Can you freeze apples? Apples are one of the most well-known and widely grown fruits. You can buy them at your local store all year round. So you bought a few pounds of apples and realized you couldn’t use them before they spoiled. Freezing seems like the best idea to save the apples for future use, but can you freeze apples? Lucky for you, apples can be frozen. In fact, there are a few methods to freeze them. Let’s discuss these.
Freeze apples
Freezing changes the texture of apples, making them not well-suited to eating raw in most cases. Rather use them in some baked dishes like baked apples or cakes. The most popular method of freezing apples is to freeze sliced apples. Sliced apples tend to turn brown as they freeze and thaw. To prevent this, there are a few things you can do before freezing:
- Dip sliced apples in lemon juice solution
- Soak sliced apples in brine solution (2 tablespoons of salt per 1 gallon of water)
- Sauté sliced apples for about 2 minutes
Any of the above methods will stop the enzyme that causes the browning.
Read Also: Can you freeze yams?
Freeze sliced apples
First you need to peel, core and slice the apples. After that, if you want to prevent them from turning brown, you should follow the steps of one of the methods mentioned. Now you need to place the sliced apples on a cooking sheet so that they do not touch. Then put the cooking sheet in the freezer. Once the slices are firm, remove the cook sheet from the freezer, place the slices in a ziplock storage bag, and place back in the freezer. There you can keep it for a year (and keep good quality).
Pre-freezing sliced apples prevents them from sticking together, so you can easily thaw as many slices as you need. If you plan to freeze them for a long time, be sure to double wrap them to avoid freezer burn.
Freezing sliced apples in syrup
If you want to use frozen apples for some uncooked dishes like fruit cocktails, this method of freezing will work best for your needs. So you have to peel, core and cut the apples to the desired size. You’ll be putting the slices in syrup directly in a container, so now it’s time to make the syrup. Use a syrup of 40 (2 cups of syrup per 3 cups of water) to 50 (1 cup of syrup per 1 cup of water) percent. To prevent the apples from turning brown, add half a teaspoon of ascorbic acid per liter of syrup. Now pour part of the prepared solution into the container and add the sliced apples directly to the prepared syrup.
When you have placed all the fruit in the container, press them down and add some syrup to cover them. Please remember to leave some headroom in the container – water expands as it freezes. Now a little trick to keep the slices under the syrup. Take a piece of waterproof paper, crumple it up and place it on top of the container. That’s enough for the trick. Now all you have to do is seal the container and place it in the freezer. There you can keep it in good quality for about a year.
Freeze whole apples
Wash the apples, dry them, then place them on a tray and prefreeze (similar to the previous method). Once frozen, they are placed in a freezer bag or ziplock storage bag and placed in the freezer. There you can keep them (and keep good quality) for about a year.
Some of the most popular uses of frozen apples include:
- apple butter
- Pies, cakes, other baked goods
- applesauce
- baked apples
summary
As you can see, you can freeze apples. You can freeze whole apples, but freezing them in slices is better. If you plan to use thawed apples in uncooked dishes, it’s best to freeze them in syrup. If you plan to use thawed apples in baking, you can freeze them without the syrup.