There’s little better than ripe fresh fruit eaten out of hand, but when you have too much to eat before it goes bad, do the next best thing: freeze your fruit. It’s easy and economical—a no-brainer way to extend the life of anything sweet and fresh that’s sitting on your counter, threatening to get squishy or grow mold.
Why should you freeze fruit anyway?
Sticking your fruit in the freezer does alter its texture, but it’s the best way to preserve every bit of flavor without the help of sugar or additives. It’s useful if you have a surplus of something, or if you find fruit on a crazy sale. It’s also helpful if you don’t buy a particular ingredient regularly, but know you’ll need it in pinch at some point down the road.
Keep frozen berries, apples, cherries, or bananas on hand to make desserts, like pies, cobblers, grunts, and clafoutis; use frozen tropical fruits to flavor smoothies while keeping them cold at the same time. Freeze the juice and zest of citrus to use mid-cooking anytime you need it, whether it’s to add acidity to a pan sauce or zest in a loaf of pound cake. And last but not least, for a refreshing treat, fruits like grapes, honeydew, and bananas taste wonderful eaten straight out of the freezer.
A step-by-step guide to freezing any fruit
Here’s a simple method that’ll allow you to freeze almost any fruit. It’s straightforward (although depending on the fruit’s water content and structure, you may want to refer to the additional, fruit-specific notes below). But the key things to remember are these: Moisture and air are the enemy of frozen foods.
Wash and dry your fruit thoroughly.If the fruit has a skin, peel it. Carve away any bruises, gashes, or other undesirable spots.If your fruit is larger than bite-sized, cut or slice it into uniformly-sized pieces of your chosen size.Pat your fruit dry again with a towel or paper towel. Aim to remove as much moisture as possible.Transfer fruit to a tray covered with parchment paper (this is where a bench scraper comes in handy). Spread fruit into a single layer. Cover with plastic cling wrap, transfer tray to the freezer, and freeze for several hours or overnight.Remove your tray from freezer. Gently peel fruit off the parchment paper and transfer to labeled freezer bags. Squeeze as much air as you can out of freezer bags before sealing them. Your fruit’s ready to go, and will keep in the freezer for 6 to 9 months.What to know about freezing specific fruits
Because every fruit is different, there are a few tips for each that will help you freeze each one more effectively. Here’s what you need to know for:
Apples: Sweet apples tend to hold their flavor better in the freezer than tart varieties. Peel their skins and slice them before freezing; if you’re freezing a large batch and want to prevent browning, soak the apples in a saltwater solution as you’re prepping them.Bananas: Peel and slice before freezing.Berries: Wash blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, or strawberries, stem if necessary, and dry thoroughly before freezing whole. (Strawberries take well to being sliced, too.)Citrus: The best freezer method for preserving lemons, limes, grapefruit, or oranges is to save the zest and the juice separately. Juice the citrus and transfer juice to an ice cube tray to freeze. (You could also freeze in a seal-tight plastic bag and lay it flat to freeze.) You could simply zest citrus directly into a freezer bag, but here’s a tip I love, courtesy of Baking Bites: Divide citrus zest into single serving portions (such as teaspoons or tablespoons) for convenience.Kiwi: Peel and slice before freezing.Mangoes: Peel and cut your mango before freezing it.Melons: Cantaloupe, honeydew, and Crenshaw varieties freeze well; watermelon does not, due to its very high water content.Pineapple: Peel and core pineapple before slicing and cutting, then freeze. If your pineapple is particularly ripe, save the leftover juice and freeze that too.Stone fruit: Peel peaches, plums, and pluots before slicing and freezing. Apricots do not require peeling. Cherries should be pitted before freezing.Get started on your new fruit freezing hobby:
Is freezing your own fruit better than store-bought?
First, a disclaimer: I buy frozen fruit all the time. I’m an avid smoothie drinker and I love to play around with flavors, so I often buy bags of specific items that aren’t seasonally available, like cherries and peaches, to throw into my blended drinks. But I still also freeze my own fruit, because it’s the best way to control quality, especially the level of ripeness.
You can also control for what’s actually in your fruit: Store-bought, already-frozen pineapple often includes the mouth-irritating core of the the fruit. But when I plop my own frozen pineapple into the blender, I know my smoothie will only have sweet, tender pieces of pineapple in it. The same goes for mango pieces.
Freezing your own fruit also allows you to control for variables like size and cut. And while store-bought frozen fruit often comes with chunks of ice in it, if you thoroughly pat your fruit dry, you won’t have to deal with any frost-related dilution with your home-frozen bounty.
