

Next, take the largest baking sheet, which only fits into the freezer. A cutting board or thick cardboard is suitable. Cover with dense polyethylene. Apple blanks are placed on it in one layer. They try not to cling to each other, otherwise they will freeze in one piece. A little circles will settle down a little!

Top cover with a second bag or film, sent to the freezer for 2-3 hours. Mashed potatoes can be frozen on small plates, which are also covered.

For the time while the primary cooling is in progress, it is necessary to prepare containers from food plastic. Wash and dry them. As an alternative, reusable zip-fastener bags will work.

They take out slightly frosted apples, pour them into prepared containers and put them back into the freezer.Now for long-term storage. Pancakes of frozen mashed potatoes can be wrapped in several layers of cling film.

Such blanks are perfectly stored for 10 months.

Tip. It is necessary to lay out the prepared fruits in small portions so that in winter you do not have to pull out the entire package from the freezer.

Useful Tips

1. A piece of greenhouse film is ideal for primary freezing. Naturally new and thoroughly washed.
2. To facilitate the freezing of frost on long-term storage, an old thick towel can be put under the polyethylene. Then the film will definitely not break through under the weight of the fruit.
3. Some freezers have a “quick freeze” function. When used, the initial cooling time is reduced to 30 minutes.
4. For long-term storage, modern industry offers special packages for freezing. They are called that. They cost a penny, are sold in every hardware store or department. They save a lot of time, and most importantly, do not let odors out. And the standard freezer is very rich in them. If you do not want to enjoy apples with the aroma of dill or raw meat, then you should definitely pay close attention to these bags.
5. When pouring, all actions should be as quick as possible, but neat. It’s difficult to break the cubes, but the slices are easy. This will not affect the taste, but the desired beauty on the open pie will not work. Speed ​​is important for one reason: if you procrastinate, the upper frozen crust on the fruit will thaw, and they will stick together in such a monolith that only a hammer will help. There is no longer up to the beauty of the fruit, here you have to catch pieces throughout the kitchen from bumps.
6. If for some reason this happened, and the apples stuck in the freezer, then everything is fixable. You can fill them with sugar and make a wonderful fragrant jam or jam. Or put the whole briquette in boiling water and cook a vitamin compote.
7. Any freeze is always signed. Do not rely on your memory, use a permanent marker, it is not washed off with water and is clearly visible.

How to freeze apples for the winter? Surely spending some time in the fall. But in winter, you get double savings: time for fruit preparation and money to buy them. And the health benefits and pleasure of households are simply invaluable. Especially if apples from their subsidiary plots.

Video: how to freeze apples