Freezing plums for the winter at home in the freezer in bags, with pits and in syrup

In this article we will look at ways to freeze plums. This is very useful, because the fruit does not lose vitamins, and it can be used for various purposes.

Plum is a very healthy berry that contains a number of vitamins and microelements necessary for the body. Plums of almost all varieties are rich in pectin, organic acids, vitamin C, A, B1, B2, PP, etc. Also, plums have a diuretic and laxative effect.

In summer, of course, plums are enough, but in winter you can use plums to prepare various desserts and drinks. You can preserve the fruits, but it is worth remembering that during heat treatment the plum loses some beneficial properties. In this case, it is best to freeze the fruits.

Benefits of freezing plums: basic rules

Freezing has many benefits, such as:

• Maximum nutrients are retained
• Easy to prepare
• Minimizing time spent
• Almost anything can be made from frozen food, unlike canned plums. For example, puree, sauce, compote, jelly, etc.

Frozen plums
First of all, the fruits need to be sorted well, washed and dried. But in order for the plum to last as long as possible and not spoil, immediately after freezing you need to follow some simple rules:

1. Give preference to plum varieties in which the pit is easily separated from the pulp.
2. It is better to use the Hungarian variety, but round plums will also work.
3. Small plums are frozen with pits.
4. For compotes and jelly, you can use frozen plums in syrup.
5. You should not choose overripe fruits. The berry should be firm and ripe without damage or cracks.
6. Juicy plums are also not suitable for freezing.
7. Plums shouldn't be green.
8. It is best to think in advance what you will make from frozen plums. For example, if you cook compote, then you should sort the berries by 500 g per serving.
9. Frozen berries can be stored for up to 9 months only at -18°C.
10. To quickly figure out which plums you have prepared and why, you need to include a piece of paper with a description in the freezing bags.

Before freezing plums, you need to sort through and remove green, overripe, wormy and cracked fruits. You need to tear off the stem from the plum, then rinse it and put it in the refrigerator. Leave for 30 minutes and then dry. To speed up the process, you can use a paper towel.

Plums should be laid out in one layer so that the fruits do not get crushed. The bags need to be tied. And the next day, remove from the freezer and release all the air from the bags, this will keep the fruits longer. Before freezing the berries, you should taste them. If the plum has a reddish tint and is slightly juicy, then such fruits are excellent for freezing.

If the taste is tart and the consistency is grainy, then it is better not to use such a plum. If the plums are not quite ripe, then you can leave the picked fruits at room temperature for several days until they ripen.

How to defrost

Experienced housewives advise defrosting fruits gradually. This is necessary so that they do not turn into a mushy mass. After freezing the plum, transfer it to a plate and place it on one of the shelves in the refrigerator. Leave it like this for several hours. When the product thaws, remove the released moisture from the container and place it at room temperature for 60 minutes. Next, prepare the intended dish.

Please note that re-freezing plums is not recommended.

How to freeze pitted plums: recipe

Freezing pitted plums is very easy. To do this, you need to choose a plum variety whose pit is easy to get, then prepare the fruit for freezing, sort, rinse and divide into 2 parts. After this, you can cut the fruits into 2-4 parts, but you can also freeze half.

• Large fruits are best, fleshy, but with a small amount of juice so that the frozen berries do not stick together. If you freeze plums in slices or small cubes, then in this case you need to choose very hard fruits so that when cutting, the plum does not turn into mush.
• The slices can be placed on a tray and left in the freezer for only 2 hours, but first they need to be thoroughly dried on a cloth or paper towel.
• It is worth freezing completely dry fruits. Place the prepared plums on a board or baking sheet lined with cling film and place in the freezer overnight. It is worth laying out so that the fruits do not touch each other. If you can’t wait that long, it’s enough to leave it for 4 hours.
• After this procedure, place the plum in a bag or special container. This plum is perfect for making pies, jellies and other desserts. If you plan to make sauce from frozen plums, it is best to prepare the fruits without peel.

Before freezing plums, you need to blanch.
To remove the skin from plums, you should perform the blanching process, for this you need:

1. Rinse the fruit
2. Make a cross-shaped cut at the base of the plum
3. Place in boiling water for 5 seconds. To do this you need a colander
4. Next, dip the plums in ice water. You can even add a few ice cubes
5. Afterwards, remove the skin
6. Remove pits and cut plums
7. Carry out the pre-freezing process
8. And sort into packages

We further sort the frozen plums.
After you have put the workpiece into bags or containers, you should not freeze the plums again. It may deteriorate or stick together. Therefore, it is very important to sort the sliced ​​plums into portions.

Selection and preparation of plums

To make the preparation tasty in the winter, you need to carefully select the raw materials. The plum should be ripe, but not overripe, so the fruit slices will retain their correct shape and, after freezing, will not turn into an unappetizing mess. Unripe plums are not suitable for winter storage; they will not give the desired taste and aroma. Even greenish fruits cooked with sugar have a specific sour, astringent taste. The best varieties are considered to be those that have dense pulp, without excess wateriness and hard fibers:

• Zarechnaya early;
• July;
• Souvenir of the East;
• Empress;
• Urogrka;
• Giant.

You can freeze plums of any color and ripening period (early, late) for the winter, the main thing is that their structure meets the requirements. Large fruits are separated from the stone, and small ones are frozen in their original form. Before starting the preparation process, the plums are placed in a basin or bucket and filled with cold water. Leave for 5-10 minutes in water, and then carefully wash under running water. Some varieties have a characteristic waxy coating; you don’t need to try to get rid of it at all costs; just wash off the dust from the fruit, remove the stems, and then dry the plums well, scattering them on a clean litter in a draft or blotting them with a towel.

Attention! It is also important to sort through the plums stored for the winter and remove crushed, damaged or moldy fruits.

How to freeze plums in sugar: recipe

You can prepare plums for compote and desserts directly with sugar or in sugar syrup. The principle of freezing is the same. You should immediately prepare the fruits, separate the seeds and dry them.

The method of freezing plums with sugar is suitable even for ripe and juicy plums. But due to the abundance of juice, the plum should not be cut into small slices, it is best only into 2 parts.

• Sprinkle a little sugar on the bottom of the container, then place the prepared fruits cut side up and sprinkle with sugar. And so create a couple more layers.
• This method is only suitable for those who have a sweet tooth. In addition to compote, plums in sugar can be added to pies, and to create various cocktails and jellies.

Preparing plums for freezing
There is another way to freeze plums with sugar:

• Prepare the fruits
• In a deep container, mix granulated sugar and plums in a ratio of 1:5
• Place the workpiece in containers or special bags

Preparing berries for freezing

Before freezing, you need to follow two mandatory procedures: wash the berries and dry them thoroughly.

The berries are washed under a tap or in a large basin, but usually they have virtually no contamination, so long soaking is not required.

Clean plums are wiped with towels until completely dry.

How to freeze plums in syrup: recipe

A more time-consuming method of freezing is plums in syrup . Despite this, the fruits are incredibly tasty and are great for creating any desserts. They taste a little like canned plums and are great for vanilla ice cream with whipped cream.

In order to freeze plums in syrup, you first need to prepare the plum:

1. Rinse and sort
2. Peel using the blanching method if the peel is thick
3. Remove pit
4. And cut into quarters or wedges if desired.

To prevent plums from losing their color, the prepared fruits should be sprinkled with lemon juice. This method is good because the shelf life of plums increases to 12 months.

Cooking plums in syrup

Next, you need to prepare the syrup, it comes in different types:

• Light syrup . Heat 700 ml of water, add 200 g of sugar. Stir well to dissolve the sugar and cool the syrup slightly.
• Thick. For 700 ml of water you need to take 400 g of sugar.
• Fruit syrup. To do this, you need to take plum, grape or apple juice, preferably natural. It needs to be slightly heated and poured over the prepared plums.

Any syrup must be completely poured over the fruit in the bag or container. The plums in syrup need to be kept in the refrigerator for several hours, and then placed in the freezer.

If you need to defrost plums in syrup, you should remove the bag from the freezer and leave it to defrost in the refrigerator or on the kitchen counter. Do not put the bag of plums in hot water, as this will spoil the consistency of the fruit. Immediately frozen plums can only be added to compotes.

Freezing plums: 6 simple ideas for delicious preparations

There are many interesting ways to freeze plums for the winter. The most popular are whole fruits, halves, pieces, purees, in sugar and sweet syrup. Perhaps after reading the article you will come up with an original idea on how to prepare frozen plums for the winter.

Selection of fruits and preparation for freezing

To partially preserve their shape, choose plums that are dense, always ripe, but not overripe. Fruits that are even partially rotten, spoiled by pests, or cracked or deformed in other ways are not suitable. Do not prepare green plums either: they will be tasteless.

Fruits that are too soft and juicy are also frozen, but not in pieces, but in the form of puree and sweet syrup.

All berries must be thoroughly washed and dried before freezing. Wipe the fruit with a napkin to speed up drying.

6 simple recipes

Plums can be preserved for the winter in several forms. Choose one or more to provide yourself with preparations for different dishes: salads, compotes, desserts, additions to cereals, baby food, etc.

Entirely

If you put the fruits in a common bag and send them for storage, nothing good will come of it. They will stick together, wrinkle and spoil. How to properly preserve whole plums for the winter:

1. First, freeze the washed and dried fruits separately. Cover a baking sheet with cling film and place the fruit on it in an even layer.
2. Keep the berries in the freezer for about 5-10 hours.
3. When they freeze and become dense, pour them in small portions into bags or place them in rows in containers.
4. Pack tightly to prevent foreign odors from penetrating, preferably in two layers.

Advice With whole plums, in which the seeds are preserved, the most aromatic compotes are obtained.

Slicing

Chopped plums save space in the freezing chamber. After thawing, they will not need further processing: just add them to salads, cook compotes, make smoothies.

Recipe:

1. Plums with dense pulp are easy to cut into cubes, slices, circles and even grate.
2. The pieces should be frozen before placing them in a common container, but if you package them in small portions for one-time use, then this procedure is not necessary.
3. Remember to remove air from the packaging and pack everything tightly.

Advice: “Miss Clean” magazine recommends removing too thick skin from plums.

Puree

It is recommended to puree those fruits that are a little overripe, but have not yet begun to rot. Their pulp is easily crushed into a homogeneous mass.

Recipe:

1. Remove the seeds. Chop the fruit and place it in a blender bowl to get the most homogeneous mass possible. For those who like mashed potatoes with pieces, there is another option - a meat grinder or a coarse grater.
2. Try the puree. If it is sour, add a little sugar and mix well.
3. Freeze the mixture in small portions. Containers, cups and ice trays are suitable. Use silicone candy and cookie cutters to freeze plum puree into interesting shapes.
4. Freeze portions of puree for 1 day. If desired, remove the frozen pieces from the molds and transfer them to bags. Use the empty containers for the next workpiece.

Advice: Never refreeze thawed fruit. Ensure stable operation of the freezer. If a malfunction occurs and the food melts, immediately prepare different dishes from everything, including canned food.

In sweet syrup

Plum juice can be easily obtained by soaking the pieces in sweet syrup. Moisture release will increase at room temperature.

Recipe

1. Prepare sugar syrup by mixing 2 cups of water and 1 cup of sugar. If the variety is very sweet, then it is better to reduce the amount of sugar.
2. Pour syrup over the sliced ​​fruit so that it does not completely cover the pieces.
3. Let me stand.
4. When enough juice has been released, pack the workpiece and store it in the freezer.

Prepare sweet and aromatic compotes from such plums.

Tip To prevent the syrup from spoiling the packaging when it expands from the cold, leave a little space in it.

Enjoying fragrant, ripe and healthy plums in winter is easier than ever when you have a powerful and large freezer. Provide yourself with a vitamin menu during the ripening period of these fruits, and winter illnesses will bypass you.

Source: https://mschistota.ru/ovoshhi-i-frukty/zamorozka-slivy.html

How to freeze whole plums for the winter?

In order for plums to please you in winter, you should choose only ripe, juicy and intact fruits. It’s worth remembering here that the tastier the plum, the better, it will be the same after freezing. Therefore, you need to choose fruits carefully; not quite ripe fruits are not suitable; in this case, they should be left to ripen for several days.

• To freeze a whole plum, you need to rinse it well and dry it on a towel. Place on a baking sheet or board and place in the freezer overnight.
• Next, the fruits are placed in bags and all air is removed using a vacuum pump or tube. This way the plums won't stick together and take up little space in the freezer.

Freezing whole plums
Whole frozen plums are suitable not only for compotes, but also serve as a separate dessert. The main thing is to choose really tasty fruits, otherwise it will be too sour.

Rules for defrosting plums

The frozen delicacy can be used in the preparation of various fillings in confectionery products, in the preparation of drinks, baby food, and also in its pure form.

To preserve all the beneficial properties, as well as appearance, you should defrost, following some recommendations:

• This must be done exclusively in a natural way. You cannot defrost berries in warm water or in the microwave; in this case, the berries will be hopelessly spoiled;
• After defrosting, a small amount of liquid will appear in the container. It can be poured into a separate container and then used;
• If the plums have been thawed, they should be used. There is no need to freeze them a second time.

Often, when preparing confectionery, housewives use plums without defrosting them completely. Frozen plums will be a real treat during the cold season.

How to freeze plums as puree: recipe

Plum puree is an excellent filling for pies, pancakes, various pastries; this puree can be poured over ice cream or cottage cheese casseroles. To prepare plum mass, you need to choose ripe and very sweet fruits, then the puree will turn out excellent. Of course, the plum needs to be washed and peeled, and the core removed.

• Grind the fruits using a blender and sprinkle with sugar or powdered sugar, per 1 kg of fruit - 400 g of sugar or 600 g of powder. Pour this mixture into a container and leave it in the freezer.
• You should defrost gradually, in the refrigerator, on the kitchen counter or under cold water.
• Sometimes the finished mass is boiled, but this is not at all necessary. Also, instead of sugar, you can use syrup (thick or fruity).

IMPORTANT: Jams, jams and other homemade preparations are certainly good for preserving summer fruits, but it is worth remembering that during heat treatment all the taste of the fruit is lost. Therefore, many housewives prefer frozen fruits and vegetables.

Frozen plum puree
Freezing is a very quick and reliable way to preserve summer fruits for winter. Before you start harvesting plums for the winter, you need to prepare a place in the freezer, because fruits should be stored separately from meat and fish products. It is best to have a separate compartment for frozen fruit.

What to cook from frozen plums

Before you cook anything from frozen food, you need to defrost it properly. If an ingredient is needed for cooking compote, then you can throw it straight from the freezer into boiling water. For all other dishes that require preserving the whole fruit, slow defrosting is used. The plums are left to thaw in the vegetable compartment of the refrigerator.

The slices are great for pie filling. The bottom of the yeast dough is rolled out, defrosted plums are laid out, sugar and pieces of butter are added. The top is also covered with dough, and the edges are sealed. Bake the pie in the oven at 210°C until golden brown.

You can make delicious marmalade from frozen plum puree. The mass is boiled until thick, until it begins to lag behind the bottom of the pan. The boiled puree will reduce by about half. The marmalade is allowed to harden, cut into pieces, and sprinkled with sugar.

Shelf life

In a chamber where the temperature is kept at -10 °C, the berries are stored for up to six months. If the temperature is below -18 °C, the period increases to 9 months. Each bag or container should be labeled with the date it was frozen. The product that was prepared earlier is moved to the top to be used first.

Freezing plums is a fairly simple process. If you do this correctly, you can quickly prepare a large volume of berries, the taste of which will not deteriorate after defrosting, and the vitamins will be preserved.

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Features of freezing different varieties

Not all plum varieties are suitable for freezing. It is better to process Ekaterininskaya and Victoria in another way: make jam, compote or grind with sugar.

Varieties suitable for freezer storage:

• Renclod and Grand Duke - the fruits are easy to pit and can be frozen whole or in slices.
• Anna Shpet - the pulp comes off with difficulty, so the plum is not cut.

Benefits and contraindications

The value of plums is that their regular consumption strengthens the walls of blood vessels, normalizes blood pressure in older people, and reduces the risk of heart disease. Young children are advised to include plum puree in their diet, which helps normalize intestinal motility, relieve constipation and remove toxins. These fruits are useful for pregnant women who need to improve digestion. The fruits are indicated for gout and rheumatism.

You should not eat plums if you have diabetes because of the high glucose content. This is especially true for dried fruits. Those who suffer from stomach ulcers or high acidity should also refrain from eating these plums. There are contraindications for renal failure and glomerulonephritis.

Freezing fruit without bones

The question “Are plums frozen?” interests many housewives. The fruits are known for their unusual tart and sour taste. Ripe fruits that can be eaten are used for freezing. Late varieties of Hungarian plum are best suited. Its structure is quite dense, fleshy and juicy.

Fruits are selected without dents or spoilage and not overripe. Plums for freezing should be elastic to the touch, with a slight grayish coating.

Sort the plums and rinse well with waste water. Place on a cloth and wait until dry. Place the plums on a flat tray, lining them up in a row. It is advisable to prevent freezing by making sure that the plums do not come into contact with each other.

Place the tray in the freezer. After a few hours, when the pulp has completely hardened (approximately 4 hours with blast freezing), remove the container of plums from the freezer and begin packing them into a vacuum bag. Label it with the date it was frozen and put it back in the freezer for storage.

We invite you to familiarize yourself with: Blue egg plum variety description photo

Sort, wash the plums and remove the bones from them. Cut the fruit into pieces or slices (if the bone can be removed well), place on a flat dish in one layer and place in the freezer for 4 hours (blast freezing) until the slices are frozen.

Candied frozen plums are quite worth the effort on a cold winter day. How much sugar you need to add will depend entirely on the sweetness of the plum variety. Focus on the ratio of 1 sugar to 5 fruit pulp.

• cut the pulp into pieces, removing the seeds;
• Lay the pieces of fruit in a saucepan, sprinkling each layer with sugar;
• Stir slowly so as not to crush the cut pieces.

After stirring, place the contents of the pan into trays, vacuum bags or plastic bags. Then send for freezing and further storage in the freezer.

If the plums are completely dry and firm, they can be frozen without a preliminary step.

But they should not be poured into one large bag and put in the freezer. Indeed, in this form, even strong plums can bruise and produce juice that holds the fruits together no worse than cement.

• Place several plums in bags in one layer, trying to make sure that they do not lie very tightly.
• The bags are tied and put in the freezer.
• The next day, the bags are untied, all the air is released from them (now the plums will not be wrinkled), tied well and put back in the freezer.