Mmm, strawberries! When they’re ripe and juicy, it’s so easy to see why they’re one of the most popular types of berries in the United States. While you can get them year-round, they are absolutely at their best when in season, come spring and summer. And when they are, look out! You’ll want them for breakfast, as a snack, and in every dessert possible.
You can easily freeze strawberries, so you have a taste of summer sunshine all year long. And using store-bought frozen strawberries is a smart move when they’re out of season, because they are flash frozen at the peak of freshness, and they’ll usually taste ripe. But here’s the bad news: When it comes to fresh vs. frozen strawberries, you can’t always interchange them in recipes.
Before you feel berry let down, there are times when fresh and frozen strawberries are interchangeable. Many recipes will tell you when a swap is possible, but if it’s an old recipe or you’re not quite sure, read on for some advice on the differences between fresh and frozen strawberries.
When to Use Fresh Strawberries
Here’s the major difference between fresh and frozen strawberries that will help you determine which to use or if you can swap them: Freezing ruptures the cell walls of the berries, so the shape and texture will be affected when they thaw. With that in mind, fresh berries are best if you want to snack on them as is or if their shape is important to the overall recipe.
What does that mean? If your berries need to be intact, whether whole or sliced, you should use fresh berries. Strawberry shortcake and a savory salad with strawberries are perfect examples. You want to actually see the berries, not a mound of mush. Plus, in the shortcake, they are needed for structure. Remember that frozen berries, even when blotted dry, will release more moisture and not hold up as well because their cell walls have been damaged by freezing.
When to Use Frozen Strawberries
Frozen berries may not maintain the structure of fresh berries, but they sure do have a lot of flavor. So frozen berries are best when they are being cooked down or mixed into something where the flavor matters over the structure and texture. Examples include strawberry sauce, where the berries need to be broken down anyway, and smoothie recipes, where they’re going to be blitzed into oblivion.
Speaking of smoothies, cold recipes are where frozen strawberries can really shine. Sometimes they don’t even need to be defrosted! They give strawberry daiquiris and strawberry sorbet their telltale slushy consistency, for example. And in smoothies, if you leave them frozen, they can replace most or all of the ice so they don’t get watered down.
When You Can Swap Frozen Strawberries for Fresh
There are plenty of recipes where you can swap frozen strawberries for fresh, particularly when it is the flavor and not the structure and texture you need. Here are a few more examples where the berries are cooked down so the swap is an easy one: strawberry ice cream, strawberry jam, and strawberry cheesecake bars.
Now, say there is a recipe that requires fresh strawberries, and they aren’t going to be cooked down. If you want to use defrosted, frozen berries, there’s one rule you need to remember: You should drain the berries of their excess liquid and blot them dry. Remember, frozen berries release much more moisture than fresh ones, so you have to remove that excess. That way, you’ll be one step closer to strawberry recipe success!
