Frozen berries are a classic of the genre. Any housewife knows about this method of long-term storage of the summer harvest. But not everyone knows that apples can be frozen.
Meanwhile, frozen apples are a tasty and cheap source of vitamins in the winter months. In the summer, when there are a lot of garden apples and their prices are cheap, you can freeze fruits for the whole winter. This is much more useful than buying apples brought from afar at the supermarket. Purchased fruits can turn out to be tasteless, useless, and even potentially hazardous to health. In addition, their cost all year round is so high that it’s easier to buy bananas or oranges - it will cost less.
Important, that when frozen, apples do not lose either vitamins or taste. Therefore, they are much more useful than the same apple jam. You can feast on slices just like that or use frozen apples to cook a variety of dishes. How to freeze apples for the winter? Very simple.
Frozen apples - general principles of preparation
The whole process will take from 20 minutes to one hour. It’s not necessary to select perfect apples. If the fruit is slightly spoiled, it will also be suitable for freezing, you just need to cut out all the defects.
Fruits must be thoroughly washed and then dried thoroughly. You can freeze whole apples and apple slices. For whole fruits, it is advisable to cut the core, although it can also be frozen with seeds.
Most often, apples are cut into quarters or slices: so they take up less space in the freezer. It is not necessary to peel the peel at all; you can freeze apple slices with it. But to cut hard partitions and remove the seeds will have to. If desired, you can cut the skin with a sharp thin knife.
To harvest fruits, depending on the recipe, you will need:
• cutting board or baking sheet;
• packing bag or food-grade plastic containers;
• knife;
• powerful freezer.
The last item needs special attention. A weak freezer to freeze apples does not work, although it copes with berries. The ideal option is if the freezer can hold a temperature of -23 degrees.
Apples can be frozen just like that or with the addition of homemade preservatives. Of the role are citric acid, lemon juice, ascorbic acid, salt or sugar. You can store frozen apples for a year.
Frozen Apples Delicious Slices
The recipe is suitable for freezing small apples. If the garden tree is strewn with such apples, then you can make delicious slices of them literally in a matter of minutes. The number of fruits is approximate. You can load more sliced slices into a large chamber. How to freeze apples for the winter in this way?
Ingredients:
• two kilograms of apples.
Cooking method:
Trim the prepared apples with a sharp knife so that you get round slices of the same thickness. The seed box should remain intact.
Fold sliced slices into several packing bags in small portions (about a glass of sliced pieces in one bag).
Be sure to let the air out of the bag and tie.
Fold the bags in the freezer in one layer.
When the apples freeze well, they can be folded in several layers and set the usual temperature of the freezer.
Shock Frozen Apples
The taste of frozen apples made in this way is unusual. The recipe is suitable for large ripe fruits.
Ingredients:
• apples in any desired quantity.
Cooking method:
Cut dried dried fruit into halves, cut the core and cut into thin, neat slices.
Cover clean and completely dry baking sheets, kitchen boards or trays with a piece of cellophane. It will protect apples from freezing to the surface. You can do without cellophane, but only if the surface is as dry as possible.
Arrange apple slices in even rows so that the pieces do not touch.
Switch the freezer to shock freezing (-23 degrees).
Send the board or baking sheet to the freezer for two hours.
Arrange frozen slices in packing bags and put into storage in the freezer.
Switch the camera to normal freezing mode.
Frozen Apples with Citric Acid
To prevent apple slices from darkening and storing for a long time, you can use citric acid as a home preservative. Citric acid can optionally be replaced with lemon juice.
Ingredients:
• two kilograms of apples;
• two liters of water;
• ten grams of citric acid.
Cooking method:
Prepare a solution of citric acid (per liter of clean drinking water you need to take five grams of powder).
Cut clean apples into slices.
Dip the apples into the solution for twenty minutes.
Remove with a slotted spoon and dry the apple slices.
Pack in bags and freeze.
Instead of citric acid, you can squeeze the juice from the lemon into the water (a spoonful of juice per liter of water).
Frozen apples in saline
Salt solution will extend the safe storage of apples in the freezer for up to one year. From salted slices, you can prepare sauces for meat and vegetable dishes or dressings for salads. How to freeze apples for the winter with salt?
Ingredients:
• two to three kilograms of apples;
• four liters of water;
• thirty grams of salt.
Cooking method:
Dissolve the salt in a measured amount of water.
While the salt diverges, cut the apples in even, beautiful slices.
Dip apple slices in brine for five minutes.
Take out the apples and completely dry them.
Immediately lay out in packages or freeze first on a sheet, and then pack.
Frozen apples in sugar syrup
Another fine and well-known preservative for housewives is white sugar. Frozen apples prepared according to this recipe can be used exclusively for the preparation of sweet dishes.
Ingredients:
• one and a half kilograms of apples;
• three glasses of water;
• two glasses of sugar.
Cooking method:
Dissolve sugar in water.
Prepare apple slices.
Submerge them in syrup and mix well.
Arrange in bags or food containers and freeze.
Mashed Frozen Apples
How to freeze apples for the winter, turning them into mashed potatoes? Very easy. Moreover, you can vary the texture to your liking. It is tasty to add applesauce to cereals for babies.
Ingredients:
• kilogram of apples;
• one hundred grams of sugar (optional, you can not add).
Cooking method:
Cut apples into slices of arbitrary shape.
Grind in a blender or food processor until pureed.
Fold, add sugar and mix everything.
Send the pan to a small fire.
Strain for three minutes.
Arrange in plastic containers and put into the freezer.
Whole Frozen Ascorbed Apples
If you want to enjoy wonderful frozen apples or want to bake them with sugar and cinnamon, then you need to freeze whole fruits. And the role of preservative will be played by pharmaceutical ascorbic.
Ingredients:
• kilogram of apples;
• one and a half liters of water;
• fifty grams of ascorbic acid.
Cooking method:
Crush tablets of ascorbic acid or take the finished powder.
Dissolve in cold water.
Remove the core from washed and dried apples.
Submerge the apples in the ascorbic acid solution for five minutes.
Pack each apple in a tight bag for freezing (be sure to bleed air).
Send to the freezer.
Frozen apples with sugar and lemon
A delicious winter treat can be prepared by mixing apple slices with sugar, zest and juice of fragrant lemon.
Ingredients:
• one and a half kilograms of apples;
• one lemon;
• a glass of sugar.
Cooking method:
Ripe apples thoroughly wash and dry.
Remove the zest from the lemon.
Cut the lemon into halves and squeeze the juice.
In a suitable bowl or pan, combine the zest and juice.
Cut the fruit into beautiful slices, after cutting out the middle. Do not cut the skin.
Put the apple slices in a pot of lemon juice and mix well.
Pour granulated sugar, mix again. Too zealous is not necessary so as not to break apple slices.
Spread the tasty mass in strong bags and level it so that you get a thin layer.
Lay out on the bottom of the freezer in one layer. After the apples freeze, stack the bags one on top of the other.
Frozen Apples - Tips & Tricks
Apples for freezing need to be cut faster so that the slices do not have time to oxidize and turn yellow. During the cutting process, new servings of apples can be sprayed with lemon juice.
Apples need to be frozen in small portions, since after opening the bag or container, their contents must be used.
The uses for frozen apples are different. You can make sweet pastries from them: apples in the text, pies, charlotte, open and closed pies, strudel, muffins, gingerbread cookies. Pancakes with apple filling are also very tasty.
Great stews are made from frozen slices. Frozen berries can be added to apples, flavor compote with cinnamon, lemon.
An excellent light dessert is baked in the oven halves of apples stuffed with cottage cheese, nuts, honey with cinnamon powder.
Apple puree is a great diet option for spreading on sweet sandwiches. It may well replace high-calorie butter or sweet jam. And from freshly frozen applesauce you can cook pastille, marshmallows, sorbet - light, deliciously delicious treats.
You can also use sliced frozen apple slices for cooking unsweetened dishes. For example, a liver or a duck with apples are excellent. In addition, the apple component is appropriate in various sauces for meat or vegetable salad.
