How to: freeze fruit.

Seems simple, no? Compared to other forms of preservation like canning or jamming, simple freezing of fruit is easy, quick and doesn’t change the character of the produce terribly (except for the expected squidgy texture created due to fruit cells exploding). Nothing is added, no special equipment, bar a freezer, is required and the time to freeze fruit is when there is a glut, so it is cheap.

I don’t know why I didn’t start doing sooner.

Of course your fruit, once frozen, may need to be cooked or blended before consumption due to the change in texture from freezing, though really the only way to mess this up is to have a freezer that imparts a chemically flavour to its inhabitants, or a power failure. 

Make wonderful smoothies with frozen fruit, no need to defrost. Or blend fruit with some yoghurt in the evening and refreeze. Eat later that night as a quick semi frozen yoghurt. I did this recently with frozen custard apple and strawberries, no added sugar required (so of course I ate the entire thing, for dessert).

Frozen mango, blended with a little sugar or condensed milk makes a wonderful sauce for sago with coconut cream, and lets not forget blended fruit cocktails – if your fruit is frozen it is unnecessary to add the cooling and diluting power of ice. I used home frozen nectarines in this Brioche pudding, and now I just wish that I had put up some more back in February.

Now is a great time to get started. Freeze some tiny, sweet in-seasons strawberries, and custard apple too. 

How To: Freeze Fruit

• Freeze ripe flavourful fruit towards the end of the season when it is plentiful and cheap.
• Buy a cubic megatonne of said fruit (amount depends on your love of the fruit, potential to use if later and freezer space available)
• Wash each piece of fruit carefully and dry it completely, or just peel custard apple, mangoes and bananas. Hull strawberries.
• For stone fruit, cut them into eighths or quarters and remove the seed, for custard apple cut into small pieces and ensure that all the seeds are removed as well as the grainy sections. It will be very difficult to clean the fruit when it is defrosted.
• To freeze: spread the fruit out on a paper lined tray ensuring that pieces are separated and not touching. This is important so you don’t end up with an impenetrable frozen bag of fruit. When it is frozen, transfer the fruit into a different freezer container or a ziploc bag. 
• Repeat. Then enjoy having a little splash of summer, mid winter or whenever you get the guts to ravage your stash.