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Jam made from frozen strawberries, also called garden strawberries, is an excellent option both for those who have had a low berry season and for those who have frozen their surplus harvest. But many housewives are afraid to make jam from frozen berries. They think that the taste of such a delicacy will be much worse than jam made from fresh berries. In addition, thawed berries may become soggy and soggy. In fact, making jam from such berries is not at all difficult. The main thing is to carefully choose strawberries and carefully follow the recipe.
How to choose frozen berries
In order for the jam to be successful, you need to carefully approach the choice of frozen strawberries. If these are homemade berries, then there should be no problems. But store-bought berries can be an unpleasant surprise. To avoid this you need to choose them correctly:
- The packaging must be transparent. This is the only way to see that the bag contains berries and not a piece of ice. If the package is closed, then the strawberries in it should be palpable as individual berries, and not as ridges of ice;
- When shaking the package, the berries should knock against each other. If this does not happen, it means that they have stuck together as a result of thawing and re-freezing;
- The color of the strawberry should be either red or slightly burgundy;
Frozen berries should not be subjected to sudden heat treatment in hot water or in a microwave oven. They need to be given time to thaw. Depending on the degree of freezing, this may take from several hours to a day. You can thaw them on a shelf in the refrigerator or at normal room temperature.
Classic recipe
This recipe is very similar to the usual method of cooking strawberry delicacy, but it also has its own subtleties. For this you should prepare:
- 2 kilograms of frozen strawberries;
- kilogram of granulated sugar;
- a packet of citric acid.
After all, with its help, thawed garden strawberries will be able to retain their shape.
You should start cooking only after the frozen berries have completely thawed. The best way to do this is to leave them overnight at room temperature. Thawed berries should be washed, placed in an enamel pan and covered with granulated sugar. In this form, the strawberry should stand for 3 to 12 hours. The holding time depends on how quickly the berries begin to release their juice.
When the juice covers at least half of the berries, you can start cooking. To do this, place the pan on low heat and immediately add citric acid to it. After the boil begins, the future strawberry delicacy must be cooked until the first foam, stirring constantly. Advice! As soon as the foam appears, the pan is removed from the heat, and the foam is removed with a slotted spoon. After removing the foam, give the strawberry mass time to cool, then boil it until the first foam forms again.
The finished product is sealed in pre-sterilized jars and stored in a dark place until it cools completely.
Five minutes of frozen strawberries
Making strawberry jam according to this recipe is not difficult, and a short cooking time will allow you to maintain the integrity and shape of the berries. To prepare it you will need:
- kilogram of strawberries;
- kilogram of sugar;
- half of one lemon.
Thawed and washed berries are covered with sugar for a period of 4 hours.
When the berries give juice, the pan or basin with them should be brought to a boil over low heat. As soon as they boil, increase the heat and cook them for 5 minutes. At the same time, you must remember to constantly and carefully stir the berries and remove the foam from them.
When the strawberry delicacy is ready, add the juice of half a lemon. After the jam has cooled, it should be poured into jars and stored in the refrigerator.
Frozen strawberry jam in a slow cooker
You can even make jam from frozen garden strawberries in a slow cooker. The “Milk porridge” mode is best suited for cooking it, but if you don’t have it, you can try it in the “Multi-cook”, “Soup” or “Stew” modes.
For this recipe you will need:
- 300 grams of frozen strawberries;
- 300 grams of granulated sugar;
- 40 milliliters of water.
Before making jam, you need to defrost and wash the berries. Then they need to be placed in the multicooker bowl and covered with sugar. When they begin to release juice, you need to add water to them and mix gently.
The cooking time for the strawberry treat will depend on the selected mode on the multicooker:
- in the “Milk porridge” mode, the jam is prepared until the sound signal.
- in the “Multi-cook” mode, you need to set the temperature to 100 degrees and cook for 30 minutes;
- with the “Soup” mode, the cooking time will be 2-3 hours;
- in the “Quenching” mode – 1 hour.
Before closing in pre-sterilized jars, the foam must be removed from the finished jam.
Jam made from frozen berries according to any of the above recipes can be stored for up to 3 months and is in no way inferior to a delicacy made from fresh strawberries.
