Freezing expert and author Justine Pattison shows us how to freeze strawberries in syrup: “This is a great way to make a delicious strawberry sauce for ice cream sundaes and for topping cheesecakes, pancakes, waffles and panna cotta. As well as creating a fuss-free dessert served simply with cream or ice cream.”
How to freeze:
- Put your freezer setting onto Fast Freeze at least two hours before adding the strawberries or clear some space in the rapid freezing section/coldest part of your freezer. Freezing the strawberries quickly will help them retain as much of the flavour and texture as possible.
- For every 250g strawberries that you are freezing, put 150g caster sugar and 50ml water in a saucepan.
- Heat gently, stirring regularly, until the sugar dissolves then increase the heat and bring to a simmer. Cook for 1 minute then remove from the heat and leave to cool completely.
- Wash your strawberries lightly by placing in a colander and rinsing under the cold tap for a few seconds.
- Hull the strawberries by pinching out the green stalk end.
- Put the strawberries in a rigid freezer-proof container with a lid until they come roughly 2/3 of the way up the sides.
- Pour over the cooled syrup, leaving around 3cm headroom at the top of the container to allow for expansion.
- At this point the strawberries will float towards the surface, so half fill a small freezer-bag with water and seal with a knot. Place on top of the strawberries so they remain submerged in the syrup.
- Cover, label and freeze for up to 6 months. Fast freeze can be turned down once the strawberries are solid, this should take 2-3 hours.
How to defrost:
Defrost the strawberries in their container in the fridge overnight Defrosting slowly will help the strawberries remain firmer than quickly defrosting at room temperature. Warm through in a saucepan or serve cold.
