Mid-Winter Fruit Reprieve: 8 Snacks, Breakfasts, & Desserts with Frozen Fruit

It is a bitter irony that we seem to crave fresh fruit right when it is most scarce. Which is to say, right now in the heart of winter. Frozen fruit might not be quite the same, but used in the right place, it can give everything from pancakes to trifle a splash of summer flavor.

All fruits freeze remarkably well, retaining their flavor and color even after a few months in the freezer. You lose some texture after thawing, but since we're mostly using frozen fruits in baked goods or dessert sauces, this usually isn't a big deal.

During the winter, I keep blueberries, strawberries, and raspberries stocked in my freezer. These three seem to be the most versatile for my cooking, and I use them interchangeably in recipes.

• Tangy Raspberry Fool from Martha Stewart
• Frozen Orange and Mango Smoothie from BBC Good Food
• Marbled Lemon Blueberry Butter Cake from Leite's Culinaria
• Raspberry Oatmeal Scones from A Cozy Kitchen
• Sweet Cherry Cobbler from Gourmet
• Strawberry Panna Cotta with Strawberry Compote from Epicurious
• Buttermilk Berry Muffins from Joy of Baking
• Frozen Fruit and Yogurt Roll-Ups from Tidy Mom

What are your favorite mid-winter recipes with frozen fruit?

(Images: Martha Stewart and BBC Good Food)

Comments (5)

You forgot to mention YONANANS wich uses frozen fruit ALL YEAR ROUND. Sorry. I'm just still a little psyched about my Yonanas machine. You guys should write about that. Pure fruit soft serve from juicer machines. I know people do it with the Champion juicer, thats the way I first had it. It's really healthy and surprisingly addictive. Sometimes I drown mine in homemade chocolate sauce...

So psyched that I spelled YONANAS wrong!

They wrote about it in May 2011.

http://www.thekitchn.com/yonanas-insane-gadget-for-onei-147362

Cheesecake!

For the dough:
100g butter
1/4 cup white sugar
1 cup self-raising flour

For the topping:
1 1/2 cup frozen berries
500g ricotta cheese
1/2 cup greek yogurt
1 tsp vanilla essence
1/2 cup white sugar
2 whole eggs

Preheat oven to 160 celsius. Beat butter and 1/4 cup sugar until creamy, fold in flour until soft dough forms. Press into greased slice tin. Scatter berries over top of base. Beat remaining ingredients together and pour over berries. Bake for 50-60 minutes or until top is golden. Cool in tin, refrigerate to set.

You can add more berries. You can also mix them in with the topping. I've played around with skipping the dough entirely and pouring them into individual ramekins - they take about half an hour-ish in there. So far, I've made the traditional cheesecake with frozen blackberries, and the ramekin variation with frozen strawberries. They're particularly good topped with fresh berries (if you can get them) or a few defrosted ones.

I make fruit smoothies with frozen fruit all the time, especially in the winter! I just leave the fruit out for a bit so they unfreeze a tad, throw them in the blender with a banana and some yogurt (plain or vanilla). Yum!