How to prepare strawberries for the winter: recipes for preserving berries

Many people who love strawberries miss their favorite berry in winter.

In the article we will tell you what to do with strawberries in order to save it for the winter.

Strawberries for the winter: how to choose berries for storage

Nowadays, on the shelves of shops, strawberries flaunts year round. You can find sweet and large large-fruited strawberries even in winter.

But it should be noted that such berries are not suitable for harvesting for the winter, since they are grown under artificial light in a greenhouse, and sometimes even in a special hydrogel instead of natural soil. Despite the fact that such strawberries are also tasty, there are less nutrients in it than in the traditional way of growing under the rays of the summer sun.

It will be good if the berries were grown on film or mulch, as they are clean and do not require thorough rinsing.

Like raspberries, large-fruited strawberries do not like water procedures. It is necessary to wash the berries not under the tap, but by plunging a colander with strawberries into a basin of water.

Collected in July is considered to be the most suitable for harvesting strawberries. Fruits need to choose ripe, but not overripe and without green sides. For example, if you want to cook strawberry jam or compote, it is desirable that the berries are hard, whereas with overripe fruits this is not achieved, but from the latter you can make a delicious homemade wine.

How to freeze strawberries for the winter

There are several types of freezing berries.

Mashed potatoes

One of the great recipes for preparing strawberries for the winter is frozen mashed potatoes. It is necessary to grind strawberries with sugar and portion freeze. On half a kilo of berries, use 150 grams of sugar.

Grind the mixture with a blender or in another way (including grinding through a metal sieve). This kind of mashed potatoes is convenient to freeze in portions at a time. You can put a plastic bag in the container in advance, put the required amount of mashed potatoes and freeze them. Puree of these berries can also be frozen in the form for ice.Then you use it in milkshakes.

Whole

Consider how the harvesting of frozen strawberries for the winter without sugar. Berries need to be washed and put on paper, letting dry for about 15 minutes. Before freezing the berries, they should be laid out on a flat surface so that they do not touch.

After that, put the package in the freezer for half an hour, during which time the large-fruited strawberries will freeze and not lose their shape.

Ideally, a dry freeze is needed at minus 16 ° C, if your refrigerator is capable of a lower temperature - use it. Put such large-fruited strawberries in packages tightly to each other without fear that the strawberries will stick together or be dented. Do not forget to immediately decompose the berries into portions, since after defrosting they are no longer frozen.

To properly freeze, which will preserve useful properties, taste and vitamins, you need to use a few secrets:

• Do not wash the berries, as the upper layer will remain more dense and dry, which will not allow the strawberries to stick together and the juice will flow out less after defrosting.
• Do not tear off tails. This will keep the middle of the berry and will not allow oxygen to access it.As a result, the berries will be more whole.

In order to defrost the strawberries, it must be washed in a colander with cold water, then put on a paper towel. After 1.5 hours, strawberries can be eaten or used in desserts.

Sliced

For use in cocktails and desserts, it is convenient to freeze strawberries, cut into quarters. To do this, pre-prepared strawberries need to be cut and put on a plate. After that, freeze and gently shift into a container or package.

With sugar

If you want the strawberry to retain its sweetness, as well as its shape and color, when defrosting it should be frozen with sugar or powdered sugar. Prepared and washed berries put in a container and sprinkle with a little sugar each. Place the container in the freezer for a few hours, after which the berries shift into the package.

Harvesting berries, ground with sugar

Large-fruited wild strawberries ground with sugar are also called “live jam”. Opening a jar of such jam in winter, you can remember about summer with a warm sun and aromas. Since this jam is not subjected to heat treatment, the vitamins in it are retained in full.

For the preparation you will need ripe, fresh and clean strawberries, because it will not wash, as for this recipe, the soaked berries are not suitable and can spoil everything.

It is necessary to pour boiling water over the dishes that you will use for cooking, everything must be dry and sterile.

The berry needs to be crushed in a meat grinder or in a blender, in the latter it will be better, since the sugar will immediately mix. When grinding, you need to gradually add sugar.

Next, pour the mixture into sterile jars, pour a layer of sugar on top, so you do not need to apply a full jar. Then roll the jars with lids and store in a refrigerator at a temperature not higher than + 6 ° C. If you did everything right - live jam will be stored for a year.

How to dry the fruits for the winter

Strawberries can also be dried in the oven, dryer or aerogrill, or you can simply on the air. Very tasty chips are obtained from this berry. Since the assortment of dryers is different, before drying you need to read the instructions.

Drying time is different, mainly from six hours to 12. Let's take a closer look at how to dry large-fruited strawberries and what is needed for this.

In the oven

The easiest way, which does not require special equipment and training. Strawberries can be dried whole, thinly sliced ​​into plates (then strawberry chips will turn out) or cubes (for tea or baking).

Start drying by preparing the oven. It is heated at a temperature of 45-50 degrees. Rinse and dry the berries, you can lay out on a towel and let dry.

Strawberries spread out on a baking sheet in a single layer. It can be spread not on the baking sheet itself, but to lay parchment paper.

We look at the formation of moisture in the oven. You should periodically open the oven, turn the berries around, letting the moisture come out of the oven.

Watching the berries, when they shrivel a bit and become not so elastic - bring the temperature of the oven to 60-70 degrees. Drying is considered to be finished when it does not stick to the fingers during compression.

In the dryer

Drying in an electric dryer is almost the same as in the oven. Wash and dry the strawberries, after removing the stem.You can dry the berries on a cloth or paper towels. Dry whole berries or sliced.

If you dry them cut, the thickness of the plates should be about 4 mm, and small berries can be cut only in half or not cut at all. Prepared berries spread on a pallet in a single layer. It is recommended to lay out so that they do not touch each other.

It happens that in the pallets large holes and berries slip. Then you can buy special nets for drying small berries.

Turn on the electric dryer in a temperature range of 50-55 degrees. Check the berries from time to time. If necessary, tiers of pallets are interchanged so that the lower ones do not burn.

Ready berries look a little darker than the original color, plastic and soft, do not stick to fingers when squeezed.

Put the finished drying in clean and dry jars. Close the lid. Store in a room in a dark place. On pallets of electric dryers (usually there are five of them) about a kilogram of large-fruited strawberries is placed.Drying is obtained 70 grams from one kilogram. The shelf life of dried berries for two years.

In convection oven

You can also dry strawberries in convection ovens. Drying in aerogrill has several advantages:

• Drying time is much less (from 30 to 120 minutes).
• You can leave the berries to dry and not control the process.
• No need to turn them over and change pallets in some places.
• Approximately a kilogram of berries (± 200 g) can be dried in one go.
• The output of the finished drying from 300 to 500 grams.
• There is no heat in the kitchen during drying.

When drying in a convection oven, moisture does not go away and is not ventilated on its own. Therefore, at the time of drying you need to open the lid, for example, insert a skewer.

Before drying in the air grill, the berries are prepared in the same way as in the previous recipes. Spread them on the grid with a layer of 2-3 cm. Begin to dry in the convection oven from 45 degrees and at the end the temperature is adjusted to 60 degrees. Ready-made berries look soft and do not secrete juice when squeezed and do not stick to hands.

Jams, jams, compotes

Strawberry compote is very popular with children. Usually, rolling up strawberry compote, it is always sterilized. We give a simplified recipe of compote without sterilization.For cooking will need:

• Ripe strawberries (at the rate of 800 g per 3-liter jar)
• Sugar (200-250 g per 3-liter jar)
• Water (preferably filtered)

Cooking:

• Banks wash and sterilize (approximately 10 minutes under steam).
• Sterilize the lids (boil in a saucepan for 5 minutes).
• Rinse the strawberries, remove the stem.
• Fill it in the banks (1/3 banks).
• To boil water and pour on banks
• Let stand for 15 minutes (until the water turns a deep pink color).
• Drain the water from the cans into the pan.
• Add sugar (at the rate of 200-250 g per can).
• Boil the resulting syrup, stir the sugar until dissolved.
• Pour jars with berries to the top.
• Screw caps.
• Put the lids down and wrap something warm. Let stand for 6-8 hours.

Compote ready. Fans of strawberry jam often face a problem: the jam becomes dark and the fruit crawl away. The following recipe will allow you to minimize the loss in the beauty of jam. To cook 1 liter of jam, you need:

• strawberries - 900 grams;
• sugar - 700 grams;
• juice of one lemon.

1. Pour large-fruited strawberries into a large saucepan and cover with sugar. Leave for a few hours to let the juice run.
2. Place the pot on a slow fire and make sure that the sugar dissolves. In order not to scatter berries, do not mix the mixture, but shake. It is important that before boiling the sugar crystals do not remain.
3. Put the jam on a big fire and let it boil. Add lemon juice and strip for eight minutes.
4. Remove the jam from the heat, put a spoonful of jam on the plate. If the berry does not let the juice after pressing a finger - jam is ready. Otherwise, it should be put on the maximum fire for another three minutes.
5. Pour the jam into jars and let it stand for 15 minutes so that the hard part is lowered. After insisting roll banks.

To make jam, you will need:

• strawberries - 2 kg;
• sugar - 1.5 kg;
• lemon 1 pc.

1. Rinse the strawberries thoroughly, put in a colander and allow to drain. Retry and clean it from the tails.
2. Make a puree out of it with a blender, add sugar, mix and leave for a few hours.
3. Add lemon juice to puree.
4. Put the jam on a slow fire and cook,without forgetting to stir and remove the foam. Prepare the jam to the thickness you need.
5. Spread the jam over the jars and close the lids.

Dried strawberries

To preserve vitamins and nutrients for sure, make dried strawberries. It can be used as a dessert or added to tea. In addition, you will get strawberry juice and syrup when dried strawberries.

First, wash the berries and clean the tails. Then put in a bowl and add sugar (about 400 grams). Cover the bowl with a lid and put it in the fridge for a day.

The next day, pour the juice from the bowl into sterilized jars, close them with lids. You can use this juice for no more than two months.

350 grams of sugar, pour 400 ml of water and simmer. After the mixture boils, pour the berries into the resulting sugar syrup, which have previously been settled in the refrigerator. Cover the pan with a lid, continue cooking for five minutes.

After that, remove the syrup from the heat and let cool. Fifteen minutes later, pour the syrup into sterilized jars. To strain, use a colander. Banks roll up. Put the remaining berries on a baking sheet and let cool.Preheat the oven to 85ºС and place the cooled berries for half an hour. After that, remove the strawberries, let them cool, stir and put in the oven again. This action is repeated twice, but try not to overcook.

From the baking sheet large-fruited strawberries shift into a sieve and leave at a temperature of 30ºС. After 6-9 hours to shift the berries in paper bags.

In such packets, the sweetness must lie for six days. Dried strawberries are ready to eat. Ready dried dessert is stored at a temperature of 12-18 ° C in tightly closed glass jars.

Jelly

It is very easy to make strawberry jelly for the winter; even a beginner can get it done. Below you can find the basic recipes. Jelly with gelatin. To prepare, take:

• strawberries - 1 kg;
• sugar - 1 kg;
• gelatin - 1 kg.

1. Berries sort out, wash and tear off the tails.
2. Mash strawberries in a glass or enamel bowl and mix with sugar.
3. Bring the mixture to a boil, remove from heat. Let cool.
4. Bring the jam to the boil a second time and remove from the heat. Allow to cool, and at this time soak the gelatin in water.
5. Bring the jam to the boil for the third time, add the gelatin. Stir, remove from heat.
6. Pour hot jelly into sterilized jars and roll them.

Grated strawberry jelly For this you will need:

• strawberries - 1 kg;
• sugar - 1 cup;
• gelatin - 20 g

1. Take the berries, rinse in cold water and tear off the tails.
2. Make a strawberry smoothie using a blender.
3. Pour puree into a small saucepan, add gelatin and sugar, then put on medium heat and bring to a boil.
4. After boiling, leave the mixture on the stove, forgetting to stir. Pour jelly into jars.
5. After you have rolled up the jars of jelly, you need to boil them in a water bath for a few minutes.

Jelly without gelatin Take:

• strawberries - 1 kg;
• sugar - 1 cup;
• apples (unripe) - 500 g

1. Rinse and peel the fruit.
2. Chop apples and strawberries into mashed potatoes. Mix two kinds of mashed potatoes and add sugar. Put on the fire, bring to a boil.
3. Simmer the mixture until it thickens, stir constantly. Spread hot jelly over the banks and roll up.

Such jelly in winter can be spread on bread as an additive to porridge, yogurt, pancakes, cottage cheese, as well as to coat cake cake layers.

There are many ways to keep strawberries for the winter so that you can feel the taste of summer on cold days. Some of the recipes fully preserve the taste and structure of the berries, while others allow you to save the vitamins and the sweetness of strawberries.