Fresh vs frozen berries: When to use them in your cooking | The Neff Kitchen (2024)

FAQs

Fresh vs frozen berries: When to use them in your cooking | The Neff Kitchen? ›

Muffins, the more breakfast-appropriate cousin of the cupcake, are a prime opportunity to get more berries into your diet. Use fresh rather than frozen blueberries, as this will keep them more intact in your recipe and will stop them from 'melting' in the oven.

If cooking your berries into a pie filling, you may need to add additional thickening agents because frozen berries tend to release more liquid than fresh and will lead to a runnier consistency. For best results in your baking, don't defrost the berries before use but instead toss them in flour.

While frozen fruit can't completely replace fresh fruit, swapping in frozen berries will work perfectly well for most of your baking projects.

Nutrients in fruit are at their peak right after being picked. Because fruit is frozen quickly, it retains nutritional value. If your fresh fruit is truly fresh, the nutrient value may be similar. If your fresh fruit was shipped and sat on store shelves for a while, it may contain fewer nutrients.

If you use fresh berries, mix them right into the batter. If you use frozen berries, it's better to scatter them atop the cooking pancakes. If you mix them into the batter, they'll tint your pancakes a rather unappetizing shade of green.

Prevent your batter and baked goods from turning a purple-blue hue by rinsing frozen blueberries several times in cold water until the water becomes lighter in color. Then pat them dry on a paper towel and fold into your batter gently.

In fact, berries are often baked or made into jam when they're overripe and too soft, so there's absolutely nothing wrong with using frozen berries for baking.

Generally, unthawed frozen fruit offers top results in recipes that stay in the oven for a longer amount of time. For example, pies take about an hour whereas muffins need around 25 minutes. So, you might choose to use unthawed frozen fruit in a pie, but not muffins.

Raspberries: you can use frozen or fresh raspberries. If you're using frozen raspberries then use them straight away and don't let them thaw beforehand. If using fresh raspberries, after washing them make sure you dry them well (you can pat them dry with a paper towel). This prevents any excess moisture.

Fresh or frozen blueberries work great!

Should you wash frozen berries before eating? ›

Eating Unwashed Frozen Produce Is Generally Safe

coli. The USDA states that eating packaged fruits and vegetables labeled as "pre-washed" or "ready-to-eat" without additional washing is safe.

Frozen raspberries, blueberries, and cranberries are a treat—mixed with yogurt or oatmeal, or swirled into cream-based desserts. For a special, adults-only confection, mix frozen berries with some Angostura bitters and serve with whipped cream or mascarpone.

Consumer advice

New Zealand Food Safety's advice to consumers is to: Briefly boil frozen berries before eating them, or if you have a thermometer at home, ensure cooking temperatures exceed 85 degrees Celsius for 1 minute. Heated berries can be safely refrozen for later use.

Unlike bananas or citrus fruit, blueberries don't have a peel to protect them. They are fully exposed to the hazards of growing, harvesting, shipping, and storing, so you need to wash them before using them in a recipe or eating them.

Yes, you can store blueberries in a glass container or jar (like a Mason jar). Be sure the container is airtight and firmly closed to avoid moisture and freezer burn. Additionally, you'll want to ensure the glass is freezer-safe if freezing the blueberries.

Studies have shown that blueberry skins become tough when they are washed and then frozen, so it is generally recommended that blueberries not be washed prior to freezing - however, the extent to which the average consumer will notice tough blueberry skins is debatable.

If you use frozen blueberries the batter may seize up a bit due to the temperature, but the muffins should still bake up beautifully. I recommend sticking with fresh blueberries if possible!

Yes! Fresh cranberries freeze for up to a year and can often be substituted in recipes that call for fresh cranberries. When cooking with frozen cranberries, do not thaw before using.

And the great thing is that there's no difference in nutritional value. So when it comes to these homemade raspberry muffins, we almost always use frozen berries. It makes for an incredibly easy recipe that results in moist, delicious raspberry muffins.

Use the defrost setting on your microwave to the the fruit. Defrost them in small batches, we recommend no more than 1 cup at a time. Place the berries in a single layer on a plate, leaving space between the berries or fruit. For larger fruits such as Strawberries, set the time to 60 seconds.