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Frozen strawberry jam, also called garden strawberries, is a great option for those who are not in the berry season, and for those who have frozen their excess harvest. But many housewives are afraid to make jam from frozen berries. It seems to them that the taste of such a delicacy will be much worse than jam made from fresh berries. In addition, thawed berries can become sour and sour. In fact, making jam from such berries is not difficult at all. The main thing is to carefully choose strawberries and carefully follow the recipe.
How to choose frozen berries
In order for the jam to succeed, you must carefully approach the choice of frozen strawberries. If these are homemade berries, then there should be no problems. But purchased berries can unpleasantly surprise. To avoid this, you need to choose them correctly:
- The packaging must be transparent. This is the only way to see that there are berries in the bag, and not a piece of ice. If the package is closed, then the strawberries in it should be felt as individual berries, and not as protrusions of ice;
- When shaking the package, the berries should knock against each other. If this did not happen, then they stuck together as a result of defrosting and re-freezing;
- The color of the strawberry should be either red or slightly burgundy;
Frozen berries should not be subjected to sharp 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 can 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 way to cook a strawberry treat, but it also has its own subtleties. For him, you should prepare:
- 2 kilograms of frozen strawberries;
- kilogram of granulated sugar;
- sachet of citric acid.
Indeed, with its help, thawed berries of garden strawberries will be able to maintain their shape.
It is necessary to start cooking only after the frozen berries have completely thawed. To do this, it is best to leave them overnight at room temperature. Thawed berries should be washed, put in an enamel pan and covered with sugar. In this form, the strawberry should stand from 3 to 12 hours. The exposure time depends on how quickly the berries begin to give their juice.
When the juice covers at least half of the berries, you can start cooking. To do this, put the pan on a small fire, immediately adding citric acid to it. After the start of boiling, it is necessary to cook the future strawberry delicacy 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, the strawberry mass should be allowed to cool down, then boil it again until the first foam.
The finished product is closed in pre-sterilized jars and removed in a dark place until completely cooled.
Frozen Strawberry Five Minute
Making strawberry jam according to this recipe is not difficult, and a short cooking time will keep 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 must be brought to a boil over low heat. As soon as they boil, the fire must be increased and boiled for 5 minutes. At the same time, one must not forget to constantly and gently stir the berries and remove the foam from them.
When the strawberry delicacy is ready, add the juice of half a lemon to it. After the jam has cooled, it must 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 for cooking it, but if it is not there, you can try it on 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 you cook jam, you need to defrost and rinse the berries. Then they must be put in a multicooker bowl and covered with sugar. When they begin to give juice, you need to add water to them and mix gently.
The cooking time for strawberry treats will depend on the selected mode on the multicooker:
- in the “Milk porridge” mode, the jam is cooked before the beep.
- in the “Multi-cook” mode, you need to set the temperature to 100 degrees and cook for 30 minutes;
- in the “Soup” mode, the cooking time will be 2-3 hours;
- in the “Extinguishing” 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 from fresh strawberries.
